Liverpool Eye Ousmane Diomande as Nottingham Forest Deal Stalls

Nottingham Forest thought they were almost there. A fee agreed, terms close, Ousmane Diomande seemingly on his way from Sporting Lisbon in what would have been a landmark signing for the club.

Then the deal hit the brakes.

For weeks, Forest have treated the 22-year-old centre-back as a priority target. A BBC Sport report at the end of July suggested they were “close to completing” a move, and in midweek Portuguese outlet A Bola went as far as to describe the transfer as “practically finalised”.

It wasn’t. Not quite.

By Thursday, contrasting reports emerged claiming the agreement had collapsed. On Friday, A Bola rowed back, acknowledging that negotiations between Forest and Sporting had run into serious problems. Not over the fee itself, but over how and when it would be paid.

Sporting’s stance is clear. They want a fixed €40m, with performance-related bonuses potentially taking the package to €45m, plus a percentage of any future capital gain. According to A Bola, Forest accepted those numbers. The flashpoint lies in the payment schedule, a detail often buried in the small print but decisive in whether a deal lives or dies.

Right now, it hangs in the balance. Not dead, not done. Just stuck.

And that is where Liverpool enter the frame.

A summer that began with talk of a defensive refresh at Anfield has so far yielded only Jeremy Jacquet and Victor Munoz, while most noise around the club currently centres on attacking targets, notably PSG pair Bradley Barcola and Ibrahim Mbaye. The recruitment spotlight has tilted towards the front line.

Yet the squad picture tells a different story. Liverpool are light at centre-back due to injuries, and their full-back depth hardly looks bulletproof. For a club with ambitions on multiple fronts, that is a risk.

Reporter Sebastien Vidal believes the Merseyside club could be ready to pounce. Posting on X, he suggested Liverpool “could benefit from the failure of negotiations between Nottingham Forest and Sporting for Ousmane Diomande,” noting that the Ivorian, valued at around €40m, “remains available and has long been on the Reds’ radar” as they look to reinforce the heart of their defence.

The profile fits. Diomande is young, already hardened by top-level football in Portugal and Europe, and carries the sort of resale potential that has long appealed to Liverpool’s hierarchy. Forest saw him as a statement of intent; Liverpool might see him as a strategic piece in the next evolution of their back line.

For Forest, the danger is obvious. Months of groundwork can vanish in a single misstep over structure and instalments, especially when a club of Liverpool’s stature starts circling. Sporting, for their part, have little reason to soften their demands while a second Premier League suitor looms.

The deal is now a test of nerve and negotiation. Forest must decide how far they are willing to bend on payment terms. Liverpool must decide how urgently they want to convert long-standing interest into a concrete bid.

Diomande, meanwhile, waits — at the centre of a tug-of-war that could yet reshape the defensive plans of two Premier League clubs before the window closes.