Nottingham Forest were expected to snap up Stoke City’s Championship winger James McClean during the January transfer window.
Stoke City manager Nathan Jones told James McClean that he was free to join Nottingham Forest during the January transfer window, according to The Sun (4 February, page 61).
The experienced winger was tipped to swap The Potters for the City Ground ever since his former Republic of Ireland boss Martin O’Neill arrived to replace Aitor Karanka at the two-time European champions last month.
And The Sun reports that new Stoke manager Jones informed McClean that he could link up with the 66-year-old and even broke the news in front of his Potters team-mates, who were understood to be rather taken aback by the declaration.
McClean was expected to join Forest in a swap deal with Ben Osbon but the deal failed to materialise, meaning he is stuck in Staffordshire until the end of the current campaign.
And The Sun reports that the 29-year-old former Sunderland and West Brom forward is now stuck in limbo with his immediate future up in the air.
Though it seems that Jones has no qualms about including McClean in his starting XI for now, handing the winger a full 90 minutes in Saturday’s 2-0 defeat at Hull City.
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