Nottingham Forest are open to selling one of their out of favour players on a permanent basis next year, according to a reliable journalist.
Nottingham Forest player sales
The Reds sanctioned the permanent sales of Brennan Johnson, Sam Surridge, Braian Ojeda, Mohamed Drager, Jack Colback, Cafu, Jordan Smith, Giulian Biancone and Steve Cook over the summer, but there were also plenty of stars to leave temporarily.
The City Ground outfit sanctioned loans for 12 players, including the likes of Jonjo Shelvey, Lewis O’Brien and Emmanuel Dennis, and another squad member who was sent out on the road for the remainder of the season was none other than Gustavo Scarpa.
The Brazilian attacking midfielder put pen to paper at Olympiacos until the end of the current campaign, but with no option or obligation to buy included in the agreement that was arranged by the two parties before the previous transfer deadline, he’s set to return to the Premier League and indeed the Midlands.
Steve Cooper’s 29-year-old still has just under another three years remaining on his deal after only joining the club at the start of this year from Palmeiras (Transfermarkt – Scarpa profile), but with the manager having no plans to utilise him in his long-term project, he looks set to depart for good in 2024.
Nottingham Forest happy to let go of Gustavo Scarpa
Taking to X, Bruno Andrade revealed that Nottingham Forest are open to selling Scarpa next year, and chiefs have already set their price range for any interested parties.
“Nottingham Forest asks for between 5 and 6 million euros [£4-5m] to release Gustavo Scarpa permanently – the value of the negotiation between clubs does not include, for example, the player's salary.”
Gustavo Scarpa's underwhelming impact
First of all, Scarpa currently pockets £61k-per-week on loan (Olympiacos salaries), which would make him the fourth-highest earner on the books at Nottingham Forest, so chiefs need to remove him from the wage bill as soon as possible considering that he’s failed to make an impact since putting pen to paper in January.
Divock Origi
£120k
Callum Hudson-Odoi
£80k
Felipe
£80k
Morgan Gibbs-White
£80k
Chris Wood
£80k
Ibrahim Sangare
£75k
Serge Aurier
£50k (Data via Capology)
The Campinas native has so far made ten appearances respectively for his parent and loan club yet has recorded zero goals and assists, so even when he is handed the opportunity to prove what he’s capable of, he hasn’t been able to showcase his talents to either manager.
Last season, Scarpa ranked as Cooper’s 27th overall best-performing player out of 33 squad members (WhoScored – Nottingham Forest statistics), so deciding to sanction his permanent sale would be completely the right decision because the extra cash could be put towards generating funds to bring in new signings, more importantly ones who would be an upgrade in Cooper's squad.