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Nottingham Forest’s protracted pursuit of Sporting CP defender Ousmane Dembele has been a frustration for supporters. After the transfer appeared to be imminent just over a week ago, no progress has been since. There was a reasonable belief that after the two clubs faced each other in a Friendly on Friday, the deal would be announced. Diomande wasn’t included in Sporting’s squad for the Algarve match, precisely because of the transfer talks. However, it appears the delay has been genuine rather than a courtesy to get the friendly out of the way first. Blame game similar to last summer The Portuguese media have repeatedly put the blame at the feet of Evangelos Marinakis. The Nottingham Forest owner’s tough negotiating isn’t anything new. However, it needs to be considered that the Portuguese media will be getting their information from Sporting sources. Therefore, it will be sharing their frustrations rather than those of Forest. During the last summer window, the Lisbon club had a very protracted transfer with Viktor Gyokeres. That dragged on longer than the Ousmane Diomande saga. It was different in reasoning, but shows that Sporting simply won’t give in. With Gyokeres, the reason for drama was that the player’s agent believed he’d agreed a cheaper fee with Sporting in advance. That agent then sold Arsenal on that fee, and the Gunners were surprised when it wasn’t enough. Gyokeres agitated and pushed, and after weeks of the whole thing getting nasty, Sporting got the money they wanted. Sporting reputation goes back further As a selling club, Sporting have worked to build up a tough reputation when it comes to transfer negotiations. In summer 2019, Tottenham Hotspur tried to sign Bruno Fernandes on the cheap. That saw the Lisbon club’s president Frederico Varandas somewhat mock Spurs. “The only serious proposal, which was still only verbal, was a €45m bid from Tottenham for Bruno Fernandes, plus €20m in goals. “€20m in goals which were about Tottenham becoming the Premier League winners, which they never were, and winning the Champions League, which has also never happened. So I found these goals extremely imposs…. difficult to accomplish. And I understood not to sell Bruno Fernandes.” The club is obliged to publish details of transfer fees, including bonuses, which means there’s no way to hide behind an undisclosed fee. What is being said on Sunday Today’s edition of Record reports that Ousmane Diomande was at Sporting’s Alcochete training ground on Saturday. However, he’s being kept in a bubble with other players who could leave. The Liga Portugal club don’t want to put any transfers in danger via a fitness issue. Record sound optimistic on Diomande to Nottingham Forest, stating he is ‘one step away’ from the transfer. Sporting’s demands of €40m plus €5m are detailed. The key point here is that the €40m is fixed, guaranteed. If it’s become a battle of wills for Evangelos Marinakis then the possibility of a bonus based on something certain like a first appearance can’t be ruled out. The defender took a trip to Sevilla after his Alcochete session, taking advantage of two days off. There remains a confidence in Portugal that Oliver Glasner will get his man. That will require a final effort from Nottingham Forest. Regarding Givairo Read, the Italian and Dutch slant today favours a transfer to AS Roma.