Nottingham Forest have joined the race to sign Liam Delap from Chelsea, with the 23-year-old English striker keen to stay in the Premier League. (Talksport), external
AC Milan manager Ruben Amorim has excluded Youssouf Fofana from his plans for the season, with Forest and Crystal Palace now interested in the France midfielder, 27. (Football Insider), external
Want more transfer stories? Read Monday's full gossip column
Image source, Getty ImagesNottingham Forest concluded their pre-season schedule with a 2-0 win against Brest at the City Ground.
Oliver Glasner's side opened the scoring against their Ligue 1 opponents through a Chris Wood penalty after January signing Luca Netz was bought down in the penalty area.
Defender Netz then converted Nicolas Dominguez's clever, first-time pass to double Forest's lead before half-time.
Image source, Getty ImagesNottingham Forest have confirmed the signing of goalkeeper Steven Benda on a free transfer after his departure from Fulham.
The 27-year-old has joined on a one-year deal with the Club holding an option for a further year.
After progressing through the Swansea City academy, Benda has spent the past three seasons at Fulham and was loaned to both Milwall then Feyenoord in the 2025-26 campaign.
Forest Chief Football Officer, George Syrianos, said: "Steven is an experienced player who we feel will add depth and competition to our current group of goalkeepers.
"Steven is someone who we know will work hard every day to push his teammates to keep standards high at the training ground, and we are sure he will fit in with the strong culture we have at the Club."
Image source, Getty ImagesNottingham Forest boss Oliver Glasner says he was really pleased with the "winning mentality" that his players showed in the 2-1 friendly win against Bayer Leverkusen on Wednesday.
Winger Dan Ndoye gave the Reds the lead in the fifth minute, before the German side levelled through Patrik Schick.
The second-half was well-contested and moments before added time substitute Arnaud Kalimuendo headed home from Luca Netz's delivery to secure the win for Forest.
"It was a very good test for us," said Glasner. "Murillo got minutes, Callum Hudson-Odoi got minutes and what I was really pleased with was in the last 30 minutes of the second half, we really controlled the game.
"We created some good opportunities and played well. For me, the best thing I could see was that we wanted to win the game and showed the winning mentality."
The friendly was also Glasner's first game at The City Ground after joining the club earlier this summer.
"It was a great experience, I really enjoyed it," he added. "There were so many children here and they made it a fantastic atmosphere.
"I was getting goosebumps before the game and then I thought that it's just a friendly.
"There was so much passion and we really enjoyed it, so I want to say thank you for the support in this first game, but we still have a long way to go."
It is common practice these days for transfer fees to have performance-based add-ons. The theory is the selling club gains more if the player goes on to be extremely successful, while the buying club is to some extent protected financially if the transfer doesn't work out.
In some cases, the total value of add-ons is significant - Real Madrid could end up paying an extra £30m to Borussia Dortmund for Jude Bellingham depending on how successful he is over the course of his career in the Spanish capital, for example.
In others, like the potential £1.7m worth of add-ons Brighton's £29.78m signing of Greece Under-21 forward Charalampos Kostoulas, are less significant.
Clubs sometimes say add-ons are 'easily achievable' or 'difficult'.
Easier-to-achieve add-ons can include things like making a basic number of appearances, or scoring a certain amount of goals. Add-ons can also be attached to a team's success rather than the individual player's - a club may agree to an add-on requiring an extra payment if they qualify for Europe, for example.
Others can be more ambitious - tied to extreme levels of individual or collective success, like winning the Champions League or the Ballon d'Or.
An example of the difficulty add-ons can present when discussing valuations would be the claims made in the Portuguese media in 2022 that the first additional payment in Darwin Nunez's £64m-plus-add-ons move from Benfica to Liverpool was triggered by the Uruguayan making just 10 appearances.
Then Liverpool boss Arne Slot rejected speculation he had not started Nunez in some games because it would trigger an additional payment.
Whether Liverpool paid more for Nunez, or club captain Virgil van Dijk - for whom they paid a flat fee of £75m to Southampton in 2017 - cannot be determined without knowing exactly what add-ons were included in the Nunez deal, then figuring out which conditions he has and has not met.
Image source, Getty ImagesBBC Sport football reporter Nick Mashiter has been answering some of your latest transfer window questions.
Malcolm asked: Nottingham Forest seem to be a bit thin on the ground for goalkeepers, unless there are any coming up through the ranks?
