Nottingham Forest have now reached a verbal agreement to sign Gustavo Puerta. Finally, they look set to complete a deal for the Colombian.
As we covered earlier, the 23-year-old is already expected in Nottingham for a medical and to sign his contract. Now there is further confirmation from Colombia that the agreement itself is in place.
Pipe Sierra, who brought news of the latest Forest, confirms that a verbal agreement has been reached for Puerta to become a player within Evangelos Marinakis’ group.
The plan remains the same. Puerta will sign permanently for Nottingham Forest before spending this season on loan at Olympiacos, where he can play in the Europa League.
There is another important detail though. Sierra says the deal will be completed by paying the midfielder’s release clause.
Forest deal now agreed verbally
That ties in with what Marinakis himself said only a couple of days ago. The Nottingham Forest and Olympiacos owner revealed at the weekend that he had been prepared to pay Puerta’s €16m (£13.8m) clause to take him to Greece.
At that point, however, things looked very different.
“We paid Puerta’s €16m (£13.8m) clause and he isn’t coming, he wants to go to Benfica. What more can be done?” Marinakis said.
Quite a lot, apparently.
Since then, the situation has turned around. Forest are now closing in on signing Puerta permanently, while Olympiacos will still get him for the coming season.
That represents quite a shift after Benfica appeared to have won the race only days ago. Marinakis had also publicly sounded resigned to losing out.
Instead, the Forest owner and his group appear to have found a solution. They will pay the release clause, Forest will sign Puerta permanently, and Olympiacos will take him for their Europa League campaign.
Now, Puerta only needs to complete his medical and sign the contracts to turn the verbal agreement into a completed transfer.
