It’s January 2022. Brennan Johnson is playing for Nottingham Forest in a Championship match against Barnsley and, at the end of the night, there are some difficult discussions to be had.
That day, Brentford had submitted an £18million ($22.7m) bid for the quick, incisive player on the right of Forest’s attack. Brentford’s information was that the deal had been accepted. They were convinced they had got their man. How convinced? Enough for a medical to be booked in for the next day.
One problem: nobody had informed Steve Cooper, Forest’s manager, while he was preparing for a match under the floodlights. Dane Murphy, Forest’s chief executive, was also unaware as the directors’ box filled up before the match.
The game finished 3-0 in Forest’s favour but it was a tense evening. Cooper had to make it clear that, yes, the money was good, but what about the impact it could have on Forest’s chances of promotion? Murphy, and others, agreed it would be a grievous setback to lose such a key player midway through the season.
It turned out to be one of the better decisions of the Evangelos Marinakis era: the deal was called off, Forest returned to the Premier League for the first time in almost a quarter of a century and Johnson was named as the Championship’s young player of the year.
The 22-year-old’s transfer value has subsequently soared to around £45million, maybe even closer to £50million, as he has adapted to the higher level, establishing himself as a key international for Wales and scoring 10 goals in his first Premier League season.
These, however, increasingly feel like they might be his final days in Forest’s colours. Harry Kane’s transfer to Bayern Munich has left Tottenham Hotspur with money to spend. Brentford are still pushing hard and various other clubs, including Atletico Madrid, have given serious consideration to Johnson’s potential availability this summer.
Forest have ambitions of their own but if their valuation is met, they will take the money. The club have concerns about straying the wrong side of the financial fair play rules — and selling Johnson, as much as it would grieve them, would immediately soothe those worries.
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So where is his most likely destination?
Tottenham are the clear favourites, as long as they stump up the dough and their chairman, Daniel Levy, doesn’t try anything too clever now we are in the final stages of the transfer window.
Spurs registered their interest earlier in the summer and initially proposed a financial package that would have meant Forest receiving an initial £20million as well as Davidson Sanchez, their out-of-favour Colombian centre-half. Other players were mentioned as alternatives. That, however, was not satisfactory for Forest, who wanted hard cash rather than having players foisted upon them.
The window closes at 11pm BST on Friday and Forest’s expectation is that Spurs will leave it late, as is often Levy’s preference.
Until recently, however, it was Chelsea who were giving the impression that they might push harder for Johnson than any of their rivals and, at that stage, there were talks about whether Callum Hudson-Odoi could be part of an exchange. That idea was not quashed: Hudson-Odoi was one of Cooper’s players when England won the Under-17s World Cup under his management six years ago.
Aston Villa also tried to tempt Forest into a similar kind of arrangement when they spoke to Marinakis’ son, Miltiadis, and offered Lucas Digne as the bait in a player-plus-cash deal. Villa knew Forest were looking for a left-back. Digne, however, earns £120,000 a week and that was seen by Forest as excessive.
At one stage, it looked as though Atletico Madrid might offer Johnson the chance to move to La Liga. It was always dependent on the Spanish club raising money through their own sales and it has not, ultimately, worked out in a way that was viable.
Crystal Palace also had Johnson on their radar if Chelsea had managed to lure Michael Olise away from Selhurst Park. As it was, Olise turned down Chelsea’s offer and Palace stepped away from the queue of clubs fluttering their eyelashes in Johnson’s direction.
But there are other clubs who might wish, on reflection, that they had tried harder to get Johnson when he was available for a fraction of today’s price.
Leicester City were one, in 2021, when they were in England’s top division and Forest were in the league below. Leeds United were also monitoring him and keen enough to start their due diligence on his background. What they learned was that Johnson was a serious, dedicated professional, popular in the dressing room, with the work rate to match his ability. They never followed it up.
Burnley held an interest and Union Saint-Gilloise — a Belgian club that had Tony Bloom, Brighton’s owner, as their majority shareholder at the time — put in a bid that was dismissed out of hand.
Johnson has proven he can cut it in the Premier League(Clive Mason/Getty Images)
And Brentford? Surely it’s going to sting if they lose out …
You would have to think so, given that they have been trying to sign Johnson for the best part of three years.
It has been a relentless pursuit and it has been difficult to keep count of all the different offers they have made. Is it eight? Nine? Double figures? Maybe even more? Every single time, they have come up short.
Their latest bid is a structured one in the region of £40million and, to put that into context, their record transfer stands at £23million for Nathan Collins, signed from Wolverhampton Wanderers last month. A previous bid of £35million for Johnson was turned down and, before that, Brentford indicated that Sergi Canos could be involved if Forest wanted their player.
Nobody, therefore, could argue that Brentford have not been persistent enough in their desire to make Johnson their most expensive player. The club’s talent spotters have always believed they could develop him into one of the Premier League’s top performers. Even when Johnson was not in the Forest team under Chris Hughton’s management, spending the 2020-21 season on loan at Lincoln City, Brentford had identified him as a priority target.