Nick replied: Forest do have Matz Sels and John Victor, but another goalkeeper would be useful for boss Oliver Glasner, just to add some cover.
After the exits of Stefan Ortega and Angus Gunn, any injury to Sels or Victor would leave Forest struggling for senior cover.
Victor himself is only just returning from the serious knee injury he suffered back in January.
Sels is currently expected to start the 2026-27 season as Forest's number one, with the Reds taking on Leeds in their Premier League season opener on 22 August.
The club triggered Sels' 12-month extension in July and told Club Brugge he was not for sale when the Belgian side made an approach.
Aaron Bott, who is 21 years old, regularly trains with the first team and featured on the bench in the Europa League last season, so Forest do have a young option regardless.
Image source, Getty ImagesOusmane Diomande will offer "fantastic experience" to Nottingham Forest, says sporting director George Syrianos.
The 22-year-old defender has joined from from Sporting Lisbon and is Oliver Glasner's second signing of the summer after Xaver Schlager joined on a free transfer.
Diomande has made more than 150 senior first-team appearances, including 15 appearances for his national team, Ivory Coast.
Since his Portuguese Primeira Liga debut in February 2023, only two players have completed more passes than Ousmane Diomande (5,354), while he has a pass completion rate of 92.5%.
"I am very happy to be here," said Diomande. "It is a historic club, and it motivates me to join such a club.
"I believe we can achieve very good things this season and I am looking forward to meeting the players and head coach.
"I will give my best and all I can to help the team. I cannot wait to meet the supporters at The City Ground and together we can have a good season."
Sporting director George Syrianos, added: "We have been very clear on the profile of player we want to add to the squad, so we are excited to welcome Ousmane to the club.
"He has fantastic experience for a defender of his age. Playing a crucial role in title winning teams and going into the latter stages of the Champions League puts him in a great position to integrate well here at Forest.
"Ousmane is a powerful, commanding defender, and arrives here with a winning mentality. He shares the same ambition for success we have, and we are excited to see the impact he can have in a Forest shirt."
Manchester City are aware of interest from Nottingham Forest in their Netherlands midfielder Tijjani Reijnders, 28, who was signed from AC Milan last summer for £46m. (Sky Sports), external
Want more transfer stories? Read Tuesday's full gossip column
Image source, Getty ImagesThe Premier League season is yet to get underway, but the second-round Carabao Cup draw has already been made.
As many as 11 Premier League teams are in the draw, with the format regionalised into northern and southern sections before round three.
Here is who the Premier League clubs have drawn:
Stoke v Hull
Newcastle v West Bromwich Albion
Nottingham Forest v Leeds
Preston v Everton
Ipswich v Leicester
Birmingham v Brentford
Fulham v AFC Wimbledon
Chelsea v Luton
Tottenham v Charlton
Plymouth v Coventry
All ties are to be played week commencing 24 August.
Image source, Getty ImagesNick Mashiter has been answering some of your latest Nottingham Forest transfer window questions.
Paul asked: How are Forest going to back Oliver Glasner with the money from the Elliot Anderson deal? We have brought one player in so far and that's on a free.
Nick replied: The focus is very much on quality additions this summer so it is not a surprise Forest are being precise - which naturally takes a bit more time.
Boss Oliver Glasner said he was confident new faces would join Forest during their training camp in Portugal but in those terms it has been a frustrating summer so far.
In terms of senior signings only midfielder Xaver Schlager, a free transfer from RB Leipzig, has arrived. At the moment, Forest's sole incoming deal is the lowest number by a club in the Premier League.
A deal for Sporting Lisbon defender Ousmane Diomande is still in progress while the interest in Tottenham midfielder Lucas Bergvall is complicated by competition from elsewhere, including Newcastle.
The window is complicated by the World Cup, meaning deals have taken a bit more time to complete. Expect the window to be very busy in the second half of the month.
There is no suggestion, though, Forest will not back Glasner. He was brought in to take them to the next level and owner Evangelos Marinakis' ambition for the club to return to Europe and compete for silverware remains.
The 2026-27 Premier League season has not yet kicked off, but it has already made history.
Nine clubs are set to begin the campaign with a new permanent manager - the highest number ever for the top flight's opening weekend.
The scale of turnover has dramatically reshaped the Premier League's managerial landscape.
