Nottingham Forest 'keep getting into trouble' and 'huge deal' won't fix it

Nottingham Forest are likely to land bigger fines from UEFA in the coming years. 

That is according to former Everton chief executive Keith Wyness, speaking exclusively to Football Insider, who believes the Reds have to be “very careful” with their financial standing moving forward.

The East Midlands outfit were recently hit with a £2million fine by UEFA after breaching their squad cost ratio, while they escaped a breach of their football earnings rule effectively due to the £116m sale of Elliot Anderson. 

Wyness has warned that there is an “obvious structural problem” behind the scenes at the City Ground, given the way that they have mismanaged their finances of late. 

Former Manchester City financial advisor Stefan Borson recently explained to Football Insider that Forest would have recorded an operating loss of "over £100m" were it not for Anderson’s exit. 

That would likely have seen them breach UEFA’s £51m cap for the most recent three-year period by almost £50m, which in turn would have resulted in significant fines. 

Keith Wyness: Nottingham Forest cannot repeat Elliot Anderson trick

Everton’s former chief Wyness – who served as CEO at Goodison Park between 2004 and 2009 and now runs a football consultancy advising elite clubs – believes that there is genuine cause for concern over Forest’s finances moving forward. 

He suggested that they do not have any more players who could fetch a similarly eye-watering fee to Anderson, meaning they will have further fines in the coming years if they cannot cut their losses dramatically. 

Speaking on the latest edition of Football Insider’s Inside Track podcast, he explained why their owner Evangelos Marinakis must keep a close eye on every aspect of the club’s finances across the next 12 months. 

“I tend to agree with Stefan on this one. It was a huge deal, and those don't come along very often, as we know, and it took something of that scale to fix it,” Wyness said.

“There is obviously a structural problem right now that Forest have got to address. They'll be aware of it as much as anybody else. They keep on getting themselves in trouble, but they've got to be aware of these problems.

“There aren't many other Andersons, and I don't think they've got many of themselves that they could actually get that sort of value for again. It may be a smaller number they've got to try and fix.

“We should be watching Forest closely in terms of their moves and how the numbers all add up because this is becoming such an important part of football these days.

“The new manager and sporting directors will have to be very careful about this with Forest going forward. It's something that we're going to be keeping a close eye on.”

Nottingham Forest ready second Lucas Bergvall bid

Football Insider revealed on Sunday that Tottenham are now coming round to the idea of selling midfielder Lucas Bergvall this summer, providing fresh encouragement for Forest in their pursuit. 

The Reds have identified the Swede as a long-term replacement for Anderson, and have already seen an offer of £40m rejected by the North London outfit. 

Newcastle have since seen a £46m bid for the 20-year-old turned down, and sources now say that Forest are ready to return to the negotiating table. 

Bergvall has already made it clear that he wants to leave Tottenham ahead of next season, and that has prompted strong interest from both the City Ground and St James’ Park.