Blow for Nuno as Chelsea look set to beat Nottingham Forest to Portuguese midfielder
When it comes to landing wonderkids, Nottingham Forest haven’t exactly done a bad job since returning to the Premier League.
Forest hit the jackpot with Murillo for example. The defender was a brilliant coup for the club and after costing just £10.6 million, the player is now one of the most sought-after in Europe.
Manchester City considered signing Murillo before he eventually settled on Forest. This season he has been an integral part of the club’s meteoric rise up the Premier League and into the mix for European football.
Forest didn’t do much business in January at all. With the club third in the Premier League, clearly it was anticipated that waiting until the summer was the most appropriate thing to do.
Joel Ndala checked in from PSV. The winger had been on loan with the Eredivisie outfit but had sadly found senior football hard to come by and has subsequently joined Forest.
Nottingham Forest to miss out on Dario Essugo
According to The Sun, Chelsea are now going to win the race to sign the Portuguese wonderkid Essugo ahead of Forest who had held an interest in the player before the Blues nipped in.
Essugo is currently on loan from Sporting CP at Las Palmas in La Liga. A current teammate of his is Forest promotion-winning defender Scott McKenna who moved to the Spanish outfit in the summer.
The youngster wants to be part of Chelsea’s squad should he move to England in the summer. He has no interest in being part of the Blues should they wish to move him out on loan given their sizeable squad of players.
Essugo has scored once in 14 appearances with the La Liga outfit this season. Prior to the 2024/25 campaign he had made 25 outings with Sporting before they decided to loan him out.
Essugo could thrive in the Premier League
It’s hard to imagine that the 19-year-old will play much football at Stamford Bridge. Although he’s sought assurances over game time, it does feel as though the player will find himself some way down the pecking order.
Chelsea have a plethora of central defenders and perhaps a move to Forest would have been more beneficial for him during the summer, with things likely to change on Trentside from a defensive perspective.
Murillo could depart for bigger things and that would leave Nikola Milenkovic and Morato as the two main central defenders, with the future of Willy Boly up in the air right now.
It will now be fascinating to see how the defender goes with Chelsea. Game time feels unlikely and in a matter of months following his arrival, he might rue the fact that Forest didn’t try harder to land him.
