It is now almost two years since Brice Samba left Nottingham Forest. They are yet to properly replace him.
The Frenchman, irked by what he felt was a lowball new-contract offer, packed his bags and moved back home to Lens in a £4.5million ($5.7m at the current exchange rate) move. Samba had been one of the heroes of Forest’s promotion push in the preceding months, but he departed without playing a single game for them in the Premier League.
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Feeling insulted and that his contribution to the club’s return to the top flight after 23 years away had not been reflected, Samba informed Forest he would not be signing an extension to his contract — which was due to expire in the summer of 2023 — and that he wanted to seek a move.
Samba was seeking recognition for the role he played in three seasons as their first-choice goalkeeper. This included three memorable penalty saves against Sheffield United in the Championship play-off semi-final at the City Ground.
He still has #NFFC and a love heart in his profile on social media platform X and, in an interview last year, he did not rule out the possibility of returning to the Premier League “one day”. Many Forest fans would love to see that happen, not just for nostalgic reasons, either.
Forest have spent the entire time since Samba left trying to find a permanent replacement for someone who had become a beloved figure. He had an in-your-face attitude; a general love of winding up the opposition whenever possible. And, amid it all, he was rather good at his primary job.
In two seasons of top-flight football, six different men have been tasked with filling the Samba-shaped void in Forest’s team. Yet, despite every one of them being an international goalkeeper — something Samba was not until he returned to playing in France — the quest to replace him continues.
Samba kept 15 clean sheets in 38 matches in his first season with Lens, conceding just 29 goals and helping them to secure second place in Ligue 1, behind Paris Saint-Germain, and with it a place in the Champions League. He was named Ligue 1 goalkeeper of the season for 2022-23 and nominated for the Yashin Trophy at last year’s Ballon d’Or awards — recognition of his status as one of the best goalkeepers in Europe. Now 30, he was Lens’ captain throughout last season as they finished seventh, good enough for Conference League football next term.
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He has won three senior caps, is part of the French squad at the ongoing European Championship in Germany and has been handed their No 1 shirt, even if Mike Maignan, of Italy’s AC Milan, started in goal for their opening group match against Austria on Monday.
Forest are chasing two goalkeepers in this summer’s transfer window, which speaks to the difficulty in replacing Samba. One of them comes from further afield than any other.
Corinthians’ Carlos Miguel, 25, has made only 33 senior appearances in his young career but is quickly building a reputation for himself. Forest have triggered the release clause in his contract with a bid of £3.4million. They are working towards making him the second signing they have made from the Brazilian club in the space of a year, after defender Murillo last summer.
Rio de Janeiro-born Miguel, who is 6ft 7in (200cm), has made 14 appearances for Corinthians this season, adding to that tally in the local derby against Sao Paulo on Sunday night.
He has kept clean sheets in each of his three appearances in the Copa Sudamericana (the second-tier club competition in South America — its equivalent of the Europa League) this season and, amid all the speculation of a move, his importance to the side has been underlined by the fact Antonio Oliveira, their head coach, insists he will continue to play him while he remains a Corinthians player.
“I select those who I think are best to serve our club,” he told Brazilian news outlet Terra.
Miguel’s stats suggest this is a young goalkeeper with plenty of promise.
According to FBref.com, his goals-against average of 0.69 per 90 puts gives him a percentile ranking of 97, among goalkeepers in the other major leagues that are considered a similar standard to the Brazilian Serie A (so, in the top three per cent). His 4.15 saves per 90 minutes also gives him a percentile ranking of 97. His save percentage of 88.6 per cent puts him in the top one per cent among his peers, as does his clean-sheet rate of 71.4 per cent.
His relative inexperience must be kept in mind, but Miguel has shown he can flourish in a high-pressure environment — at a time when some fans have given him flak ahead of his potential transfer away from the Sao Paulo club.
Forest also have several targets with more Premier League experience, some of which were on their list of options when they were searching for a new goalkeeper in January — and ultimately signed Matz Sels from French club Strasbourg.
Crystal Palace’s Sam Johnstone is among those previously on the radar whom Forest are still interested in. The 31-year-old, who has four England caps but is not involved at Euro 2024 after a season-ending elbow injury in March, would be a high-profile addition.
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It would not be the first time recently Forest have walked that sort of path.
They signed another England goalkeeper as their initial replacement for Samba. The arrival of Dean Henderson in July 2022 on a season’s loan from Manchester United helped to ease any immediate sense of loss. However, he suffered a serious thigh injury in the January that effectively ended his season. The injury was so severe it put Forest off activating a clause that would have allowed them to make Henderson’s move permanent.
But Palace took the plunge and signed him for £15million last summer, although his recuperation kept him sidelined until last December. Henderson replaced the injured Johnstone and finished last season in good enough form to earn his place in Gareth Southgate’s squad now in Germany.
Forest’s replacement for the sidelined Henderson was of no less quality. Keylor Navas, a three-time Champions League winner with Real Madrid, joined on loan from Paris Saint-Germain that January and produced some vital performances as Forest gradually edged to safety in their first season back among the domestic elite, but the finances involved in signing him permanently were prohibitive.
This left Forest looking for goalkeepers again last summer.
Nuno Espirito Santo, the head coach and a goalkeeper himself in a near two-decade professional playing career, likes Sels. He steadied the ship after his mid-season arrival, which came at a time when it had become an obvious problem position.
Sels is a serious, focused and driven character, obsessed with self-improvement. The Belgium international rarely made the headlines. That was a good thing following a first half of last season that had seen both United States international Matt Turner and Greece international Odi Vlachodimos make high-profile errors after being signed last summer.
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Turner produced a heroic performance for the USMNT in their 1-1 draw with Brazil last Thursday in a pre-Copa America friendly. His 11 stops in that game were the most made by any U.S. goalkeeper since Tim Howard made 15 against Belgium in the 2014 World Cup. But he rarely hit such heights for Forest after joining from Arsenal for £10million in August.
Forest conceded 28 goals in the 17 Premier League games Turner started, which comes out at an average of 1.65 per 90. This is marginally better than Sels’ figure for that metric. His goals conceded per 90 average was 1.69, following 27 shipped in 16 starts. Turner’s save percentage of 67.5 per cent was also better than Sels’ 57.4 per cent. Yet Sels was the more assured presence in goal for Forest.
Nuno repeated the same phrase more than once when asked about Sels during the season: “He does what we want from our goalkeeper.” That sounds like faint praise, but it was not. Forest’s defence looked more confident with the Belgian behind them. Forest hope Sels will be happy to remain at the club as competition and cover.
The same is not true of Turner and Vlachodimos, who are both available for transfer after just one season at the City Ground.
Last summer, both were informed that they were joining Forest to be the first-choice goalkeeper.
Then head coach Steve Cooper regarded Turner as his number one and told him as much. The only issue was Vlachodimos had been assured of the same thing by the Forest hierarchy when he signed for an initial fee of around €5million (£4.2m; $5.35m at current rates) from Benfica in Portugal. Vlachodimos conceded 12 goals in his five Premier League starts for Forest.
Both harbour international ambitions and want regular first-team football to help attain them. They will understand that their best chance of getting that will lie away from Nottingham.
In the meantime, Forest continue their efforts to replace Samba. He is a player who, with the benefit of hindsight, was allowed to slip through their fingers too easily.
(Top photo: Ashley Allen/Getty Images)
