A report has claimed that three Nottingham Forest players could now leave the club – with one of them only signed in January. The Reds are trying to reshuffle their squad ahead of the new campaign, with outgoings just as important as the incoming activity.
According to Football Insider, the Reds are willing to let three players leave their first-team squad. Remo Freuler, Jonjo Shelvey and Emmanuel Dennis are all in the firing line and could now depart the City Ground.
The decision on Shelvey is perhaps the most intriguing. He was only signed on a two-and-a-half-year deal back in January. Admittedly, he didn’t perform to his best but the fact the club are now trying to sell him highlights scattergun recruitment.
Shelvey had a bit of a spat with Steve Cooper last season. After making a glaring error against Aston Villa, he was told that he wouldn’t be in the starting eleven for the game at Liverpool. Shelvey wasn’t impressed and Cooper took him out of the squad completely.
Selling him will be tricky though. He will have been given a pretty decent wage by Forest and getting someone to take that on will likely prove to be rather tricky.
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Freuler has perhaps been a little bit unlucky. With his CV he can’t be considered a bad player but Forest don’t really utilise him in a way where he can produce his best football.
It doesn’t really come as a shock that the club are willing to let Dennis leave. The striker made 19 appearances last season and scored two goals for the club.
Much like Freuler, Dennis doesn’t fit naturally into the Forest system and, he’s played a lot of his football at Forest on the flanks.
Forest willing to let three players leave
The Reds will hope to have a more streamlined squad next season. Letting these three players would be a very useful start indeed, but it’s fanciful rather than realistic.
It’s impossible to imagine how Forest get a club to sign Shelvey. He was hardly playing for the Reds and Newcastle simply couldn’t wait to get rid of him.
In terms of Freuler and Dennis, they might be easier to move on. Freuler will surely have suitors in Serie A; whilst Dennis was fancied by a number of clubs during the January transfer window.
For now, all three of the players will work hard in training. It will, however, be interesting to see what the Forest squad looks like for the first game of the season away at Arsenal in mid-August.