Nottingham Forest must be kicking themselves as Liverpool eye £25m star who Steve Cooper refused to pick

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Nottingham Forest made real strides in the summer transfer window after two summers of chaos since returning to the Premier League.

Forest added 11 new players with two of those – David Carmo and Marko Stamenic – joining Olympiacos on loan for the 2024/25 campaign.

A more meticulous recruitment drive was the order of the day from a Forest perspective and some great work was achieved during the window.

Elliot Anderson was the big signing, checking in for £35 million from Newcastle as both clubs attempted to adhere to the PSR threshold.

Forest offset that transfer by letting Odysseas Vlachodimos join Newcastle for £20 million.

The Reds did some great work in getting players off the books too and managed to get over 20 players deemed surplus hooked up with other clubs.

Forest don’t always get it right though and right now one Steve Cooper error will undoubtedly have left the fan base scratching their heads.

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Nottingham Forest must be kicking themselves over Loic Bade

The Reds landed Bade on loan from Rennes in the summer of 2022, arriving as an unknown quantity.

Cooper clearly wasn’t an advocate for the signing, with the player not getting a single minute of competitive action under the former boss.

Whilst Forest battled to survive with the likes of Joe Worrall, Scott McKenna and Steve Cook playing in defence, Bade was often kicking his heels in the stands.

In January, he was recalled by Rennes and sold to Sevilla where the defender has grown as a player and become one of Europe’s top stars.

He has a Europa League winner’s medal to his name at Sevilla and according to Vamos Mi Sevilla, Liverpool are weighing up a £25 million move.

Last night, Bade was in action as Sevilla were thrashed 5-1 by Barcelona and he managed to get the assist for his team’s goal.

The talented 24-year-old must feel quite smug looking back on his time with Forest and it’s hard to understand what Cooper was thinking by not playing him.

Forest have moved on but Bade should have been given a chance

At the turn of the year in the first season back in the Premier League, Steve Cooper made the decision to take Cook out of his 25-man squad.

In truth, Felipe was signed and quickly became a revelation on Trentside as Forest looked to stay in the league.

With lots of tweaks made by Cooper, it’s bizarre and frankly laughable that he never gave Bade the platform to at least try and prove himself.

He’s thrived at Sevilla since and had Forest been relegated last season – or the season previous – Cooper’s decision would have looked even stranger.

This summer, Forest landed Nikola Milenkovic and thankfully the club hasn’t lived to regret not playing Bade too much.

However, the Reds must be kicking themselves. A permanent deal was actually agreed between the clubs and Forest could now be the club in line for significant profit from a top European outfit.

Bade will forever be the one who got away from Forest and it will now be interesting to see what sort of transfer he gets in the future.