Nottingham Forest’s summer pursuit of Lucas Bergvall has been formally closed off. The Sweden midfielder, who was the subject of bids from the Reds and Newcastle United before the window shut on 1 September, has signed a new contract at Tottenham Hotspur and declared himself happy to stay in north London.
It is not a transfer story in the conventional sense — nobody has moved anywhere. But for a Forest side that spent roughly £101m this summer and still walked away from deadline day without the deep-lying midfielder Oliver Glasner wanted, it matters. One of the names filed under “revisit in January” has just been taken off the board.
Lucas Bergvall and Nottingham Forest: what actually happened
According to the Nottingham Post, Bergvall was the subject of bids from both Forest and Newcastle this summer, after the 20-year-old made clear his unhappiness at a lack of minutes in his favoured position during a difficult 2025-26 campaign for him personally.
That is the crucial context. Forest were not trying to prise away an untouchable. They were moving for a young midfielder whose own club had, at that point, not settled on where to play him — the classic profile for a club of Forest’s size to gamble on. We reported at the time that Bergvall was on the Reds’ deadline-day shortlist alongside Jacob Murphy, and he featured again when we looked at the targets Glasner could revisit in January.
No fee was ever confirmed publicly by either club, and Forest never reached the stage of an agreement. Spurs did not want to sell. What has changed is that Bergvall no longer wants to go.
‘We’re building something great here’
Spurs head coach Roberto De Zerbi used Bergvall regularly through pre-season, then started him in Tottenham’s Premier League opener at Brentford. The minutes arrived; the doubts went. The Swede, who has made 80 appearances since joining from Djurgården in 2024, has now agreed fresh terms.
“I think we’re building something great here,” Bergvall told Tottenham’s official website. “It’s an exciting time for the club and that’s why I’m happy to extend my contract.
“I’m always trying to achieve as much as possible, to be the best version of myself both on and off the pitch and I know this is the right place to do that. Personally, my goal is to produce more for the team – performances, goals and assists – to help as much as I can.”
De Zerbi’s verdict explains why Forest were interested in the first place: “Every day in training you can see Lucas’ desire to learn, improve and push himself to the highest level. Lucas is brave, he wants responsibility and has the personality to play in big moments.
“I believe his best football is still ahead of him and we want to give Lucas the platform to reach his full potential.”
Tottenham’s sporting director Johan Lange called him “an outstanding young player with enormous potential”, adding that the contract “is a reflection of our belief in Lucas and the role we see him playing both now and in the future of the club”.
Read between those lines and the door is not merely shut. It has been bolted, with a public statement of intent from the sporting director attached. Any renewed Forest interest in January would now require Tottenham to reverse a position they have just put their name to in writing.
Why Forest went for him
To understand the move you have to go back to the single biggest piece of business of Forest’s summer: Elliot Anderson’s departure to Manchester City for a reported £116m. That fee rewrote the club’s finances and gave the recruitment department room to work, but it also removed the player who carried the ball out of midfield better than anyone else in the squad.
Forest spent heavily — Ousmane Diomande, Liam Delap, Daniel Muñoz, Steven Benda and the free transfer of Xaver Schlager, who already knew Glasner’s demands from the Bundesliga. What they did not do was replace Anderson with a like-for-like profile. The £10m move for Corinthians midfielder André collapsed late on deadline day, and the search simply stopped when the clock did.
It is also worth noting who Forest were bidding against. Newcastle United, per the same report, were in for Bergvall too — the club that had just banked a nine-figure sum of Forest’s money for Anderson, chasing the same profile in the same window. That is the market Forest are now operating in, and it is not a market where a mid-table Premier League side gets to name its price.
Bergvall, at 20, was the other version of the same fix: younger, cheaper in wages, with resale value baked in, and technically suited to a system that asks midfielders to receive under pressure and break lines. He was a project signing where André was a ready-made one. Forest pursued both. They got neither.
What Glasner is working with instead
Forest’s midfield as it stands is not thin, but it is unbalanced. Ryan Yates, the captain, gives Glasner the running and the aggression. Ibrahim Sangaré gives him physical presence. Nicolás Domínguez and Xaver Schlager give him energy and positional discipline. James McAtee gives him creativity between the lines. Morgan Gibbs-White, the talisman, remains the one genuinely game-changing operator.
What is missing is the profile that sits deepest and still carries the ball forward — the Anderson role. Glasner has spent the opening month of the season asking Yates and Sangaré to share it, and the table tells its own story: two points from three games, and only two goals scored, both of them away at Liverpool. Forest have drawn a blank in all three matches at the City Ground, against Leeds United twice and Tottenham.
The Sangaré situation adds a further wrinkle. Besiktas are reported to be investigating the Ivorian’s terms ahead of January. If he goes, Forest would be looking to sign a midfielder and replace one in the same window.
What it means for January
The practical consequence of Friday’s announcement is a shorter list. Forest’s January planning was always going to be built around midfield, and two of the names on it have now moved in opposite directions: André remains live, with Corinthians reported to have set a £15m price, while Bergvall is now on extended terms at a club that has just declared him central to its plans.
There is a financial dimension too. The Anderson money gives Forest genuine headroom under the Premier League’s profitability and sustainability rules — our guide to how PSR shapes the Reds’ business sets out the mechanics — but headroom is only useful if there is somebody to spend it on. Mid-season markets are notoriously unkind to buyers with a specific profile in mind, and Forest now have one fewer option in a window where sellers hold most of the cards.
None of which changes the immediate job. Forest travel to Villa Park on Saturday at 3pm, still chasing a first win of 2026/27, with Nicolò Savona the only absentee. Glasner will solve his midfield with the players he has, because until January he has no choice.
But the Bergvall file is now closed, and the list of realistic fixes for the Anderson-shaped hole is getting shorter rather than longer.
Squad and contract information is published on the official Tottenham Hotspur website, with fixture and broadcast details from the Premier League.
