Reason for 27-year-old’s failure to secure Nottingham Forest exit revealed | OneFootball

Nottingham Forest’s Tobias Figueiredo was unable to secure a move away from the City Ground during the winter window due to his current side’s lack of available options in central defence, according to Record (via Nottinghamshire Live).

The 27-year-old was strongly linked with a return to Portugal, with Vitoria Guimaraes thought to have been readying an approach for him in the final days of last month.

However, that move could have only happened if Forest were willing to terminate Figueiredo’s contract in the East Midlands, a decision they may have been willing to take with his contract expiring in the summer and the defender unlikely to put pen to paper on a new deal at the club.

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However, Joe Worrall is expected to be out for the next month with broken ribs and there were also injury doubts over the likes of Loic Mbe Soh and Rodrigo Ely, with their absence leaving Steve Cooper’s men short at the back despite the signing of Steve Cook in the early stages of January.

Ely actually went on to terminate his contract at the club yesterday, but even before then, a move looked difficult with Figueiredo ideally needed to provide depth despite being unlikely to appear regularly for the Reds between now and the end of the season unless there are more injuries.

Former AFC Bournemouth captain Cook’s arrival looked set to provide the Portuguese centre-back with a potential opportunity to make an early exit from the Midlands outfit – but the latter now remains at the club with the lack of available defensive options making the potential move to his home nation a ‘complicated’ one.

And it has turned out to be too complex for the 27-year-old to secure a transfer at this stage, even though .

It remains to be seen whether the arrival of Jonathan Panzo last night will persuade Forest to terminate his current deal.

The Verdict:

Although it would be good for Forest to rely on Mbe Soh as an option, he seems to be taking a while to come back and this is why they should probably hold on to Figueiredo at this stage.

Cooper may have opted to go with a flat back four in recent games – but he would ideally want to switch his formation up to a back three at times to retain the Reds’ unpredictability – so bringing in Panzo was particularly important for that.

Forest have shown they can cope with playing various systems, so it would be hard to see them playing with a back four for the remainder of the season and if he really needs to, Forest’s manager probably wouldn’t hesitate to utilise the Portuguese defender again.

In saying that, the Championship club also need to be wary of their finances, because a failure to remain within the EFL’s profit and sustainability rules may prove to be costly in the future.

This is why a contract termination couldn’t be ruled out of this stage – because although they would only save a certain amount with his contract expiring in the summer – he could be on a generous wage package and that’s a cost Forest won’t want to deal with if they don’t have to.