Nottingham Forest were keen on Cheick Doucoure before Premier League rivals Crystal Palace completed a £21 million deal for the former Lens ace, as reported by The Athletic.
Fail to prepare, prepare to fail, as your least-favourite secondary school teacher used to tell you. And no one could accuse Nottingham Forest of failing to prepare for life back in the big time.
Wayne Hennessey, arriving from Burnley on Friday, becomes Forest’s seventh signing of the summer. And Steve Cooper, Dane Murray and co aren’t done there either. After bringing in a new centre-forward – only four players in the Bundesliga scored more than Taiwo Awoniyi in 2021/22 – a couple of very welcome full-backs and left-footed Moussa Niakhate, the focus has shifted to a powerful box-to-box midfielder.
Nottingham Forest are fans of Amadou Onana. Unfortunately, so are many others. West Ham United have had a £25 million bid turned down by last year’s Ligue 1 champions (Sky Sports). Aster Vranckx, Wolfsburg’s 19-year-old dynamo, is another option.
Everton are interested too. And Wolfsburg, having only signed Vranckx last year in a £7 million deal, are unlikely to let the Belgium U21 international go so soon.
Crystal Palace beat Nottingham Forest to Cheick Doucoure
The Athletic say that Nottingham Forest also held an interest in Cheick Doucoure. But after a prolonged, will-he, won’t-he transfer, Doucoure finally joined Crystal Palace on a five-year deal last week.
The chance to work under one of the most iconic midfielders of the 21st century – a certain Patrick Vieira – was one Doucoure simply couldn’t turn down.
“What I want him to (teach) me is what I’m missing in my game so far,” the Malian tells Palace’s official website. “I want him to teach me a lot of things, to reach the highest level. He’s been a really important factor in me signing for Palace.”
Doucoure, labelled ‘incredibly complete’ by Lens skipper Seko Fofana, injects some much-needed youth into an ageing Palace midfield.
Nottingham Forest are now prioritising Lewis O’Brien of Huddersfield Town. The more creatively-minded Gustavo Scarpa, meanwhile, is expected to arrive in January from Palmeiras.
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