Nottingham Forest transfer news has taken another turn on the eve of the trip to Anfield, with head coach Oliver Glasner confirming the Reds expect to complete at least one more piece of business before next week’s deadline. Speaking at his pre-match press conference on Friday, the Austrian said deals were “quite close to being done” following the club-record £45m arrival of Liam Delap from Chelsea, as reported by Nottinghamshire Live.
Delap became Forest’s fourth signing of the summer when he put pen to paper on Thursday, following Xaver Schlager, Ousmane Diomande and Steven Benda through the door. Glasner has spent most of August saying he wanted two additions before the window shut. By his own maths, that leaves one still outstanding.
What Glasner said in the latest Nottingham Forest transfer news update
The head coach was characteristically precise without giving anything away.
“As I mentioned, I think we will add two players. One we have added. That means I guess we will have at least one more signing,” Glasner said. “Deals are quite close to being done. But now, from today on, my focus is on the Liverpool match.”
Note the phrasing there — “deals”, plural, and “at least” one more. Glasner has been careful all summer not to promise numbers he cannot deliver, but that is not the language of a manager who thinks the window is finished. It is the language of a manager with two or three things in motion who does not want to jinx any of them.
Asked directly about Daniel Munoz, the Crystal Palace right back Forest have submitted a bid for, he gave the answer every supporter has learned to expect: “No comments on any names. When the ink is dry, you will be informed.”
The right-back hunt is the priority
It is no secret where the gap is. Right back has been the position Forest have circled since the start of the window, and events of the past fortnight have only sharpened the need.
Ola Aina’s red card in the opening-day defeat to Leeds United underlined how thin the cover is behind Neco Williams and Nicolò Savona, with Savona himself among the players reported to be carrying knocks in the run-up to the Carabao Cup exit. For a side Glasner wants pressing high and rotating its wide players aggressively, one specialist full back short is one too many.
Munoz is the marquee option. The Colombia international has been among the most productive attacking full backs in the Premier League since arriving at Selhurst Park, and he fits a profile Glasner knows intimately — the head coach worked with him directly at Palace before moving to the City Ground in July. That familiarity cuts both ways, of course: Glasner knows exactly what he would be getting, and Palace know exactly what they would be losing.
Running alongside that, Forest have been in dialogue with Fiorentina over the Brazilian Dodo. That one has become a haggle. Fiorentina knocked back an opening offer and are holding out for around £8.5m, according to reporting in Italy relayed by Nottinghamshire Live. The gap between the clubs is small in the context of a summer in which Forest have spent £45m on a striker; whether it closes before the deadline is another matter.
Two names, one position. Nobody at the club is briefing that both will arrive.
Andre and the midfield question
The other live thread is a midfielder. Talks have been reported over Corinthians’ Andre, and a body in that area of the pitch would be logical rather than luxurious.
The sale of Elliot Anderson to Manchester City for around £116m reshaped the middle of the park in a single afternoon. Schlager’s free transfer from RB Leipzig replaced some of the volume, and captain Ryan Yates, Ibrahim Sangaré, Nicolás Domínguez and James McAtee give Glasner options. But Anderson’s legs and progressive carrying are not straightforwardly replaced by any of them, and a Premier League season is long.
Whether that becomes the “at least one more” signing, or whether the right back takes precedence and the midfield is left until January, is the question the next few days will answer.
Why Delap was ‘the perfect fit’
Glasner was far more expansive on the deal already done, and his explanation of it doubles as a useful window into how he sees his forward line.
“We were in talks for many days and we tried to convince him — and obviously we did convince Liam — Nottingham Forest is the right club at the right moment for where he is in his career,” he said. “Before he picked Chelsea, I think everyone in the Premier League wanted Liam after his amazing season at Ipswich.”
The reasoning behind the profile is the interesting part.
“We were looking for a striker with physicality, and especially with pace and able to make runs in behind,” Glasner said. “We have other profiles. We have a top, top striker in the box with Chris Wood, who is a proven Premier League goalscorer. We have the more playing No.9 with Igor [Jesus]. When Taiwo [Awoniyi] left, the ones who made the runs in behind, we were missing it.”
That is a coach doing squad-building out loud. Wood is the penalty-box finisher, Igor Jesus the link man who drops in, and since Awoniyi’s £9m move to Coventry City there had been nobody to stretch a back line vertically. Delap, at 23, is that runner — and after a difficult 12 months at Stamford Bridge following his switch from Ipswich Town, the challenge for Glasner is getting him back to the level that made half the division want him in the first place.
“Liam is the perfect fit and I think we are the perfect club for him,” the head coach added. Our full breakdown of the club-record deal is here.
Liverpool first, paperwork second
All of which Glasner is happy to park, at least for 24 hours. “From today on, my focus is on the Liverpool match,” he said, and there is a decent reason for that. Forest arrive at Anfield on Saturday lunchtime with no points from their opening Premier League fixture and a Carabao Cup exit already behind them, both defeats coming at the City Ground against the same Leeds side.
Morgan Gibbs-White’s knee problem is the significant absence, the talisman having missed the midweek cup tie. A 12.30pm kick-off at Anfield is not the fixture any manager would choose to be short-handed for. Our full Liverpool vs Nottingham Forest preview and team news has the wider picture.
Delap is registered and available, which gives Glasner a genuine decision to make about his forward line — and Anfield, with space in behind a high Liverpool line, is arguably the exact fixture the new man was bought for.
The state of play with days to go
So: four in, a fifth expected, and a window that has already been busier at both ends than most. Diomande for a reported £34.3m and Delap for £45m represent serious outlay. Anderson’s sale, plus the departures of David Carmo, Awoniyi, Omar Richards and Jota Silva, mean the squad Glasner inherited on 6 July looks materially different to the one he will name at Anfield.
What is left is the fiddly bit — the closing days of a window, when valuations harden, agents get busy and clubs discover they cannot sell the player they needed to sell before they buy the one they wanted. Glasner’s “when the ink is dry” line is the honest position. Forest have bids in. Forest have talks going. Nobody, including the head coach, can tell you today which of them lands.
On the evidence of the past week, though, the Reds are not planning to spend deadline day as spectators.
Follow every twist of the window with our rolling Nottingham Forest coverage. Quotes in this piece were given at Oliver Glasner’s pre-match press conference and reported by Nottinghamshire Live.
