Nottingham Forest: Eighteen new signings, but how many is too much?

On Thursday, Serge Aurier became the 19th player to be linked to the club this summer.

There is an impressive cast of newcomers at the City Ground that includes the likes of Jesse Lingard.

Forest spent almost £150m on transfer fees to boost their hopes of survival in their first top flight campaign in 23 years. There are rumors of more additions in the last week of the window.

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How much is too much when it comes to recruiting for survival in the top flight?

"The more players you bring in and the more changes you make, the more difficult it becomes, the more of a gamble you're taking," says George Burley, who guided Ipswich to promotion in 2000 before finishing fifth in their first season back in the top flight.

It's more difficult when you bring in a lot of new players. It takes time and it can backfire on you.

Phil Brown, who guided Hull City to the top flight in 2008, believes the Forest boss is a key reason why the club were able to attract so many high-profile arrivals.

The style of football Steve Cooper was going to play was a factor in attracting the right kind of player. He got them promoted on a style of football that got a lot of praise from other managers. A lot of attention was given to Steve Cooper.

A lot of managers are very interested in how they play and how they think about football. The likes of Jesse Lingard come from larger clubs.

Twice with Crystal Palace and a third time with Reading, Steve Coppell oversaw top-flight promotions. He prioritised continuity over mass recruitment whenever he took a side up.

Forest has lost more than half of their promotion squad to sales and expired loans this season. It's too late for a manager to upgrade before it's necessary.

When you are promoted, your natural instinct is to give the players who got you promoted an opportunity.

You want to give them the chance to sink or swim in order to repay the debt.

At Reading, they were hungry and didn't know how to play in the premier league. They repaid their faith when we gave them the chance. We finished in the top eight. We didn't have a lot of money to spend in the market so we didn't. We tried to pay back the faith.

It was obvious that what we had wasn't good enough after we were beaten by the Reds. We made significant signings to keep our status, and it worked.

In 1999 and 2004 Paul Jewell stood by the players who earned promotion when he was in charge of Wigan and Bradford. Without the funds to invest a lot in the transfer market, he decided to give incentives to the players already under his command.

We didn't know which Wigan players were going to be good enough for the premier league, but we knew they wouldn't lack for desire, hard work, because they'd been doing it for the last four years with me."

Rather than giving them guaranteed money, we made it very attractive for them to be a part of the team. They were getting a lot of money if they played games. We made it to a cup final. The whole was more than the part.

When we got promoted, the chairman told me to not be silly. Let's go down in good shape if we're demoted. The parachute money can be used to come again. What are they going to leave with if it goes wrong? There is a tightrope. Money well spent if they finish in the top half.

Forest isn't the first promoted side to spend a lot of money in an effort to stay up.

The two teams spent a combined £150.3m on their return to the premier league. The fortunes of those two clubs proved that money alone doesn't guarantee a spot in the top flight.

"I'm interested in how it's going to work out, I'm fascinated by whatNottingham Forest have done."

It would be hard to integrate new players into the squad if I were a coach. It is a big challenge for the manager.

A number of clubs will follow if Forest survive comfortably.