The upheaval did not begin this summer. The 2025-26 Premier League season featured 11 managerial changes, with Forest among the clubs to make multiple appointments during the campaign.
The average tenure of a top-flight boss now stands at about 20 months, illustrating just how fleeting life in one of football's most demanding jobs can now be.
Recent history also suggests changing manager offers no guarantees. During the 2025-26 season, several clubs that switched coaches continued to struggle. Forest employed three managers during the campaign, Tottenham changed head coach twice, while Chelsea also altered direction before the season ended.
Others, however, did enjoy an immediate uplift. Michael Carrick averaged 2.6 points per game across his first five matches as Manchester United boss, while Liam Rosenior collected the same return after taking charge of Chelsea. Rosenior's tenure ultimately proved short-lived, though, with the Blues winning just one of his final eight Premier League matches before he was dismissed.
Research discussed in the Financial Times,, external external, drawing on findings from Soccernomics by Simon Kuper and Stefan Szymanski, argues that player quality and spending remain stronger predictors of results than managerial changes alone.
Sports consultancy Twenty First Group says coaches often succeed or fail according to the environment they inherit as much as their own abilities.
Since the Premier League began in 1992, only six managers have won the title in their first season in charge of their club.
Mourinho became the first to achieve the feat with Chelsea in 2004-05, before Carlo Ancelotti repeated it with the same club in 2009-10.
Manuel Pellegrini guided Manchester City to the title in his debut campaign in 2013-14, Claudio Ranieri masterminded Leicester City's remarkable triumph in 2015-16, Conte won the league in his first season at Chelsea in 2016-17, and most recently Slot led Liverpool to the championship in his maiden campaign in 2025-26.
With almost half the division beginning the campaign under new leadership, the Premier League enters one of its most unpredictable seasons in recent memory.
Katharine Sharpe and Simon Casson
BBC Sport senior journalists
The 2025-26 Premier League and Championship seasons included the introduction of squad-cost ratio rules on a shadow basis, testing to see how a spending cap for squad costs set at a percentage of a club's total revenues might work.
These SCR regulations have now been permanently implemented for the 2026-27 season, replacing previous profit and sustainability rules (PSR).
Uefa has a 70% SCR cap for European competitions, so Premier League clubs who qualified for Europe fall in line with this limit.
Clubs who did not qualify for Europe, and so are only taking part in domestic competitions, are capped at 85% of their total revenue.
However, clubs can spend above the 85% limit by using a multi-year rolling allowance of 30%. This allows them to invest ahead of revenue and variance or sporting underperformance.
Every club will start this coming season on 85% + 30% allowance, so effectively 115%.
If a club spends 105% on their squad in 2026-27, it means they have used 20% of their allowance, and for 2027-28 their maximum spend before potential sporting sanction is 95%.
If a club spend less than 85%, they can increase the allowance again to the maximum of 30%.
Spending above 85% but under the allowance results in a financial penalty, whereas going over both the 85% and the allowance will land the club a fixed six-point deduction which increases by one point for every £6.5m spent over the 115%.
'Anchoring' was also trialled in 2025-26, which meant any club's spending could not exceed a multiple of income earned by the bottom-placed club - however this was rejected at a vote of Premier League clubs.
SCR was approved by a vote of 14 clubs to six, and was introduced alongside sustainability and systemic resilience (SSR) regulations.
SSR involves three tests that are applied throughout the season:
Working capital test - assesses short-term cash resources
Liquidity test - assesses medium-term liquidity and resilience
Positive equity test -assesses long-term financial health
The aim of the SCR and SSR regulations is to stop the richest owners providing endless funds to their clubs to sign new players, as any money injected this way does not count as seasonal revenue.
They will also aim to prevent clubs from overspending and accruing unmanageable losses.
Read more about the rules here
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Manchester City's Netherlands midfielder Tijjani Reijnders, 28, has emerged as a £55m target for Nottingham Forest. (Mail), external
Manchester United see Nottingham Forest and England midfielder Morgan Gibbs-White, 26, as a potential replacement for captain Bruno Fernandes if the 31-year-old Portugal international leaves Old Trafford. (Mail - subscription required), external
Want more transfer stories? Read Wednesday's full gossip column
Nick Mashiter
Football reporter
Midfielder Azae Bonnick is a rising star in Forest's academy and scored 39 goals and provided 14 assists, playing up an age group for the under-16s last season.
