Nottingham Forest are interested in a deal to bring Mert Yilmaz to the City Ground this summer.
What’s the talk?
That’s according to a report by Turkish media outlet Star, who claim that Forest are rivalling a number of European clubs for the signature of the Antalyaspor right-back, with Dane Murphy thought to be extremely keen on bringing in a fresh face in the position prior to transfer deadline day in late August.
The report goes on to state that the Super Lig side are commanding a figure of around €2m (£1.7m) in order to part with the defender this summer, who joined the club from Bayern Munich just 12 months ago.
Big mistake
While it is true that Forest are lacking a considerable amount of depth at right-back, with Chris Hughton currently having only Jordan Lawrence-Gabriel and Carl Jenkinson – the latter of whom the 62-year-old has informed is free to leave the City Ground this summer – capable of operating in the position, it would nevertheless appear to be a rather large mistake on the part of the Reds CEO to sanction a move for Yilmaz.
Despite having come through the impressive RB Leipzig youth system, as well as being signed by Bayern back in 2018, the defender has done very little during his time at Antalyaspor to suggest he is worthy of a move to the Championship.
Indeed, over his 11 Super Lig appearances for the club last season, the £900k-rated man helped his side keep just one clean sheet, as well as making an average of a mere 0.6 interceptions, 1.6 tackles, 0.7 clearances and winning just 2.7 duels per game.
These returns saw the £3.9k-per-week former Turkey U21 international earn a highly disappointing seasonal SofaScore match rating of 6.41, ranking him as Antalyaspor’s second-worst performer in the league.
As such, there would appear to be far better options for Murphy to target in the position this summer – both in terms of ability and price – with the potential signing of Yilmaz very much looking to have the potential to be the biggest mistake of the chief executive’s reign at Forest to date.
In other news: Get him gone: Dane Murphy must ruthlessly axe “dishonest” £5k-p/w Lamouchi Forest flop