Nottingham Forest had looked set to make Sporting Lisbon winger Daniel Podence their latest new addition to the City Ground.
It has been a fantastic start to the summer so far for Nottingham Forest.
The East Midland giants have smashed their transfer record to land Joao Carvalho for £13 million, brought in another Portuguese starlet in Diogo Goncalves, solved their left-back problem with the arrival of Jack Robinson from QPR and landed the Croatian league’s reigning Golden Boot winner and Player of the Year El Arabi Hillel Soudani.
But Forest cannot have it all.
It was understood that Forest had held talks with the 21-year-old winger, who played 15 times for the Lisbon outfit last season, and had even gone as far as to make a formal offer. With a release clause in his contract worth £53 million before the termination of his deal, signing Podence on a free looked like wonderful business.
But the Nottingham Post looks to have delivered a hammer blow to Forest’s hopes.
It is understood that Podence is now very close to signing for Greek giants Olympiakos instead who, ironically, are also owned by Forest chief Evangelos Marinakis.
Olympiakos had won the Greek Superleague seven years in a row prior to last season, where they finished third and lost their crown to AEK Athens.
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