Almost implausibly, Hughton did not believe Johnson was ready for the Championship. Cooper disagreed, and so did Brentford, who were willing at one stage to offer Forest a financial package that included striker Marcus Forss. Again, Forest were tempted, especially when Brentford added left-back Dominic Thompson into the mix, too. Yet Cooper thought Keinan Davis, then of Aston Villa, would be a better fit than Forss. The deal was called off and Davis justified Cooper’s choice with some outstanding performances on loan.
Equally, you also have to wonder whether the relevant people at Brentford wish, in hindsight, they had been bolder when they were promoted to the Premier League in 2021 and started hardening up their interest in Johnson.
That summer, Forest’s asking price was £10million, plus a further £2m in performance-related add-ons. They were a Championship club and would have allowed Johnson to leave if the money was right.
Brentford were so optimistic that the deal could be arranged they even got in touch with the Football Association of Wales, while Johnson was on international duty for a game in Finland, to find out whether he might be available for a medical examination.
Yet the transfer never happened. Phil Giles, Brentford’s director of football, decided instead to play hardball, offering lower than Forest’s valuation. Brentford believe the asking price changed late on. Johnson slipped through their grasp and, two years on, the asking price is four times higher than it was.
At one stage this summer, Brentford switched their attention to signing Nico Gonzalez from Fiorentina, but the Italian club’s sporting director and head coach publically resisted any potential sale.
Brentford have been keen to add more firepower this summer while Ivan Toney serves an eight-month ban for betting offences, especially with doubts over his long-term future at the club. Gonzalez and Johnson were at the top of their list and they could only afford to sign one of them. In the end, despite pushing hard, Johnson appears to have escaped them again.
How about Forest? Do they really have to sell?
This is the question a lot of fans have been asking since it started being reported — and never denied by the club — that Johnson was available for sale.
Johnson, raised in the Forest academy, has never pushed to leave the club where his father, David, was a distinguished player in his own right. The 22-year-old has a contract until 2026. The crowd sing about him being “one of our own” and there was some wonderful footage of him celebrating with fans outside the Larwood and Voce pub, close to the City Ground, after Cooper’s team had secured their Premier League status by beating Arsenal in their final home match last season.
The problem for Forest, to put it bluntly, is they need to recoup money after splashing out on so many players since the team went up.
Marinakis is a man of wealth but vast sums have gone on the extensive recruitment programme that brought in 29 new players as part of an unprecedented period of spending. Forest spent more last summer than some of Europe’s elite clubs. And though it was worthwhile (eventually), millions upon millions have also been lost on the wages of players who have scarcely been involved, going back years in some cases.
One of the more difficult parts for Forest’s supporters is that they must have hoped this kind of event was behind them when they reached the top flight.
They have, after all, become wearily accustomed to selling their best homegrown players and it was often because the club had pushed the financial fair play boundaries to their limits.
The difference this time, perhaps, is that Forest are still actively willing to spend money of their own.
Murillo, a 21-year-old centre-half, is arriving from Corinthians to become the club’s latest Brazilian import. Forest are speaking to Bologna about Remo Freuler returning to Italy and Nicolas Dominguez, an Argentine midfielder, coming the other way.
Forest’s top target this summer was Ibrahim Sangare of PSV Eindhoven and an opening bid was made in the region of £25million, plus £6million in add-ons. With Sangare waiting to see if other clubs might come in for him, Forest have also made a verbal offer to Monaco for France international Youssouf Fofana, as well as making their interest known in Benfica’s Florentino Luis.
Wilfred Ndidi was on the list of backup options and, unless something changes with Sangare, it may be that Forest have to focus on the Leicester midfielder. Talks are also underway with Benfica about signing Greek goalkeeper Odysseas Vlachodimos to challenge Matt Turner for the No 1 position.
Leicester’s Wilfred Ndidi is not Nottingham Forest’s first choice (Clive Mason/Getty Images)
So the club are not standing still, even if Johnson’s proposed departure would deprive them of one of their most penetrative attackers.
What is important to them is to get the right money: the asking price for Johnson values the 22-year-old around the same amount that Newcastle United paid Everton for Anthony Gordon.
Many people feel Forest were guilty of carelessness last season when Chris Wood and Jonjo Shelvey signed from Newcastle United, earning a combined £175,000 a week, while Jesse Lingard signed an even more eye-watering contract. Other mistakes were made, most notably Omar Richards signing from Bayern Munich when he had a fractured leg.
But Marinakis is determined Forest are not seen as a soft touch and, looking back over his six years in Nottingham, the lesson of history is that his regime does not usually sell their better players without getting the money they want. Johnson counts among those players. For Brentford in particular, they should realise by now that he will not be sold on the cheap.
Additional reporting: Jay Harris and Paul Taylor
(Photo: Michael Regan/Getty Images)
