Silly season is in full swing and thankfully Nottingham Forest have avoided signing too many players this summer transfer window.
Two summers ago, the Reds landed 23 new players and last summer the number was 13 when it came to new recruits.
The Reds have so far signed just six new players and the strategy looks far more meticulous these days on the banks of the River Trent.
The PSR criteria was met when Forest sold Moussa Niakhate and Orel Mangala to Lyon in July and that bodes well when it comes to avoiding a points deduction.
Now, a bizarre piece of news has transpired and it might shock some fans of a Nottingham Forest persuasion.
Orel Mangala available for transfer at Lyon already
The Belgian international signed for Lyon back in January and spent the second half of the 2023/24 campaign on loan in France.
Much to the delight of Forest, the Ligue 1 outfit chose to buy him in the summer and aid the Reds in their quest to meet the PSR requirements.
Now, according to L’Equipe, Mangala could be on his way out of Lyon with the club looking to cash in on him this summer.
The 26-year-old was in fine form last season when he joined halfway through and helped the club qualify for Europe.
He might not get a chance to test himself in European competition though, with Lyon set to offer him out.
Lyon paid £15 million to make the move permanent and surely there will be clubs in a number of leagues keen to sign the midfielder.
Mangala signed for Forest in the summer of 2022 and made 53 appearances for the club, scoring twice and claiming one assist.
At Lyon, he also scored twice but played just 12 times during last season’s rise up the league table.
Mangala would be quality signing but Forest did well to cash in
The Belgian is definitely a tidy player but at Forest he perhaps suffered from a bit of an identity crisis.
Ultimately, he was never quite strong enough to hold down either of the midfield roles – certainly in Nuno Espirito Santo’s team.
Selling Mangala made an awful lot of sense and Forest did well to get Lyon to part with £15 million – and a small loan fee – for his services.
He will prove a very useful player for a number of clubs across European football but ultimately, that club wasn’t Forest.
Mangala is probably a downgrade on Ibrahim Sangare, Danilo and Nicolas Dominguez.
As a result, the Reds were right to sell him but as a popular player at the club, the hope is that he can get hooked up somewhere else and play football before the window closes.
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