Mansfield Town should seek to strike a swoop for a Nottingham Forest youngster following last season’s successes on this front.
The 2022/23 League Two campaign ended in envy for Mansfield Town, as the Stags were unfortunate enough to miss out on a play-off position by the mere margin of goal difference.
Having finished on 75 points, Salford City – who would go on to fall short at the hands of Stockport County in the semi-finals – pipped them to the post purely by a +1 advantage in that regard, concluding yet another unsuccessful promotion pursuit.
With divisional opponents such as Salford and Bradford City continuously strengthening and flexing their financial muscles, Mansfield have found themselves at a disadvantage which has provoked their increased utilisation of the loan market.
In particular, they have looked locally when recruiting young temporary talent, and the geography has enabled them to accommodate prospects from Nottingham Forest in recent times.
While these acquisitions have tended to come in the form of players from the Forest youth set-up who have seldom embraced senior football, they could make a genuine statement of intent by securing the services of an academy graduate with a very contrasting array of experiences in Alex Mighten.
What is Alex Mighten’s situation at Nottingham Forest?
Formerly regarded as arguably the brightest youth product at the club, Mighten’s stock has fallen considerably over the last couple of years.
After making his inaugural first-team bow in an EFL Cup showdown against Arsenal back in September 2019, Mighten has gone on to register a further 66 appearances for the Reds across all competitions, with the 2020/21 seeing the winger truly blossom.
There, Mighten, who was only 18 for much of the season, weighed in with three goals and an assist all the while injecting a sense of endeavor and inventiveness into Forest’s attack, leaving supporters infused with excitement towards his performances and potential.
However, amid the club’s instant upsurge under the tuition of Steve Cooper and the accelerated ascension of fellow academy product Brennan Johnson the following campaign, Mighten unsurprisingly found regular minutes much harder to come by and only started five league fixtures, a downgrade of eight from the previous season.
With Forest eventually gaining a long-awaited return to the Premier League, it appeared a logical and development-conducive step to sanction a loan move, which saw the former England youth International head up to Sheffield Wednesday in League One.
Indeed, it was hoped that he would lay down a marker in the third-tier given the magnitude of some of his performances a division up, but Mighten struggled to fit in tactically there and, in turn, reignite the previous form exhibited too, making merely nine league appearances and returning a solitary strike.
Such circumstances forced Darren Moore’s hand, and he was sent back to the City Ground prematurely in January, resulting in what has now surfaced as an uncertain Forest future.
And after they secured their top-flight status for another year, there appears little scope for Mighten to come back into the team and make an impact just yet.
A loan move looks likely, but given his struggles at Wednesday, it would make a lot of sense to station him somewhere where he may settle better.
Why should Mansfield Town loan Nottingham Forest’s Alex Mighten?
As alluded to, Mansfield have constructed credentials in Nottingham, and the dual success of loan pairing Riley Harbottle and Will Swan last term has only progressed this further.
Harbottle found the back of the net on an impressive six occasions despite operating as a centre-back, and Swan’s 10-goal haul amid just 12 starts even promoted the Stags to make his tenure permanent.
But Forest will look at their cases and realise that Mansfield can be trusted with the development of their young talent, which Nigel Clough should strive to leverage when it comes to negotiating future deals this summer and beyond.
As such, a move for Mighten would enforce a significant boost to Mansfield’s promotion hopes next season.
Still only 21, he boasts serious pedigree having once been regarded as one of the hottest prodigies in the Championship, and while recency has not been quite so hard, natural footballing ability does not simply disappear at such a young age.
And, if the forward managed to find his feet up the road, his qualities can no doubt make him a formidable force in League Two.
Defenders at this level would face difficulty in nullifying Mighten’s searing speed, trickery and eagerness to face up his man and take the ball forward at all times, and he would likely harvest a much better goal return, too.
Although Mansfield boast some impressive forwards in their ranks such as Swan, Davis Keillor-Dunn, Lucas Akins and James Gale, a fully-firing Mighten is the most technically adept, and most efficient of all those players, and he could really set League Two alight.
They may well face competition for his services, but with the credit that they already have in the bank with Forest, they should be fighting tooth and nail to make it happen – and they have a good chance of doing so.