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There’s nothing like a club record signing to get people talking. And the capture of Joao Carvalho by Nottingham Forest certainly did that.

The Portuguese 21-year-old arrived at the City Ground in a headline-grabbing £13m move from Benfica last week; teammate Diogo Goncalves also joining on a season-long loan.

The duo’s unveiling undoubtedly made people sit up and take notice. How could it do anything but when those kind of fees are involved.

After all, the amount the Reds have splashed out on Carvalho is more than double their previous record of the £5.5m spent to secure the services of Britt Assombalonga from Peterborough United in 2014.

And that record could go again should Goncalves put pen to paper on a permanent deal next summer, as Forest have the option for, given Benfica currently value the winger at 20m euros.

Both players are very highly-rated in their homeland. They have been identified as having great promise. They’ve already featured in the Champions League and have represented their country at Under-21 level.

As some have been quick to point out, they do not though, have any experience in the Championship.

And that gap on their CVs has led to a few murmurs of concern among some supporters.

Two young talents heading to a new country, a different style of football and with, for one of them at least, a considerable pricetag on his head. If it sounds a bit of a risk, it is. But it is a calculated one.

(Image: Dan Westwell)

The Reds and their manager, Aitor Karanka, will have done their research and their due diligence. They will know what they (hopefully) are getting.

Whether the pair can produce that or not, whether they can match expectations, is a different matter, of course. It may well take them time to adapt.

But this is where Karanka comes in.

Good players are no substitute for a good manager. For a team to be successful, more often than not, you need both.

It would be all very well looking to add a bit of stardust to a squad, but if you don’t have the right person in charge to manage that, to nurture it and maximise its potential, you may as well have not bothered in the first place.

Carvalho and Goncalves will undoubtedly need a guiding hand. They will need to be used in the right way.

Karanka will need to work out where they fit into his team; how best to play them. He no doubt already has an idea on that front, for you can be sure those players would not have been targeted were they not identified as being right for Forest and the way the manager wants to play.

There is no exact science to building a promotion-challenging side. Getting the ideal balance is tricky. There are so many different elements which need to fit into place.

There are no guarantees it will work. Just like there are no guarantees Carvalho and Goncalves will hit the ground running. But isn’t that the case with almost any signing? History is littered with players who struggled to replicate their previous form or live up to expectations at a new club.

Patience may need to be exercised. Work may need to be done on the training ground. The pair may need an arm around their shoulders off the pitch.

But it looks as though Forest have the right man in charge to oversee all that.

Karanka has shown himself to be a decent man manager. His decision to gather his group together at the end of last season and inform players where they fitted into his plans, demonstrated that. It was a mature and honest way of dealing with a difficult situation.

He is also capable of getting the best out of players. You only have to look at how Danny Fox performed in the second half of the campaign to see that. The defender was a man transformed.

Karanka is also a shrewd operator. And you can bet he will take a sensible approach to his summer spending.

Some might baulk at that £13m outlay, but Carvalho signing a five-year deal helps to address any potential Financial Fair Play issues, with the cost of signing a player spread across the length of his contract.

The manager is highly unlikely to be reckless with the money available to him.

As much as the aim for next season may be to push towards the top end of the Championship table, no-one wants to see the Reds risk getting into trouble off the back of that.

There are plenty of warnings to be heeded on that front; examples of clubs needing to let key men go in order to balance the books after failing to make it to the Premier League Promised Land.

Karanka demonstrated in January that he can do good business in a responsible way. He added loan signings and free transfers, as well as permanent deals.

It would not be a surprise if this summer went a similar way. We have seen it already, to an extent, with the arrival of out of contract Michael Dawson from Hull City.

Karanka will need to be clever with his transfer dealings again, in terms of the money he spends and who he brings in. Just like his expertise will be required when it comes to integrating new arrivals.

Carvalho and Goncalves may be the ones in the spotlight for now, but it can be their manager who plays a part in helping them shine.