[ad_pod ]This article is part of Football FanCast’s In The Pipeline series, which takes a look at some of the most promising young talent either linked with clubs or emerging from their academies…The red side of Nottingham has historically been a rich hotbed for young talent.It was Des Walker and Nigel Clough of yesteryear, Jermaine Jenas and Michael Dawson in the last two decades and in more current times you’ll find Matty Cash and Joe Worrall regularly playing for the east Midlands club – both featuring over four times this Championship campaign already.Even peeling back the layers of seniority, the trend continues to be embedded throughout the club – Tyler Walker has been scoring for fun on loan, netting four goals in seven games for Lincoln City whilst Brennan Johnson is on the fringes of Sabri Lamouchi’s first-team plans having featured three times this season.Watch Nottingham Forest Live Streams With StreamFootball.tv Below

So maybe that decision to allow Arvin Appiah to leave this week for £8m is actually a smart move; it’ll allow the more promising, better-rated prospects – at least in the minds of the management staff – more of an opportunity to breakthrough into first-team stardom.

None more so than Alex Mighten. You might not have heard of the 17-year-old prodigy, but he’s undoubtedly one of the next players on the Forest conveyer belt of home-grown talent.

The skilful winger has been capped at international level for both England Under-15s and Under-16s – that’ll probably continue on an upward trajectory too.

But that aforementioned adjective – skilful – doesn’t even cut it.

It’s that sort of flair and finesse in the video above which attracted Manchester United’s interest last summer, but the rising starlet signed a scholar deal to stay at the City Ground.

Paul Taylor of the Nottingham Post has described Mighten perfectly, he said:

“Another player with pace, trickery, and intelligence, Mighten is also regarded as a young man with the raw potential to climb all the way into the first-team picture, if he can maintain his attitude and hunger to learn.â€

Well, the 17-year-old has already mesmerised in both the Under-18s and the Under-23s at his young age. As recently as a few weeks ago he netted alongside Johnson, who as aforementioned, has already featured for the first team this season.

It should only be a matter of time before the winger manages to get his first real taste of senior football – he was named on the bench against Fleetwood in the Carabao Cup first round but did not play.

With the departure of Appiah on Monday afternoon, those odds have already increased tenfold.

Losing him might not be so bad after all.

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