Nottingham Forest have made a mistake as Ajax agree terms with La Liga star

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Evangelos Marinakis has been largely faultless with his transfer dealings at Nottingham Forest but one potential bargain has seemed to pass him by.

Forest’s summer transfers have played a huge role in Nuno Espirito Santo’s side’s dramatic rise up the Premier League table, with the side currently on a run of six league victories.

Front and centre of these summer deals was Forest’s capture of Nikola Milenkovic, who has built a commanding partnership with Murillo at the back, and Elliot Anderson signing from Newcastle United to strengthen Forest’s midfield.

Both have been considered great financial deals alongside their on-field performances, which makes the Forest owner’s choice to not pursue one deal in January particularly surprising.

Ajax agree ‘personal agreement’ with Spanish winger Raul Moro

Espirito Santo’s side have been linked with a number of attacking options in January to bolster their goalscoring potential, with Forest’s links with Raul Moro one of the more realistic options.

Moro had been made available by Real Valladolid, but it seems that European giants Ajax have jumped the queue for the Spaniard’s signature.

According to De Telegraaf, Ajax have reached a ‘personal agreement’ for Moro, with the Dutch side and Valladolid now looking to agree a fee for the winger.

The report suggests that Ajax are currently offering £5.8m for Moro which is still short of Valladolid’s asking price of £8.3m, but the small distance between the two figures suggests that a deal will be finalised without many concerns.

Ajax are fully focused on Moro, which makes sense given the agreeable fee for a player of his talent, making Forest’s choice to ignore Ajax’s pursuit of Moro a potential mistake.

Raul Moro could’ve been a bargain for Nottingham Forest

At just £8.3m, Moro would’ve been even cheaper than Ramon Sosa who has only made a singular Premier League start for Forest.

Preferring to play on the left side of midfield, Moro actually excels in a number of stats that regular left winger Callum Hudson-Odoi has struggled in this season.

Moro has completed 30.6% of his crosses per 90 minutes this season compared to Hudson-Odoi’s 16.3%, an improvement that the likes of Chris Wood could truly benefit from.

The Spaniard also bests Hudson-Odoi in completed dribbles per match, with 2.4 dribbles to the Forest man’s 1.59.

Clearly, Hudson-Odoi doesn’t need replacing in the Forest squad necessarily, but a genuine statistical improvement in the form of Moro being available for such a small fee is something that Forest could end up regretting not acting on.