When Nottingham Forest signed Ibrahim Sangare from PSV, he was supposed to be the ready-made midfielder to propel them up the Premier League table. It turned out he was not. But with Elliot Anderson having departed, he now has to be.Forest beat interest from Liverpool and Arsenal to secure the Ivorian’s services in September 2023, arriving at the City Ground for a then club record fee of £30million ($46.7m in today’s exchange).The club liked his strength, ball-winning ability and forward passing, and expected him to have an impact similar to Anderson’s, who arrived a year later. But now Anderson is on his way to Manchester City for a record £116m, the time for Sangare to finally reach that billing has arrived. And for the first time in his Forest career, he looks ready.Last season for Forest, it was easy to overlook Sangare. He made 43 appearances, including 28 in the Premier League, and Forest’s midfield rarely looked as balanced as it did with him at its base. Mainly, the 28-year-old’s job was to anchor the midfield to allow Anderson to flourish.But he has shown signs that he can fill the all-round position Anderson held.At the World Cup this summer, Ivory Coast manager Emerse Fae left Sangare out of the starting XI for their opening 1-0 win against Ecuador, but selected him in their next three matches.Sangare completed the most passes and had more touches than any Ivorian midfielder in that time frame, picking up an assist for Nicolas Pepe with a defence-splitting through ball against Curacao along the way.(For readers in the U.S…)Sangare looked comfortable dictating the rhythm of games, breaking up play with frequency and choosing the right times to play more conservatively and when to take risks going forward.