Nottingham Forest have been dealt a blow in their bid to bring Zian Flemming to the City Ground.
What’s the talk?
That’s according to a report by Dutch publication De Limburger, who claim that a deal for the Fortuna Sittard midfielder is looking increasingly unlikely for Dane Murphy to be able to get over the line this summer, with Italian sides Empoli and Napoli having entered the race for the 23-year-old.
It is also reported that Forest and the Eredivisie club have been at something of a stalemate over their respective valuations of the player, with the Reds thought to have already submitted more than one offer for Flemming, all of which have been rejected.
It is claimed that the Championship side feel the youngster is worth around £1.5m, while Fortuna are thought to be demanding a figure much higher than this amount in order to sanction a sale – with Flemming himself stating that his asking price was “a very high transfer fee – too high.”
However, De Limburger claim that, following the interest from Italy, the chances of a move to England and Nottingham, in particular, are fading fast.
Murphy will be gutted
Considering the sheer amount of potential Flemming appears to possess, as well as the fact that, at one point, it looked as if Forest were very much in the driving seat regarding the signing of the midfielder, should the Reds ultimately miss out on a deal for the 23-year-old this summer, it would undoubtedly leave Murphy gutted.
Indeed, over his 33 Eredivisie appearances last season, the £1.08m-rated man bagged 12 goals, provided seven assists and created eight big chances for his teammates, as well as taking an average of 2.8 shots and making 0.8 key passes per fixture.
These metrics saw the attacking midfielder earn a highly impressive average SofaScore match rating of 7.04, ranking him as Fortuna Sittard’s third-best player in the top flight of Dutch football.
As such, with Forest already boasting a number of extremely talented youngsters in the likes of Brennan Johnson, Alex Mighten and Jordan Lawrence-Gabriel, the addition of Flemming would have further transformed Chris Hughton’s side into one of the most exciting outfits in the second tier.
However, with a move now looking unlikely for the 23-year-old, unless the Forest CEO can pull something special out of the bag to beat both Napoli and Empoli to the midfielder, he will have to turn his attention in what remains of the summer transfer window elsewhere.
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