A Nikola Milenkovic transfer to AC Milan has been floated as a January option for the Serie A club, with Italian outlet Calciomercato reporting that the Rossoneri are “evaluating” the Nottingham Forest centre-back as an affordable way of reinforcing their defence in the new year. The claim, carried in England by the Nottingham Post, puts a reported €28 million (£24m) valuation on a player who has been one of the Reds’ most consistent performers since arriving from Fiorentina in 2024.
It is, for now, a link rather than a bid. There is no suggestion Forest have been approached, no suggestion the 28-year-old wants to leave, and a contract that runs until 2029 gives the club every card in the deck. But it is the first serious piece of speculation about a first-choice Forest defender since the summer window shut on 1 September, and it lands in a week when Oliver Glasner has been reminded rather sharply how thin his centre-back department actually is.
What the Nikola Milenkovic transfer report actually says
The detail, per Calciomercato, is that Milan head coach Rúben Amorim admires Milenkovic and that the club are weighing him up as a mid-season option. Sporting CP’s Gonçalo Inácio is described as the priority target, but with a price tag put at around €40m (£34m) — which is where the Forest man comes in. At a reported €28m he is framed as the “more affordable” alternative rather than the first choice.
That framing matters, because it is the difference between a club chasing a player and a club listing a name on a shortlist in mid-September for a window that does not open for three and a half months. Forest supporters have seen enough of these to know the shape of them. Treat it as what it is: attributed Italian speculation, not a done deal, and not even a live negotiation.
Why Milan keep looking at the City Ground
What gives the story a little more texture than the average Calciomercato line is that the two clubs already have business on the table. Omari Hutchinson joined Milan on a season-long loan on deadline day, in an arrangement that includes a reported €40m option to make the move permanent. Whatever the merits of that deal, it means a channel of communication exists, and that Milan’s recruitment staff have spent the summer looking closely at a Forest squad they have already dipped into once.
Forest’s own summer is worth recapping here, because it sets the context for everything that follows. The Reds spent roughly £101m on five first-team additions — Xaver Schlager on a free from RB Leipzig, Ousmane Diomande from Sporting for around £34m, back-up goalkeeper Steven Benda, the club-record capture of Liam Delap from Chelsea, and Daniel Muñoz from Crystal Palace on the penultimate day. There were no deadline-day arrivals: two bids for Newcastle’s Jacob Murphy were rejected, and a £40m move for Everton’s Harrison Armstrong collapsed late.
The outgoings, meanwhile, were substantial. Elliot Anderson left for Manchester City in a deal worth around £116m, David Carmo and Jota Silva joined Olympiacos, Omar Richards went to Aris, and Taiwo Awoniyi was sold to Coventry City for £9m in August. Add the deadline-day loans and the squad is leaner than it looks on paper. Selling another established starter in January would be a choice, not a necessity.
The problem with the timing
Here is the awkward part for anyone in Italy reading the €28m figure and thinking it looks like value: Forest’s centre-back stocks are already stretched, and Saturday proved it.
Milenkovic and Jair Cunha both pulled out of the trip to Aston Villa after scan results came back late on Friday evening, less than 24 hours before kick-off, having felt tightness in training. Glasner was forced into a last-minute reshuffle of his back three. Diomande took the central berth for what was his first Premier League start. Ola Aina, a full-back by trade, was moved inside to fill the right-sided centre-back role. Murillo, who had been struggling with knee trouble all week, declared himself fit and played 90 minutes.
“Murillo, now I can mention it,” Glasner said afterwards, as reported in our injury round-up. “He also was a big question mark because he had some pain in his knees on Friday in training. And he said, ‘No, gaffer, I can and will play’.”
Forest won 2-1 anyway, Delap’s rocket and Igor Jesus’s late poke sealing a first win of the season and a first at Villa Park since 1994, and the makeshift back line restricted the hosts impressively. But a squad that needs a right-back to play centre-back in mid-September is not a squad with a spare centre-half to sell in January. If anything, as the Nottingham Post notes, defence is an area the Reds may look to strengthen when the window reopens rather than weaken.
Where Glasner’s numbers actually stand
Strip it back. The natural centre-backs available to Glasner right now are Milenkovic, Murillo, Diomande, Jair Cunha and, at a push, Nicolò Savona. Morato went to West Ham on a season loan with an option to buy on deadline day. Zach Abbott, having signed a new deal to 2030, went to Southampton on loan for the campaign. Neither is available to be recalled into a matchday squad.
That leaves a back three that essentially picks itself when everyone is fit — and falls apart quickly when two of them are not. We looked at the cover question in detail after the window shut, and Saturday was the first live test of it. Forest passed, but the margin was uncomfortably slim.
What Milenkovic has been to Forest
The No 31 has racked up close to 100 appearances since his switch from Fiorentina, and in a period of extraordinary squad churn he has been one of the few fixed points. He was central to the campaign that took the Reds back into European football, and he has adapted without fuss to Glasner’s back three after two seasons in a flat four.
He is 28, which is the age at which Serie A clubs tend to start circling English-based defenders — old enough to be immediately reliable, young enough to hold resale value. A €28m fee for a player of his standing and contract length would look light from a Forest perspective, particularly given what the club would then have to spend to replace him mid-season. For a fuller picture of what he brings, our profile of the Serbia international runs through the numbers.
The PSR angle, and why it cuts both ways
There is one argument that gives the story legs. Forest’s summer was funded in large part by the Anderson sale, and clubs operating near the Premier League’s profit and sustainability limits have grown used to treating January as a balancing exercise. The mechanics of PSR mean a homegrown or long-serving player sold for pure profit is worth more to the books than the fee alone suggests.
But Milenkovic cost a fee in 2024 and still carries book value, so the accounting gain from selling him is smaller than it would be for an academy product. And the football cost — losing your most experienced centre-back halfway through a season in which Glasner is still installing his ideas — is real and immediate. On both ledgers, holding firm is the easier call.
Where it goes from here
Nowhere, most likely, until December at the earliest. Milan’s stated priority is Inácio. Forest have no need to sell and a contract that runs for another three seasons. Expect the name to resurface in the Italian press periodically between now and Christmas, and expect nothing concrete unless Milan’s pursuit of the Sporting man collapses.
The more pressing Milenkovic story is the hamstring. Glasner has already ruled him out of Saturday’s visit of Coventry City to the City Ground, the last fixture before the international break. “Nikola is a little bit more serious,” the head coach said. “He will also miss Coventry. We are hopeful that he can be back after the international break. Let’s say this is the first time I feel three weeks without a game is good.” Jair Cunha, whose problem is less severe, remains a doubt for the weekend.
Forest go to Crystal Palace after the break, a fixture Glasner will have circled for obvious reasons. Having their first-choice centre-back fit for it matters considerably more to the Reds right now than what a Serie A club may or may not be thinking about in January.
