Merlin Polzin will have Nottingham Forest fans excited over potential Fabio Vieira deal
Nottingham Forest have reportedly submitted a £24.16million Fabio Vieira offer after a highly successful Hamburg SV loan spell.
The 26-year-old central midfielder spent the 2025-26 campaign at the Bundesliga club after struggling for minutes at Arsenal.
Here, he picked up 12 goal contributions in 29 top-flight matches and proved to be fundamental to the club maintaining their Bundesliga status.
Vieira’s performances earned heavy praise from manager Merlin Polzin, who highlighted how good the Arsenal loanee is at taking risks.
Hamburg had a £19m option to buy the midfielder. However, this was too expensive for the club, and it has since expired.
Arsenal are happy to let the 26-year-old go, as he is clearly no longer in their first-team plans.
Merlin Polzin: Fabio Vieira makes vast improvements on the instructions we give him
Since Vieira’s move to the Gunners in 2022, he has struggled to adapt to the Premier League.
Overall, he has made just 49 appearances for Arsenal in all competitions and has scored three times.
However, out on loan, he has proved his quality, with his time in Hamburg being a real success.
As a result, Polzin was quick to highlight not only how Vieira has adapted to his instructions but also how he has improved upon them with his sensational risk-taking.
He told Tribuna on 15 March after the Arsenal loanee scored in the 1-1 draw against Koln: "That goal [today] is definitely worthy of a few more looks.
"Fabio sometimes makes decisions that are a vast improvement on the instructions that we the coaching staff give him.
"He’s brilliant when it comes to taking risks. I’m happy about every minute we have with him."
Therefore, if Fussball Transfers’ report is correct and Forest have submitted an offer for Vieira, the City Ground faithful will be very excited about the potential move, especially after Polzin’s verdict.
Who else are Nottingham Forest linked to?
Nottingham Forest are also reportedly tracking Wolves outcast Marshall Munetsi this summer transfer window.
After failing to impress in the first-half of the 2025-26 campaign, he was shipped out on loan to FC Paris, where he put in some solid displays.
Vitor Pereira had previously brought the Zimbabwe international into Molineux, where the duo had a good relationship.
The 29-year-old midfielder is reportedly worth just under £13million, which could prove to be a bargain for the East Midlands side if they are able to unlock his previous Premier League form during the 2024-25 season.