NEC Nijmegen have received a warning that they may have made a major mistake by turning down Nottingham Forest’s attempt to sign Kodai Sano.
Soccer News cover comments from De Telegraaf journalist Mike Verweij, who believes NEC could regret their decision.
Ajax targeted Sano for much of the January transfer window and submitted a late bid worth around €15m, but NEC rejected the offer.
Nottingham Forest then submitted an improved bid of approximately €20m on deadline day, eager to add Sano to their squad and willing to pay a significant fee. NEC again rejected the offer, despite Sano indicating that he wanted to move on.
NEC Nijmegen technical director Carlos Aalbers has since given a detailed interview explaining their decision. He explained that, as far as they were concerned, €20m wasn’t a lot of money for Sano. That made turning down Nottingham Forest’s late bid quite easy.
That, though, is an interesting take given their record departure is Robin Roefs. He cost Sunderland €10.5m last summer. Sano, then, would have blown that deal out of the water.
Verweij certainly doesn’t agree with Albers. He’s worried that NEC will come to regret turning down Nottingham Forest’s attempt.
“The day before the match, surprisingly enough, there was an interview on NEC TV in which Sano said Ajax had shown interest,” he said.
“In fact, there was an agreement for a four-and-a-half-year contract. And he indicated he would have been willing to take that step. Nottingham Forest offered much more than Ajax on the final day.
“If you refuse those kinds of amounts for your players… I don’t know if they’ll ever get that again. I think they will, if he continues like this.”