A sense of optimism swept across the red half of Nottingham during the summer as Forest carried out their costly transfer plan. 

The board were clearly ready to back Aitor Karanka, giving him plenty of cash to splash in order to turn the club into promotion contenders for the first time in a long time.

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Nearly £25million was splashed on the likes of Joao Carvalho, Lewis Grabban, Tobias Figueiredo and Hillel Soudani, but the first name to arrive actually came in on a free and looked rather familiar.

This is FLW Rewind where we take a look back at a big decision made by the club, analyse the initial reaction and document what happened next.

The man in question is of course Michael Dawson.

Leaving the City Ground back in 2005 after graduating through the club's academy, he made the move to Tottenham Hotspur where he played for nine years before making the move to Hull.

But with his contract expiring in the summer of 2018, Forest swooped to bring him home, a move that the fans were rather happy with...

So, hopes were high but sadly they would not stay that way for long.

After starting in the club's 1-1 draw with Bristol City on the opening day of the season, it became apparent that the 35-year-old's age had caught up with him more than expected.

He was dropped by Karanka for the following nine league matches as the club picked up just three wins from their opening ten.

A run of starts throughout October and November teased the signing that the club thought they had brought in, as the club pushed into the top six briefly, but his appearance in their 2-0 win against Ipswich was to be his last of the campaign as he picked up a hamstring injury to keep him out until May.