Forest are in the race to sign the striker, currently worth £70 million.
Nottingham Forest struggled in the Premier League for much of last season and would go on to survive relegation by four points despite Evangelos Marinakis splashing an eye-watering £145m on 21 new recruits.
Having found it difficult to adapt to the demands required in the top flight, their prospects are looking more promising this time round, recording two wins from their first four, including a 1-0 victory over Chelsea at Stamford Bridge.
While Forest’s start to this season can be attributed towards their productive summer window, bringing in the likes of Divock Origi, Ibrahim Sangare, Callum Hudson-Odoi and Anthony Elanga, the Reds have missed out on their fair share of talent over the years who have gone on to prosper elsewhere.
The biggest of those in recent times is striker Ivan Toney.
In the summer of 2020, the Reds were locked in a battle with arch-rivals Derby County and several other clubs for the star who was valued at just £5m at the time. Indeed, his stock had significantly risen on the back of a 26-goal season with Peterborough United in League One.
The Mirror, via the Nottingham Post, stated that Sabri Lamouchi, Forest’s manager at the time, were ready to launch a bid for the 24-year-old.
Despite showing interest in signing the “one hell of a player” as dubbed by Peterborough chairman Darragh MacAnthony during his time at the Posh, a bid was never tabled by the Reds and while they would be made to regret that moment, Brentford would ultimately swoop in to land Toney.
The Bees swatted away a whole host of clubs to capture Toney on deadline day for an initial fee of £5m rising to £10m with add-ons and since that day, the rest has been history.
In May, