Nottingham Forest are confident of closing a deal for Ousmane Diomande this summer.
Fabrizio Romano reports on X (formerly Twitter) that the Tricky Trees have sent a proposal valued at around €40m [£34.1m] for the Sporting CP centre-back.
Sources close to Liverpool had previously indicated that the Reds’ recruitment team admired the 22-year-old centre-half.
It’s remarkable work by Forest if the Premier League outfit does indeed manage to secure the footballer for below Sporting’s €80m [£68.2m] release clause.
🚨🌳 Nottingham Forest, confident to close Ousmane Diomande deal with Sporting shortly after bid sent.
Proposal will be way below €80m release clause; around €40m total package add-ons included. pic.twitter.com/eOkuHU7qRi
— Fabrizio Romano (@FabrizioRomano) July 22, 2026
🚨🌳 Nottingham Forest are in advanced talks to sign Ousmane Diomandé from Sporting.
Negotiations underway between clubs and with the centre back’s camp, #NFFC are on it to get the agreement done. pic.twitter.com/Vh90jSnwvU
— Fabrizio Romano (@FabrizioRomano) July 21, 2026
And something of a blow for Liverpool, we’d argue, given the slew of links in recent years.
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More to the point, it seems to be a strange one to overlook at that potential price point, given we’re in obvious need of centre-half reinforcements this summer.
Yes, a veteran operator would be preferable. However, when you have to accept that a more local operator like Maxence Lacroix, with genuine Premier League experience, is going to cost north of £55m, it seems strange that Liverpool aren’t keeping an eye on options like Diomande this summer.
It’s worth highlighting from the off that the Ivory Coast international’s aerial threat does pose a potential problem for Liverpool’s recruitment. After all, an aerial duel win rate of 57.4% per 90 (in the Portuguese top-flight last year) doesn’t compare favourably to our centre-back duo last term.
* Ousmane Diomande’s aerial threat compared to Liverpool’s starting centre-back partnership in top-flight action in 2025/26 (Fotmob)
Regardless, £34.1m is the exact kind of price point that should be appealing to Liverpool. At the very least, it proves the point that there is value to be found in deals abroad, albeit at the cost of Premier League experience.
But perhaps that’s less of a concern if Richard Hughes and Co. are focusing their attentions on a more experienced operator to complement our options in the backline.
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Great defender but personally I would like to see a major overhaul once and for all. We lost Konate, and Gomez is no longer able to play 2 or 3 games in a row before being injured again, so let’s bring in 2 more CBs and hopefully two that can play another position, i.e. CB/LB CB/RB or even CB/CDM. Then we definitely need an out-and-out CDM such as Wharton or Scott or even Kone!! Then we need both a LW and RW to replace Salah. Someone like Barcola at LW, but RW is going to be harder. In the middle of the park we need player with a big engine, even a box-to-box CM (again, someone like Alex Scott as we need a few more homegrown players). Finally, losing Ekitke to injury and not expected to play until Christmas at the earliest leaves us with Isak alone up top. We don’t need to spend £100+m for another striker, but signing another striker is vital as otherwise we are down to bringing up one of our younger players. Would love to see your thoughts on players you would like to arrive at Anfield, but I truly believe 2 or 3 players won’t do. We need more like 5 or 6 players brought into the squad. YNWA
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