Nottingham Forest will be forever indebted to Steve Cooper for the work which he did at the football club during his two-and-a-half years in charge.
The 44-year-old restored Premier League football back to the City Ground for the first time in 23 years, taking the club from the bottom of the second tier to the Promised Land in a matter of months.
Cooper’s stock rose during the 2022/23 campaign when he managed to keep the club in the top flight against the odds.
The Welshman was sacked in December of last year and replaced by Nuno Espirito Santo – with Cooper taking the Leicester City job earlier this summer.
Now, Cooper looks set to be a big competitor in the transfer market as Forest and Leicester both battle for the same player.
Nottingham Forest battle Steve Cooper for Alexis Saelemaekers
Forest look set to complete the signing of Nikola Milenkovic in the coming days, with a medical now booked for the 6ft 5in central defender.
It doesn’t appear as though the Reds are finished there though and the links to new players are now coming more frequently.
Saelemaekers is now on the radar of a number of clubs, with Forest, Leicester and newly-promoted Ipswich Town all keen, according to Calcio Mercato.
Signing him won’t be overly tricky it would seem, with AC Milan willing to sell the player for between £8.5 and £12.5 million.
Who is Alexis Saelemaekers?
The 25-year-old can operate on either flank but more often than not operates on the left-hand side of the attack.
He began his career with the youth academy at Anderlecht and rose through the ranks to make 64 appearances for the first time.
In 2020 he was picked up by AC Milan and has scored 10 goals and claimed 14 assists in 140 appearances for the San Siro giants.
Last season, Milan decided to loan him out to Bologna and it proved a season to remember for Saelemaekers.
Featuring alongside Forest midfielder Remo Freuler, Bologna stunned Serie A to qualify for next season’s Champions League at the expense of Roma and Lazio.
With Bologna, he made 32 appearances – largely on the left wing – scoring four goals and registering three assists across the campaign.
Saelemaekers could prove useful to Forest
It would be quite nice to think Forest could pip Leicester and Ipswich to the signing of a player with 12 Belgium caps to his name.
According to Squawka, Saelemaekers completed more take-ons than Anthony Elanga last season, with Callum Hudson-Odoi registering just three more.
The one issue we perhaps see with this season is it would see Forest have another right-footed winger within their squad.
Although the Reds need another winger, a left-footed one is surely a more natural requirement with both Elanga and Hudson-Odoi right-footed.
Nonetheless, with the numbers quoted, we’d certainly get behind the club signing a 25-year-old ahead of best years if they can tempt Saelemaekers to Trentside.
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