An Ibrahim Sangare transfer is back on the agenda four months before the January window even opens, with Besiktas reported to be looking at the Nottingham Forest midfielder as they plan their winter business. The Nottingham Post, citing the Turkish outlet Takvim, says the Istanbul club are “investigating Nottingham Forest’s terms” for the 28-year-old and will continue to “monitor” his situation.
That is a long way short of a bid, and worth stating plainly at the top: this is a report of interest from a Turkish newspaper, relayed by the local Forest press, not a deal in motion. But it lands at a moment when the shape of Oliver Glasner’s midfield is one of the more interesting questions at the City Ground, and it is worth unpicking properly.
What Besiktas are said to be planning
The reporting, carried by the Nottingham Post, is that Besiktas have made central midfield a priority for January and could bring in as many as two players in the position. Sangare’s Premier League experience is described as “an important factor” in their thinking, alongside his physical strength, his ball-winning and his defensive work — which is a fair summary of what he does.
Head coach Vincenzo Italiano is said to have the final say on any move, and Sangare is not the only name on the list: Rangers midfielder Nicolas Raskin has also been identified. Besiktas have been linked with the Ivory Coast international before, so this is a returning interest rather than a new one.
The contract position works against a January exit
Here is the detail that matters most, and the one that tends to get skipped in the excitement of a transfer link. Sangare signed a new deal in July that runs to 2028. A club does not hand a 28-year-old fresh terms in the summer and then wave him off in the winter unless something has gone badly wrong, and nothing has.
Forest also hold every card. There is no contract running down, no leverage for a buying club to lean on, and no obvious financial pressure after a summer in which the Reds spent rather than sold. Any Besiktas approach in January would be starting from the least favourable position a bidder can occupy: asking a Premier League club to sell a squad player it actually uses, mid-season, at a price of the seller’s choosing.
Where Sangare fits under Glasner
Sangare wears the No.6 and, for most of the past two seasons, has been the closest thing Forest have to a specialist in that role — a screen in front of the back line who breaks up play, wins the ball back and gives the more creative players licence to go forward. Our full profile of Sangare’s role as the Forest No.6 goes through what he brings in more detail.
What has changed is the company he keeps. Glasner inherited a midfield that had just lost its outstanding performer — Elliot Anderson left for Manchester City in a deal reported at around £116m — and then added Xaver Schlager on a free transfer from RB Leipzig, a player the Austrian knows well from his home country’s national set-up and one who presses with the relentlessness Glasner’s system demands.
The head coach now has Sangare, Schlager, Nicolas Dominguez, captain Ryan Yates and James McAtee as central options. That is five for what is usually two or three places, and it explains why Forest did not treat midfield as an emergency in the closing weeks of the summer window.
McAtee’s form changed the calculation
The Nottingham Post makes the point that McAtee impressing in a deeper role pushed the need for further midfield reinforcement down the club’s priority list, following Schlager’s arrival. That is a significant shift. McAtee arrived with a reputation as a No.10; if Glasner can genuinely use him further back, Forest have an extra body in the middle and one who offers something different from Sangare’s destroying.
Forest did still try to add. The club’s pursuit of Everton’s Harrison Armstrong reached an advanced stage before collapsing, and the teenager stayed on Merseyside. Two bids for Newcastle’s Jacob Murphy were rejected. Neither failure was a midfield emergency, but both showed the recruitment department was still working the phones right to the 1 September deadline.
Would Forest even consider selling?
Only on their own terms, and probably not at all. Selling a first-choice-calibre holding midfielder in January, with no window open afterwards until the following summer, would leave Glasner a man light in the one area where injuries and suspensions bite hardest across a Premier League run-in.
There is a version of the story where it makes sense: if Sangare finds himself behind Schlager and Yates in the pecking order through the autumn, and if a serious offer arrives, a sale that funds a younger replacement is not unthinkable. Forest have shown under this ownership that they will trade decisively when the numbers work — the Anderson deal being the obvious example. But the club would be selling from strength, and a January fee reflecting three and a half years of contract is not the sort of figure Besiktas have typically paid.
Forest have their own January list
The more likely direction of travel is inbound. We have already looked at the targets Glasner could revisit in January after a quiet deadline day, and at what the squad still needs after a £101m summer. Midfield is on that list, but some way behind the areas where the summer plan did not quite land.
Forest spent heavily and well between June and September — Ousmane Diomande from Sporting CP for a reported £34m, Liam Delap from Chelsea for a club record, Daniel Munoz following Glasner from Crystal Palace on deadline eve, plus Schlager and back-up goalkeeper Steven Benda on frees. Five first-team signings is not a quiet window by most measures. It only felt quiet because deadline day itself passed without an arrival.
The immediate picture: a calf, and a trip to Villa Park
Sangare’s more pressing concern is fitness. The Nottingham Post reports that he has missed the last two Premier League matches with a slight calf problem and was not risked for last weekend’s goalless draw with Tottenham Hotspur, but could be involved when Forest travel to Aston Villa on Saturday for a 3pm kick-off.
That game matters rather more than a January rumour. Glasner’s side have two points from three league games — beaten at home by Leeds United, a spirited 2-2 draw at Liverpool in which Dan Ndoye and Morgan Gibbs-White scored, then that stalemate against Spurs in which Neco Williams had a goal disallowed for handball after a VAR check. There has been no win yet in 2026/27, and no cup distraction either after the second-round exit to Leeds.
A fit Sangare at Villa Park would be useful. A midfielder who shields a back line and gives the ball to Gibbs-White is exactly the profile Forest need in an away game against a side that carries a threat in transition, and the international break has given his calf a fortnight it would not otherwise have had.
The verdict
File this one under “noted, not urgent”. Besiktas looking at Sangare is a real report from a credible chain — Takvim to the Nottingham Post — but it describes a club making enquiries about terms, not a club making an offer. A contract to 2028, a head coach who values the position and a squad with no financial need to sell all point the same way.
If it develops, it will develop in December. Until then, the useful question is not whether Sangare leaves but whether he starts, and that is one Glasner will answer at Villa Park. Forest’s official channels, including the club’s own website, will carry the team news later in the week.
