Another one bites the dust.
Looks like there’s quite a flurry of activity at the City Ground as the second ‘deadline day’ of the summer comes to an end. With Gboly Ariyibi having already departed last night, it was time for another youngster to make the move away.
Nottingham Forest today confirmed that 18-year-old Arvin Appiah has left the club, signing for Spanish side UD Almeria.
Although the fee was not released, Paul Taylor of The Athletic reports that the deal could be worth as much as £8m. Whether or not that is all upfront, or if the payments are being spread out, or if there are certain bonuses and clauses thrown into it, we shall just have to wait and see. And it’s that fee that I really want to talk about first. Later on in his article, Taylor talked about Financial Fair Play and how the club are doing their bit to help keep Forest in the EFL’s good books.
Selling off the likes of Oliver Burke, Ben Brereton and Ben Osborn over the years have been a crucial part of that process, and now selling off Appiah is just the next step in ensuring Forest don’t go the same way as Birmingham City. Whilst this may have been done with finances in mind, I think it was also the right call for them to make when you consider the on the pitch implications as well.
Given his limited number of appearances for the Reds, it was pretty simple business to get rid of him when a fee is that high. If he had played more or if the offer had been significantly less, you could have made the argument for him to be kept.
When you also consider who he had in front of him though, the likes of Sammy Ameobi, Joe Lolley, Albert Adomah and even to an extent Rafa Mir who has dabbled at playing wide throughout his career, then the opportunities to be a regular just weren’t going to come along for another couple of years. Better to cash in now and use the money to help the squad make a push at promotion this season rather than seeing his value ever decreasing.
