Report: Nottingham Forest were confident of signing Aston Villa’s Alan Hutton

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Nottingham Forest are understood to be frustrated after Alan Hutton decided to stay at Championship rivals Aston Villa rather than move to the City Ground.

Well that didn’t last long.

Just three days after the Nottingham Post claimed that Forest had offered Alan Hutton a two-year deal in an attempt to lure him to the City Ground, the 33-year-old has surprisingly signed a new contract with Aston Villa instead.

The long-serving Scotland international was expected to leave Villa Park on a free when his previous deal expired this summer, particularly with the Midland giants in the midst of a financial crisis.

But the Mirror reports that Hutton has instead accepted a pay cut to his £15,000-a-week wages in order to commit his immediate future to Villa, snubbing a move to Forest at the same time.

And that has not gone down too well in the East Midlands.

According to the Nottingham Post, Forest had held positive talks with Hutton and were confident that a deal would be reached. The former Rangers, Tottenham and Sunderland right-back was even offered a lucrative contract to tempt him east.

And it is understood that Forest have been left very frustrated by Hutton’s decision to stay at Aston Villa instead.

This leaves manager Aitor Karanka with a bit of a problem considering that Hutton was probably seen as the ready-made replacement for Eric Lichaj, who is expected to leave for Hull City in the near future.