Nottingham Forest are set to recoup a fee of £5 million for striker Sam Surridge. The player is heading to the United States, where he will sign a permanent deal with Nashville SC.
According to The Athletic, Surridge is now on his way out of Forest. He will end an 18-month stay at the City Ground after signing for the club in the January transfer window of 2022.
The 24-year-old had just a year to run on his City Ground contract. A departure was always expected this summer, given that the player started one game last season and that came on the opening day of the campaign.
Surridge has served a purpose at Forest, however. He was signed to beef up the attack as the Reds chased promotion to the Premier League and he achieved that by scoring eight goals for the club.
The striker cost just £2.3 million when he signed from Stoke City. There, he’d endured a rotten time of things and some cynics felt that he wasn’t the player that Forest needed in their promotion push.
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Last season proved a frustrating one for Surridge at Forest. The club signed 23 new players during the summer transfer window and with a couple of strikers added, it shunted him down the pecking order.
Surridge did manage to grab one goal as Forest avoided relegation back to the Championship. He scored an equalising goal for the Reds back in January when they drew with Bournemouth.
Interest has been rife in Surridge this summer. It was recently claimed that Leeds were preparing to sign him, as they prepare for life back in the Championship next season. Ipswich were also said to be monitoring him.
Forest set to recoup £5 million for Surridge
This is marvellous work from the people behind the scenes at the City Ground. For Forest to get Surridge off the wage bill and make nearly £3 million in profit for 18 months of service is pretty special.
Nothing against Surridge, but he’s probably proved the right player at the wrong time. Steve Cooper managed to get a tune out of him at Forest but he’s not really got the required quality at the moment to play regularly in the Premier League.
Cooper is a big fan of his though. Back in April 2022, the head coach called his striker ‘excellent’ after he rounded off the scoring during a 4-1 win over Blackpool at Bloomfield Road.
Now, he will head to the MLS where he should take it by storm. Surridge is a wonderful finisher and heading there ahead of his peak years should see Nashville complete a really useful signing.
For Forest, Surridge represents another player that is set to go off the books. More departures will need to follow before the season starts and things could now start to get a little busier.