Nottingham Forest are reportedly ‘advancing’ their interest in Ousmane Diomande this summer.
BBC reporter Sami Mokbel notes on X (formerly Twitter) that the Tricky Trees are in ‘advanced’ discussions to sign the centre-back.
Liverpool were thought to have the Sporting Lisbon defender on their shortlist; however, it seems that the Reds are prepared to let their Premier League rivals take the lead on this story.
A week prior, Fabrizio Romano had reported that Forest were confident they could secure a cut-price fee (roughly a £34m package) for Diomande.
And now it appears that both clubs are closing in on a full agreement for the 22-year-old centre-half.
Nottingham Forest advancing in move for Sporting Lisbon defender Ousmane Diomande. Work still to be done to close the transfer but discussions advanced. https://t.co/OINvjankNK
— Sami Mokbel (@SamiMokbel_BBC) July 29, 2026
It still remains to be seen whether Oliver Glasner’s men will get their man below the £68.2m release clause, but it seems that Forest are confident of doing so.
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We appreciate that it might simply be the case that Liverpool are content to let their rivals snap up some of the best centre-back talent on the market due to a lack of serious interest on our part.
But we’re struggling to attach any kind of serious belief to the idea that the Reds didn’t have any interest in the likes of Luka Vuskovic (Brighton), Maxence Lacroix (Chelsea-bound) or John Stones (Inter Milan-bound).
The most logical explanation is that we’re waiting to see what happens with the Bradley Barcola talks and, more specifically, just how much a potential deal would chew into our budget.
Nonetheless, it’s disheartening to witness such deals going on in the background when it’s plain for all to see how stretched our defensive options are. Even more so now with Joe Gomez already picking up an issue in pre-season.
We can only hope that Liverpool aren’t leaving it too late in the window to address their mounting squad concerns.
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That’s because we fuk about with these transfers what’s the betting barcola goes to Arsenal
Couldn’t have said it better!! FFS!!
Totally agree, it is the same thing we did last summer with Guehi. This is just shameful now!
Since Hughes came in all of our deals have gone this way. Nothing really makes sense, we are played by agents, transfer targets, our own players and RM. I hope it changes but right now we have gone from our recruiting department being the envy of Europe to the laughingstock.
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