Costel Pantilimon will sign a two-year contract with Turkish outfit Denizlispor on Wednesday, ending his Nottingham Forest nightmare, according to Romanian outlet Sport.
The uncompromising stopper arrived at Forest on loan in January 2019 and helped pull the Reds clear of relegation during the second half of the 2017/18 campaign.
He was then signed permanently by Aitor Karanka and became the club’s number one goalkeeper for the 2018/19 campaign.
Following the arrival of Sabri Lamouchi, however, Pantilimon was shunted down the pecking order and out of the first-team fold.
Last season he joined Cypriot outfit Omonia Nicosia after Forest signed Aro Muric on loan from Manchester City and Brice Samba from Caen.
The Congolese stopper is now firmly established as Forest’s first-choice custodian, with Jordan Smith acting as a backup during the final nine games of last season.
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Offloading Pantilimon on a permanent basis looks like decent business from a Forest perspective, with the ex-Manchester City man likely to be on a decent wage.
The Reds have added five players to their ranks this summer and it seems likely that some fringe players will now leave to balance out the books.
Pantilimon is 33 now and playing frequent first-team football needs to be a must considering his age.
In total, the man with 27 Romania caps made 57 appearances for the Reds and kept 19 clean sheets in the Garibaldi.
NFN Verdict – Time is right to say goodbye to Pantilimon
Some cynical Forest supporters never really took to the international goalkeeper but others appreciated that he was a more than capable custodian.
Signed when the Reds badly needed a stopper he was very impressive during the back end of the 2017/18 campaign; quickly becoming the club’s number one.
Despite that, he never got a look in last season and was subsequently loaned out.
Pantilimon sat twiddling his thumbs on the sidelines is doing nobody any favours. With that in mind, getting him off the wage budget looks like a good move by the club.
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