Nottingham Forest transfer collapse raises red flag: 'Something's not right'
Ousmane Diomande's collapsed move to Nottingham Forest has left a lot of unanswered questions at the City Ground.
That is according to former Manchester City financial adviser Stefan Borson, who exclusively told Football Insider that different valuations doesn't "pass the sniff test" as a reason for the failed transfer.
Oliver Glasner's side have been linked with the talented centre-back for weeks, with everything agreed upon between Forest and Sporting CP apart from the price tag.
Still, supporters were confident that Glasner would eventually get his man, as Evangelos Marinakis just played hard to get for the 22-year-old's signature.
However, on Thursday, 6 August, news emerges that a deal had collapsed due to a slight difference in valuations, understood to be just a few million.
Understandably, supporters at the City Ground exploded on social media, given just how talented Diomande is, and now they want answers.
Ousmane Diomande transfer collapse 'doesn't pass the sniff test'
Speaking exclusively to Football Insider, Borson questioned the true reason for Diomande's deal falling through, not being sold on the difference in valuations.
"Something's not quite right about all of it. One, Nottingham Forest have been extremely aggressive historically," he said.
"Two, they don't have the UEFA settlement agreement that looked like they were going to have because, on the face of it, they breached.
"They do have to keep an eye on Premier League SCR, but it's 85 per cent, so they should be fine. They're not in Europe so no need to worry about UEFA this season.
"They got the massive profit from Elliot Anderson. So you would have thought that they'd be investing quite heavily this summer, but they're not.
"It's unusual. It doesn't seem likely that they've fallen out over a £3million difference. That doesn't pass the sniff test, so it's very unlikely to be about that."
Why Nottingham Forest fans should still have hope
If reports are to be believed at face value, the new Forest boss won't be getting his star signing for the centre of defence this summer.
However, this isn't the first time that Sporting have messed around a Premier League club when trying to strike an agreement in recent years.
Both Bruno Fernandes' move to Manchester United and Viktor Gyokeres' big-money move to Arsenal "collapsed" in the latter stages of talks, only for a deal to go through anyway.
Some are choosing to believe that this is simply a bargaining tool for the Portuguese giants to get a better fee, and supporters will be hoping it is exactly that.