A young man born in Slough who worked in a clothes shop before getting his break in football and another born in Linzolo, a tiny town in the Republic of Congo — football has a brilliant way of bringing people from very different backgrounds together.
But when the prospect of Nottingham Forest signing another goalkeeper cropped up in early August, there was borderline outrage among some fans.
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With the highly-rated Aro Muric already having joined on loan from Manchester City and Costel Pantilimon, Luke Steele and Jordan Smith already on the books, the question on many lips was ‘Why?’
Did Forest really need another keeper? Particularly given that the target, Brice Samba, was a player who had only one full season as a first-team regular with Caen — and that was in a campaign when they had been relegated from the French top flight.
But little more than two months down the line, the 25-year-old has not only secured himself a dressing room berth and a burgeoning friendship alongside Matty Cash, he has also answered that particular question in emphatic fashion.
Samba is a man a little short on experience, but not lacking in either character or ability.
His Twitter feed is every bit as confident as his mentality on the pitch, with the 25-year-old predicting ahead of the game against Blackburn Rovers last week that Forest were only playing on a Tuesday to prepare themselves for more significant midweek fixtures in the future.
“Playing on a Tuesday night so we can get ready for the UCL in two years. See you there boys,” he wrote.
On Saturday evening, his feed was largely committed to celebrating Forest’s lofty position.
While his arrival took the tally of experienced keepers at the City Ground to five, it has not taken him long to establish himself both as number one and as a popular figure with supporters, largely because of that kind of attitude.
Pantilimon — who kept an impressive 15 clean sheets in the league last season but had also attracted fierce criticism for his distribution — and Steele found themselves victims of Sabri Lamouchi’s ruthless brand of decision-making, which saw Premier League-winning Romania international Pantilimon among those ostracised from the first-team group and Steele packed off on loan to Millwall.
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And, once 20-year-old Muric’s youth and inexperience stood out in his first few games, Samba — who had already had his chance against Fleetwood Town in the Carabao Cup — was given his opportunity at Fulham in late August. He duly played a key role in securing an unexpected 2-1 win and neither he, nor Forest, have looked back since.
He has been beaten only five times in seven Championship outings, kept three clean sheets and more importantly played his part in five league victories and two draws as Lamouchi’s side find themselves heading into the international break joint-top of the table.
It was widely regarded that Samba kept Caen’s relegation fight alive last season, as he notched up more saves than any other keeper in Ligue 1 (142), helping them to restrict their goals conceded to 54 over the course of the campaign, which was fewer than many of the teams around them.
His contribution towards Forest’s surge to the top end of the standings has been no less significant.
Samba’s save percentage, in terms of shots on target faced, is the best in the division, at 84 per cent. From 33 shots on target faced in seven games, Samba has been beaten five times. Leeds’ Kiko Casilla has the second-best record, having conceded seven goals from 11 starts, but with the defence in front of him having allowed 32 shots on target during that time, giving him a save percentage of 78.
Casilla’s average goals conceded per-game record (0.64) is marginally better than Samba’s (0.71). David Raya, the Brentford keeper (0.82), would have had a record almost as good, had he not been beaten by the emphatic strike from Ben Watson, which secured Forest’s latest success, at the City Ground on Saturday.
It was an afternoon when Forest defended stoutly to ensure Samba was not overly tested but he did still deliver one decisive, vital moment. Samba showed quick feet to change his momentum and direction to push away a Mathias Jensen free-kick that had taken a massive deflection which altered its trajectory considerably.
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Samba’s contribution does not go unappreciated among his team-mates.
“He is the best keeper I have played with. No disrespect to the others I have worked with, but he is,” says Cash, the current Forest right-back, who benefits from the keeper’s passing range as much as anyone in the side.
“His distribution is just ridiculous. His shot-stopping is brilliant — he is a fantastic goalkeeper and a big, big signing. He is a legend, he is a proper funny guy. He is professional, he does everything right on and off the field. He is a great asset to the club.
“He can be quiet, but we have a good joke between us, because I think I understand the way he is. I get on really well with him, I sit next to him in the dressing room — but he can also pick me out with a 40-yard pass when we are not sat right next to each other.
“He can put it right on your foot, if you want it there. He has great reflexes. The save he made just before half-time was just brilliant.”
Samba is not a man many Forest fans will have heard of prior to his arrival, but he was always on the radar of former France midfielder Lamouchi from his time in charge of Rennes.
“I was lucky in my life to work with the best keepers in the world — players like (Gianluigi) Buffon and (Fabien) Barthez. They were crazy as well. Very crazy,” says Lamouchi. “Keepers need a different personality. The keepers, they are different to other players. Absolutely different. Why is that? I don’t know. But I do know that you need it.
“I can play without a striker, I could manage without a centre-back, if I wanted. But it is impossible to play without a keeper.”
When Forest landed Muric, already an established Kosovo international despite his tender age, it prompted a great deal of excitement. Not least this came from the club itself, who felt they had signed one of the most talented players of his generation.
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That notion was, in the kindest possible way, not upheld by his early performances, which saw the unlucky Muric responsible for at least one of the goals in Forest’s only Championship defeat of the season so far, against West Brom on the opening weekend.
Still, Muric conceded a relatively modest four goals in four Championship appearances and had actually made two good saves to help Forest to a decent 1-1 draw at Charlton before losing his place.
Forest remain steadfast in their belief they have two very good keepers in their squad, if not three, with Smith also still held in high regard. And Lamouchi believes Muric will still have a part to play.
