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Nottingham Forest have made a £35million ($48m) offer to sign Jean-Philippe Mateta from Crystal Palace.
Personal terms between Forest and the 28-year-old will not be an issue.
Palace, though, will only consider selling Mateta if their valuation, which sources briefed on the matter say is a package worth around £40m ($54.8m), is met and they are able to sign a replacement. The south London side are exploring multiple forward options, including Jorgen Strand Larsen of Wolverhampton Wanderers.
Mateta has been linked with multiple clubs in the winter transfer window. The Athletic reported last week that Aston Villa had expressed an interest in signing the Frenchman, with Palace weighing up a move in the opposite direction for Villa forward Evann Guessand. Villa are close to sealing the arrival of former Chelsea striker Tammy Abraham from Besiktas.
Serie A club Juventus also enquired about a move for Mateta, though The Athletic reported they were not prepared to meet Palace’s valuation and opted to move on from their pursuit. The Italian side regarded the asking price as unrealistic due to Mateta’s age and the fact he only has a year and a half left on his Palace contract.
Mateta has started all 23 of Palace’s Premier League games this season, scoring eight goals — although he has only two in his last 11 league appearances.
Forest have been active in looking for attacking reinforcements to their squad this window, with last season’s top scorer Chris Wood limited to only eight league appearances due to a knee injury that required surgery. Arnaud Kalimuendo, who joined Forest in the summer for £26m from Rennes, has also moved to Bundesliga team Eintracht Frankfurt on loan.
Sean Dyche’s side completed the loan signing of striker Lorenzo Lucca from Napoli on Friday, with the deal containing an option to make the move permanent this summer for around €40m. Forest have also held an interest in Olympiacos’ Mehdi Taremi and Wolverhampton Wanderers’ Strand Larsen.
A move for Mateta would represent another significant departure for Palace, who saw club captain Marc Guehi join Manchester City for a fee of around £20m earlier this month. Manager Oliver Glasner also confirmed that he would be leaving the team.
On Friday, Glasner said that Mateta had not handed in a transfer request. “It is pretty clear,” the Austrian added. “JP will stay if we don’t have the right replacement who can play immediately.”
Forest and Palace face each other in the Premier League on Sunday.
A level of animosity has developed between the two clubs in the past year, stemming from Palace’s demotion from the Europa League to the Conference League in the summer, after UEFA and then the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) found they had breached the former’s multi-club ownership rules. Forest, who wrote a letter to UEFA that they have insisted was a matter of seeking clarity about which competition they would play in, replaced Palace in the Europa League.
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