Armand Traore has struggled to get going in Turkey.
Former Nottingham Forest player Armand Traore must be questioning why he opted to leave Nottingham Forest in the summer after failing to make a single league appearance for his new club.
The 29-year-old still had a year left on his Forest contract, yet he decided to depart the East Midlands and join Turkish minnows Caykur Rizespor on a two-year deal with the option of a third year.
Traore, who once represented Arsenal and Juventus, has seen his career decline over the past few years. Yet he was still a part of Forest’s first-team squad last season and was one of few who had Premier League experience.
He made 18 Championship appearances for the Reds last term, with most of those coming before Aitor Karanka’s arrival, while he enjoyed a short stint on loan at Cardiff City towards the end of the campaign.
While he may not have been a guaranteed regular start this season, departing the City Ground for newly-promoted Rizespor in Turkey was a rather strange move and, so far, it does not appear to be a good one.
Traore has yet to feature for the first-team as he finds himself out of the picture, while just one win in their first eight matches sees his new club in the bottom three of Turkey’s top flight and potentially facing an immediate return to the second tier.
The five-capped Senegal international could have kept himself relevant at the City Ground, but now he faces the prospect of falling off the radar and spending what should be his peak years in total obscurity.
