Dias was on loan with the Viola last season and a fan article written in April had some harsh words to say about the Monaco loanee.
Nottingham Forest’s Championship playoff hopes are in danger of faltering following their recent downturn in form.
Having lost just twice in the league by early December, the Reds have now lost two and drawn two of their past four games, leaving them 10th in the table.
Their last fixture saw them sensationally spurn a three-goal lead at high-flying Norwich City to draw 3-3, and some fans have pointed the finger at one individual for the sloppy end to the game.
Gil Dias only came on in the 83rd minute with the scores at 3-1, but in that time, he was arguably at fault for both of Onel Hernandez’s goals, particularly the equaliser, when he failed to make contact with an attempted clearance on the edge of the box.
Although the Monaco winger won over a number of fans with some impressive performances in pre-season and in his Championship debut against Bristol City back in August, the past few weeks have largely yielded criticism from supporters, as with the Norwich draw and the Preston defeat.
Dias was on loan at Serie A club Fiorentina last term and, despite making 29 appearances in all competitions for the Viola, only nine of these are starts, despite only being injured or suspended for two games (Transfermarkt).
Interestingly, Fiorentina fan site Viola Nation published a damning opinion piece on the Portuguese winger in April, entitled “How do you solve a problem like Gil Dias?”, and some material within it is sure to make for uncomfortable reading for Forest fans.
In a match against Roma, Dias came on as a substitute and “torpedoed a pair of very promising breaks within moments of each other by getting the ball stuck under his feet while completely unmarked. To add to the indignity… goalkeeper Alisson beat him with a Cruyff turn a few minutes after that.”
Other quotes of interest include “more often, he seems on a completely different page than the rest of the team” and “the unpredictability of those struggles, and their grounding in a basic misunderstanding of what he should be doing, don’t bode well for his future in Florence”.
Some Forest fans may perhaps recognise some of what is written in the Viola Nation blog with regards to what they may be seeing now from Dias in the Garibaldi red.
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