Report: Newcastle now want £50m-rated Nottingham Forest player and it's not Anthony Elanga

Yesterday at 03:46 AM

Nottingham Forest hit the jackpot with some of their signings during the summer transfer window.

The club have worked tirelessly to change the landscape when it comes to player recruitment. For the first two years back in the big time, mistakes were made and a scattergun approach was evident.

Forest have won the hearts of supporters with a number of quality signings this summer and Nuno Espirito Santo is now better equipped with the tools to really push the Reds to the next level this season.

Forest have made a good start to the 2024/25 campaign. Espirito Santo has led the team to 10 points from seven matches and at the second international break, the Reds are tenth in the Premier League.

One player who has been a revelation is Nikola Milenkovic and he’s earned praise from world-class journalist Henry Winter after his £12 million move from Fiorentina in the summer.

• READ MORE: Tony Cascarino has been proved right about Nottingham Forest

Newcastle United want Forest defender Nikola Milenkovic

According to Caught Offside, Newcastle are throwing admiring glances towards the Forest defender ahead of the future transfer windows in January and next summer.

Forest and Newcastle did some PSR gymnastics in the summer. Forest signed Elliot Anderson for £35 million, with Odysseas Vlachodimos joining the Magpies for around £20 million.

Furthermore, Newcastle made a late move to sign Anthony Elanga on transfer deadline day. However, the Reds stood firm on a £50 million valuation and the deal couldn’t be completed.

Now, it’s claimed that Newcastle have been impressed with Milenkovic and are monitoring him closely – with Leicester star Wout Faes also on the club’s radar ahead of the transfer window.

What Forest value Milenkovic at

The Forest central defender has been quality since signing from Fiorentina and it’s absolutely no surprise that bigger clubs are casting envious eyes towards the City Ground.

A fee of £12 million is a complete and utter steal and Forest and the club will make a clear profit when the time does come to cash in on the central defender.

It’s claimed in the report that Forest want close to £50 million for the player’s signature and won’t consider lowering that valuation in the near future for the Serbian captain.

Perhaps there is an argument that Newcastle should just hire the recruitment people at Forest instead to cut out the middle man.

Both Milenkovic and Elanga are being targeted in big-money moves by the Magpies and they’d have got both at a fraction of the price that Forest now crave for their influential duo.