Nottingham Forest goalkeeper Brice Samba has rejected the club’s offer of a new contract and wants to leave the City Ground.
The Athletic has confirmed this stunning news just over a week since he helped the Reds secure a return to the Premier League.
Samba checked in on Trentside from Caen in 2019, initially thought to be back up to Manchester City loanee Arijanet Muric.
He quickly became the club’s number one though and has been a mainstay ever since.
Samba has made 133 appearances for the Reds in total and his performance against Sheffield United in the second leg of the play-offs was heroic.
The 28-year-old saved three of United’s five penalties to set up a final with Huddersfield.
Forest recently made a move to extend the goalkeeper’s contract. However, the latest offer has been deemed unacceptable by the player.
All is not yet lost.
The report claims that talks are continuing and Forest desperately want to keep Samba on Trentside.
That mindset is shared by Steve Cooper who has held a strong relationship with Samba since he took the head coach role at the City Ground.
Likewise, the Reds don’t want to lose an important player for free in a year’s time and this looks like a difficult situation.
Samba rejects Forest contract and this is a concern
This is always the difficult thing when it comes to winning promotion.
Those players will now value themselves very highly and they will want paying handsomely for their achievements.
In some sense, they’re well within their rights to do that.
In Dane Murphy, however, Forest have a shrewd CEO in charge and he won’t be breaking the bank and overpaying on players.
Samba is integral right now though. Given his play-off heroics, he is within his rights to demand what he deserves.
He’s a goalkeeper that has the ability to step up and play in the Premier League and losing him would cost the Reds money for a replacement.
Hopefully, a resolution can be struck and Samba can extend his stay at Forest.
Supporters will also hope that to be the case, with Samba a very popular player among the fan base at the City Ground.