Another Nottingham Forest target could join Olympiacos first – Route to Premier League being floated

Nottingham Forest and Aston Villa are battling for Gustavo Puerta, and this saga has taken an interesting turn. Looks like a route through Olympiacos is now being floated for the Colombian midfielder.

Forest have already started talks over the Racing Santander star, who has plenty of interest elsewhere after his impressive World Cup.

Now El Futbolero Colombia suggess Evangelos Marinakis’ network could play a role in where Puerta ends up.

The outlet says Olympiacos are also interested in the 23-year-old and have made contact to find out the conditions of a potential deal.

That creates the possibility of Puerta heading to Greece first. He could do so before eventually making his way to Nottingham Forest.

There is an important caveat here. El Futbolero Colombia makes it clear there is no agreement and that such a plan for the midfielder has not been confirmed.

For now, it is presented as a possibility created by the interest of two clubs connected to Marinakis.

Olympiacos would come first

The idea isn’t completely out of nowhere. Nottingham Forest and Olympiacos have moved players between the two clubs before. The Colombian report points towards Gustavo Sá as a recent example.

Forest signed the Portuguese midfielder before he subsequently joined Olympiacos on loan. Puerta could theoretically take a different version of that route, with Greece coming before England.

The Racing Santander midfielder is under contract until 2029, so his current club are in no great rush to sell.

Their position has been clear throughout the summer. Reports have repeatedly put their demands at €20m (£17.3m). Several interested sides have so far fallen short of that figure.

Nottingham Forest already made their move

This comes weeks after we covered reports from Portugal that Nottingham Forest had joined the race. The club had also started talks with Racing.

Nothing was advanced at that stage. Since then, Aston Villa have also been credited with serious interest. Meanwhile, Hull City, Porto, Bologna, Valencia, Villarreal and Zenit have all appeared around Puerta’s situation. The Colombian surely isn’t short of options.

For Forest, the interesting part of this latest report is the Olympiacos angle. Having both clubs interested could give Marinakis another route to secure Puerta amid all that competition. However, whether that is actually the plan is another matter.

Racing still need to receive an offer they are happy with, and there is currently no deal for Puerta to join either club. The Greece-to-Nottingham possibility is one to keep an eye on, but it’s not yet presented as anything more concrete than that.