It came as a bit of a shock when Nottingham Forest landed Nuno Tavares from Arsenal in the summer of 2023.
The intrigue came as the only time Tavares had played at the City Ground before, he was substituted after just 27 minutes, tied into submission by Djed Spence during a win over the Gunners in the FA Cup during the 2021/22 campaign.
Naturally, he struggled to adapt to English football during that maiden campaign and ultimately many wrote him off before he’d even kicked a ball for the Reds.
Steve Cooper clearly wasn’t a big fan of Tavares. He only made three appearances under the former head coach and found himself not even in the squad for many months following his arrival.
Photo by Fabrizio Carabelli/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images
Photo by Fabrizio Carabelli/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images
Nuno Tavares makes claim about signing for Nottingham Forest
The Portuguese left-back did show flashes of promise during his time playing under Nuno Espirito Santo but it was too late by then.
Forest had already made their mind up over whether to take him for another campaign and decided to go down another route instead for the 2024/25 campaign.
Tavares it seems, had reservations about Forest from the off and has now conceded that he didn’t really want to make the move in the first place.
He told CBS Sports: “Actually, it wasn’t my decision to go to Forest, I had to accept it. I went there to play football because that’s what I want. Things didn’t go well, as I expected.”
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Tavares is now among the best in Europe
After the Forest debacle where he made just 12 appearances all season, Tavares wanted to make sure regular game time was a given this season.
That led him to Lazio and he’s now among the leading left-backs in Europe, with the on-loan Arsenal man having nine assists to his name this season.
Forest have been linked with Tavares again. However, given these comments, prising him back to the City Ground could prove to be very tricky indeed.
The Reds might be better off casting their net further afield and with Tavares making these claims, it’s going to be very difficult for fans to get behind any decision to bring him back to the club.