Yahoo News Nottingham Forest hoping to repeat Nuno Espirito Santo trick with offer for £25m-rated midfielder
Nottingham Forest are reportedly in the process of preparing an offer for long-standing midfield target Florentino Luis - who is keen to move to the Premier League.
As plans are put in place ahead of the club's third consecutive season in the top-flight, the next step will be to decide how best to strengthen Nuno Espirito Santo's squad to challenge at least a level above the relegation mire of previous campaigns. This follows on from step one - confirming a list of retained players, which saw 13 leave Forest with immediate effect.
This will go some way to freeing up a wage budget for Nuno to act upon, and it is claimed his first move for Forest this summer will be to bring Luis from his homeland in a long-anticipated deal.
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The 24-year-old rose through the ranks at his boyhood club, making 21 appearances at youth level, 69 appearances for the club's B Team and finally 131 appearances at senior level, having made his debut at 19-years-old. His stand-out performances were the cause of links to Forest dating back to last summer and resurfacing again last week.
Now a report from Portuguese outlet Correio de Manha states that there is strong desire East Midlands to make a concrete move. They also claim that Luis, who has found himself lower down the pecking order under German coach Roger Schmidt, is eager to put his Benfica days behind, move to a coveted division such as the Premier League and earn regular minutes once again.
Of those released in 2024, Chiekhou Kouyate in particular and Harry Arter have left gaps in the engine room's defensive department that will require plugging. Benfica's 24-year-old will go a long way to aiding that cause as a natural deep-lying midfielder.
In the past, former Benfica youth coach Joao Tralhao has issued the highest of praise to Luis, comparing him to Claude Makelele.
"He has the talent and quality to play in elite teams. Remember when Real Madrid had the Galacticos? They needed someone to balance the team, and Makelele was so important," he told GOAL.
This move would also see Nuno dip back into the market that brought him so much success at Wolves years ago. 12 of his 40 signings in the West Midlands were from Portugal as he managed to take Forest's top-flight rivals from the second tier to European football.