“Muric signed before I arrived. He has huge potential. But sometimes we forget, he is just 20 years old. And how many games had he played before he joined?” said Lamouchi. “It was barely even five games.
“We must give more time for him. He does have huge potential — perhaps even more than Samba. But for Samba to be where he is now, at this level, he has worked so hard. He has been a number two and a number three. He has worked with small teams. But he is a fantastic guy and a fantastic player.
“He has made big progress here already. But he must do that. It is not that he should do that — he must do it. He has to work hard to help us to do exactly what we want to do. That is why he signed for us. He has made a big impact at the club and on the team and the squad. It is a big help for us, because he is a fantastic goalkeeper. He is very, very professional. But he will also improve more and more, for sure.”
The clean sheet against Brentford owed as much to another organised, concentrated, disciplined team display as it did to Forest’s goalkeeper, with the visitors limited to only rare sights of goal. Forest will be missing influential captain Michael Dawson for a few weeks with a calf injury, but in the last two games Tobias Figueiredo and most recently Chema have suggested they can seamlessly fill the void, playing alongside Joe Worrall.
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Worrall, for his part, was not only as defensively determined as ever, but also laid on the assist for Watson. He headed a Joe Lolley corner perfectly into the path of the midfielder, who drove home his second goal in as many home games, following three years without a goal.
“Brice kept another clean sheet; one more to the tally,” said Lamouchi. “We are so difficult to play against now, be it home or away, and that is really important. It is important for the team, because they are defending well, they are defending together.
“Brice had only one difficult save to make, just before half-time. But great goalkeepers do not have a lot of saves to make — but they are always ready. He did that and he was ready.
“I am so impressed with the players. They are working and they deserve to be where they are. We played some really good football against a good team. I like the philosophy of Brentford, I like some of their players — they like to play and they are dangerous. But we were concentrated and compact. Our players respected the plan.
“We need just stability; we need time. The results up until now will give me more time. But I do not want to talk about the rest, because that is not my job. I want to talk about my players; about my team, the result and the next game.”
That kind of focus and attention to detail was Lamouchi’s trademark at Rennes and it is quickly becoming so here. Within the dressing room, there is a sense that something special is building. But there is little chance of anyone getting carried away if the 47-year-old head coach has anything to do with it.
“The manager is really intense. It is all about standards and quality in training,” says Cash. “You have to hit his standards to play under him. We do not sit off in training, it is intense. It is good, because on a Saturday you are ready for it.
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“He is the most impressive manager I have worked with. I did not know what to expect when he arrived, but his approach is paying off now. It is still very early because we have 30-plus games left to play. We are not going to get too high just yet, because we have a lot still to do.
“But every Saturday we are prepared, we know exactly what we are going to do. He makes sure we are ready. It is a bit early to get too carried away. But everyone dreams of going up. That is the aim, of course it is. But nobody is going to get ahead of ourselves after 10 or 11 games.
“I think we have more to offer. I think we can finish teams off. When we lead 1-0, we want to be finishing teams off 2-0 or 3-0. We want more.”
When it comes to big characters in the dressing room, there are few larger than “Uncle” Albert Adomah. The winger, who has won promotion to the Premier League with Middlesbrough in 2016 and Aston Villa in May is hoping to make it a hat-trick with Forest this season.
“Brice is a big character. But he also keeps himself to himself at times,” said the 31-year-old. “His performances have been brilliant for us and I am sure that, whether you are a fan or another player, his contribution is something you can see shining through.
“He came in probably as a number two but he has taken his chance. I said in an interview before that there is healthy competition in the team. The manager says to us, ‘Always be ready to play.’ And Brice has been a great example of that. He might not have been expecting his chance, but he was ready and he took it when it came. We have not lost yet with him there. Long may it continue. I am sure the gaffer trusts him, which is why he is playing at the moment.
“Brice is solid at the back. I am not a defender but I am sure they would praise him and I can say that, as a team-mate, I can see that he is doing great. I hope he can keep that momentum going.”
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Adomah’s overall attitude is indicative of the spirit at Forest. He has played in all 11 Championship games so far, but eight of those appearances have come off the bench. He again had to be satisfied with a cameo appearance in the final 12 minutes of the game against Brentford.
The former Ghana international says that Lamouchi is in constant communication with his players.
“He is great with things like that,” said Adomah. “We have so many games left to play and everyone will be needed. He always delivers that message in every meeting we have. If you are not in the starting line-up, you can still play a part. That is his key philosophy. It is not about 11 players, it is about 25 — and we all have to be ready.
“Tobias against Blackburn is a good example. Nobody expected him to start because Chema had come off the bench and played well against Stoke. But Tobias came in and he was probably our best player. I should not be judging other players, that is not for me to do, but I felt that he came in and did very well, considering that it was his first game in a long time.
“That is the kind of character that the manager wants from each and every player. Whether you are in the starting line-up or not, you have to be ready. We all want to be successful and every player is working hard for each other; working hard for the manager.
“Everything he does on the training ground is showing in matches. We might not be producing the best performances, but we are still managing to grind out results when we do not play to our best. Our position in the table is perfect right now.”
As the final whistle blew against Brentford, Samba stood with his arms aloft, sharing a moment with the fans behind his goal. He was one of the last players to leave the City Ground pitch, as he looked to savour every moment, before reluctantly heading down the tunnel.
Now, nobody is asking why Forest wanted to sign him.
(Photo: Jon Hobley/MI News/NurPhoto via Getty Images)