Nottingham Forest could be set to sell one of their fringe players next month, with a fresh report revealing that the club have received an offer ahead of January.
Nuno Espirito Santo joins Forest
On Tuesday, Evangelos Marinakis announced that Steve Cooper had been relieved of his duties and it was later confirmed the following day that Nuno Espirito Santo was going to be taking over after signing a two-and-a-half-year contract in the Premier League.
The Reds manager will no doubt be getting straight down to work in terms of identifying his own targets for the upcoming transfer window, but in order for him to make room for fresh faces, he will first have to move some of his existing players onto new pastures.
Back in January, Gustavo Scarpa first joined the club from Palmeiras, but the attacking midfielder failed to nail down a regular place in the starting line-up, making just two starts and four substitute appearances in the top-flight last term (WhoScored – Scarpa statistics).
The Brazilian therefore put pen to paper on a season-long loan at Olympiacos over the summer, and with reports claiming during his time there that his parent club are open to selling him on a permanent basis, the 29-year-old’s situation has alerted an admirer.
Atletico Mineiro bid for Scarpa
According to O Tempo (via Sport Witness), Nottingham Forest have received an offer for Scarpa ahead of January. Atletico Mineiro are the club to have tabled the proposal, and it’s stated that they are now awaiting a response to see if they have been successful in their pursuit. The Serie A side have put forward €4m (£3m), and it’s believed by sources at their end that there is “optimism” that an agreement can be reached.
Having sent Scarpa out on loan, Cooper clearly didn’t want him in the building this season, and while it remains to be seen whether Nuno would rather give him a chance to prove what he’s capable of, Nottingham Forest would be making the right decision to sanction his sale.
The Campinas native ranked as the club’s overall 27th best-performing player out of 33 squad members last season, showing that even though he was handed a small opportunity to play, he still failed to make any kind of positive impact that would have seen him nail down a place in the team (WhoScored – Nottingham Forest statistics).
Standing at 5 foot 10, the central starlet has failed to record a single goal or assist during both his time at his parent club and with Olympiacos, contributing little to the action in the final third (Transfermarkt – Scarpa statistics).
Furthermore, Scarpa pockets £61k-per-week on loan as it stands (Olympiacos salaries), which would make him the fourth-highest earner on the books if he was to return (Nottingham Forest salaries), so the club need to remove him from the wage bill as soon as possible.
