Nottingham Forest must be kicking themselves as Liverpool eye £25m star who Steve Cooper refused to pick

Nottingham Forest have made good progress in the summer transfer window after two summers of chaos since returning to the Premier League.

   Forest have added 11 new players, with two of them – David Carmo and Marko Stamenič – joining Olympiacos on loan for the 2024/25 campaign.

   From a forestry perspective, a more thorough recruitment campaign was on the agenda and a lot of work was done in the window.

   Elliot Anderson was the big signing, signing for £35m from Newcastle as both clubs tried to stick to the PSR threshold.

   Forest compensated for this transfer by allowing Odysseas Vlachodimos to join Newcastle for £20m.

   The Reds have also done a fantastic job in offloading players, managing to acquire over 20 players deemed surplus to requirements linked to other clubs.

   However, Forest don’t always get it right and right now Steve Cooper’s mistake will no doubt leave fans scratching their heads.

   Nottingham Forest need to get over Loic Bade

   The Reds took Bade on loan from Rennes in the summer of 2022, and he arrived as an unknown quantity.

   Cooper was clearly not a supporter of the signing as the player did not get a single minute of competitive action under the former boss.

   While Forest struggled to survive with defensive players such as Joe Worrall, Scott McKenna and Steve Cook, Bade often kicked up his heels in the stands.

   He was recalled by Rennes in January and sold to Sevilla, where the defender has grown as a player to become one of Europe’s top stars.

   He has a Europa League winner’s medal at Sevilla and according to Vamos Mi Sevilla, Liverpool are worth £25m.

   Last night, Bade was in action as Sevilla were beaten 5-1 by Barcelona, and he also managed to assist in his team’s goal.

   The talented 24-year-old must be feeling pretty smug looking back on his time with Forest and it’s hard to understand what Cooper was thinking when he wasn’t playing.

   Forest went ahead but Bade should have been given a chance

   At the turn of the year in his first season in the Premier League, Steve Cooper decided to leave Cook out of his 25-man squad.

   Felipe was effectively signed and quickly became a revelation on Trentside as Forest looked set to stay in the league.

   With the many adjustments Cooper made, it’s odd and frankly ridiculous that he never gave Bade a platform to at least try to prove himself.

   He has since thrived at Sevilla and had Forest been relegated last season – or the season before that – Cooper’s decision would have looked even stranger.

   This summer Forest signed Nikola Milenkovic and luckily the club didn’t regret not playing too much with Bade.

   The Reds have to work hard though.    The two clubs have effectively agreed a permanent deal and Forest could now become the club in line for a major win by Europe’s top team.

   Bade will forever be the one who got away from Forest and now it will be interesting to see what kind of transfer he gets in the future.