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Evangelos Marinakis makes major Nottingham Forest decision to boost Champions League hopes

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By Nottingham Forest’s standards, transfer deadline day was extremely quiet.

Fans have been used to Evangelos Marinakis working his magic well into the night to get four or five signings over the line.

Instead, Forest made two additions on deadline day as Tyler Bindon and Joe Ndala joined the Reds.

Bindon has returned on loan to Reading whilst Ndala will feature in the academy to start with.

James Ward-Prowse’s loan was cancelled and he returned to West Ham United and now Nuno Espirito Santo’s full focus will be on bringing Champions League football back to the City Ground.

In a season of highs where not many things have gone wrong, one of the most important bits of business in the last month was neither an incoming or outgoing.

Nottingham Forest FC v Liverpool FC - Premier League
Photo by Richard Sellers/Sportsphoto/Allstar via Getty Images

Nottingham Forest refused to consider record offer for Murillo

Two signings made for the future are always exciting but the biggest news of the window was of course a new contract for Murillo.

Without the Brazilian defender alongside Nikola Milenkovic, the Reds could’ve been far worse off after the pair built a rock-solid partnership.

Tying Murillo down to a new deal was an excellent piece of business from Forest – especially as other clubs began to sniff around.

According to The Telegraph, Premier League rivals Chelsea were considering making an offer for the 22-year-old.

Chelsea have been interested in the centre-back for some time and the Reds were said to be aware of their interest but Marinakis refused to entertain any offers, including the possibility of a record sale.

Evangelos Marinakis fulfils Nuno Espirito Santo promise

With Forest flying high, there could be a tendency to strike while the iron is hot and bring in even more players.

Sometimes, however, it’s better to not fix what isn’t broken. Throughout the window, Nuno Santo has made it clear that he only wants players who want to be at Forest.

Marinakis wanted to sign a striker but a deal to sign Yoanne Wissa from Brentford was turned down, as was a club-record bid for Matheus Cunha.

What was more important to the Forest boss though was keeping players and that wished was certainly fulfilled.

After the win against Brighton & Hove Albion on Saturday, Nuno said: “I will reinforce what I have been saying, not only to you (the media) but also to the club, more than anything our priority was to keep the players.

“If it is something really special; if it is a piece – a player – that we really need and it is possible, fantastic, because we are not perfect and if somebody can help us, great. But that has to be somebody really special.”