Nottingham Forest winger Xande Silva has today joined Ligue 2 outfit Dijon on a permanent transfer, the club have confirmed. It ends a one-year spell on Trentside where the young winger made just nine appearances for the Reds.
The former West Ham player checked in from the Hammers last summer. A deal to sign him was rushed through on transfer deadline day in August after Josh Maja failed a medical at the City Ground.
Silva cost Forest £200,000. He now moves to France where he will look to unleash the potential that prompted West Ham to sign him from Vitoria in 2015 when he was still a teenager.
The 25-year-old never really got going at Forest. He played in Chris Hughton’s last game as the Reds manager back in September 2021 but was then banished from the squad for 15 games.
An injury crisis around Christmas saw him restored to the first team fold. An encouraging 28-minute cameo against Middlesbrough on Boxing Day saw him start against Huddersfield four days later.
He still couldn’t convince Steve Cooper though. He featured in four more games before being handed a rare start on the final day of 2021/22 when the head coach chose to rotate his whole squad with the play-offs secured.
Silva leaves without registering a goal. He did claim one assist during a 4-0 win over Reading back in March but ultimately he lacked the minutes needed to really showcase his talent.
Silva joins Dijon and move suits all parties
Amid an exciting summer of incoming activity, it’s been easy to forget that Forest still have plenty of work to do in the opposite direction. Silva joins Nicholas Ioannou in departing and more will almost certainly follow in the coming weeks.
Lyle Taylor, Nuno Da Costa and Joe Lolley are all available. Richie Laryea and Braian Ojeda can leave on loan and then there is Harry Arter who still collects a wage from the football club.
Forest would dearly love to offload all six of those players. Getting rid of Arter looks like a thankless task but the others should at least get hooked up with loan moves before the window shuts.
Silva tried his best when called upon at Forest. Ultimately, he came up short with the required quality and he will hope to rediscover himself at Dijon playing second-tier football.