Forest awarded £250,000 prize; Martinez praises Ross Barkley

Championship side Nottingham Forest F.C. have been awarded the Sky Bet Transfer Fund prize of £250,000.

Forest were chosen at random from a pool of nine Football League clubs, including Cardiff City, Exeter City, Fulham, Huddersfield Town, Leeds United, Southend United, Watford, and Wigan Athletic.

Although Forest are currently under a transfer embargo following their violation of FIFA’s Financial Fair Play rules, the club can still use the money to pay the wages of incoming players on free transfer or on loan.

“It’s been great that our title sponsors Sky Bet and all 72 Football League clubs have come together, and it has seen a response from over 70,000 fans,” Football League chief executive Shaun Harvey told Sky Sports.

“Nottingham Forest will be very worthy winners and can use the money for loan fees or loan-players’ wages, but not for transfer fees.”

Former Forest and Scotland striker John O’Hare added: “Unfortunately there’s only one winner and we’re delighted to come out of the hat. The club will be happy. I’m sure they’ll find a way of using the money on young players’ salaries, loans and things like that.

“It will help certainly in what is a very tough and competitive division. You need all the help you can get.”

Forest (7-9-5) are priced at 10/1 to win promotion to the English Premier League.

Martinez praises Ross Barkley

Everton manager Roberto Martinez has heaped praise on Ross Barkley after the midfielder helped lead the Toffees to a comfortable 3-1 win over Queens Park Rangers on Monday.

The England international, 21, embarked on one of his signature marauding runs before lashing the ball into the top corner to open the scoring against Rangers before Kevin Mirallas and Steven Naismith wrapped up the points for Martinez’s side.

Barkley, who started the game in a more defensive role than usual, impressed many with his performance, including Martinez.

“The big enjoyment of working with Ross is how quickly he takes concepts on and how quickly he experiments with different starting positions,” Martinez told Sky Sports.

“The power and pace he has combined with that technical ability and ball control makes him special. Sometimes you get a really talented footballer that is skilful on the ball, or the powerful and strong [player] that can show that physicality on the pitch. He’s got both.

“He’s played that number 10 role, been getting into the box and having the freedom to find that space, but in a deeper position I think he makes very good decisions on the ball. The link-up play was very good at times and it’s good for him at such a young that he experiments in different roles.”