He has also earned a call-up to the England Under-15s.
Bonnick made his under-18s debut for Forest against Sunderland in March, just a week after turning 15.
Read more on youngsters to watch at each Premier League club this season
Should a club build a new stadium or upgrade its current home in a bid to maintain some history? How significant is a new ground in terms of revenue generated? Will it move the needle?
BBC Sport has worked with football finance expert Kieran Maguire to consider the impact a new home has.
Take a look at your club's matchday revenue figures from 2024-25 below and get the full article here.
*Figures in millions of pounds
Image source, Getty ImagesNottingham Forest wrapped up their 12-day training camp in Portugal with their first defeat of pre-season against Primeira Liga side Sporting.
The Reds fell to a 4-1 loss in their second pre-season fixture of the day, having claimed a 2-1 victory over Portimonense, as they got more minutes in the tank ahead of the 2026-27 season.
Oliver Glasner's side, who were looking to go five games unbeaten in pre-season, took the lead just two minutes in through in-form Igor Jesus, who has now scored in four consecutive appearances.
However, Goncalo Inacio quickly levelled things up with a pinpoint header before Issa Doumbia's 61st-minute strike doubled Sporting's lead.
Then centre-forward Rafael Nel sealed victory for Sporting with a second half brace, firstly looping a header beyond Forest goalkeeper Matz Sels and then grabbing another goal six minutes before full-time.
Nottingham Forest will now return to Nigel Doughty Academy before heading to northern Italy next weekend to take on Udinese and Barcelona.
Image source, Getty Images"I'm hungrier than ever to get us back into Europe," says Nottingham Forest left-back Neco Williams, who played a pivotal role in the Reds' journey to the Europa League semi-finals last season.
The 25-year-old featured 15 times on the European stage, only being left on the bench for the club's group-stage fixture against Utrecht.
"I'm at a stage in my career now where I want to play in the biggest games," Williams told BBC East Midlands' Charlie Slater. "I want to be playing in Europe and winning stuff. I have to use that as motivation to go and do it.
"Having the taste of them European games with this club makes me hungrier than ever to do it again and get us back into Europe."
On the pre-season training camp in Portugal, Williams added: "This is what pre-season is all about. It is about getting fit and taking away as many new ideas as possible and trying them in training.
"He [Oliver Glasner] has been working us very hard, there has been a lot of running. It has been tough but enjoyable, that's all you can ask for in pre-season. Each day is a new learning day.
"The mentality is around not moaning and just getting on with it. For example; if someone loses the ball or the pitch is too dry, there should be no moaning. That's exactly what we have been doing.
"It has been a bit of a different pre-season for us because we are used to doing double sessions, but he [Glasner] likes to do all his work in the morning.
"So we have been doing a really big and tough session in the morning, with all our gym work that needs to be done, that way it is all boxed off early because he is really big on recovery."
Image source, Getty ImagesNottingham Forest's Ola Aina says he has "dusted off the cobwebs" for wing-back favouring head coach Oliver Glasner and believes that the club can "dream big" again this season.
The 29-year-old right-back is looking forward to "cracking on" with the season after a hamstring tear, sustained in September 2025, hampered his playing time in 2025-26.
"It has been hard work but it has been good," Aina told BBC East Midlands' Charlie Slater when asked about life under Glasner. "Everyone is buying into his ideas and his philosophy. It is really exciting for all of us boys.
"He is a winner. He has shown what he can do over the past few seasons with Crystal Palace, with the right backing and with time, so hopefully he can do that here as well.
"We have to dream big - why can't we? We have everything that a team needs to be successful, so it is down to us to hit the ground running, put the hard work in, stay together and be locked in.
"Why not push for a Champions League finish? It is good to dream."
On Glasner's playing style heavily relying on wing-backs, the full-back replied: "I used to play as a wing-back in Italy, so it has been a few years!
"I told him to give me a few weeks to just dust off the cobwebs and get the engines going again.
"As a full-back, you can pick and choose the right times to go. As a wing-back, you have to go every time because you need to be that support in attack but also get back to help your centre-backs at times. It is a balance.
"I'm wishing for more goals in my game. I hope I get some little tap-ins here and there this season. I don't mind how many - a goal is a goal. I haven't got a celebration picked out just yet, but I'm sure I can think of one."
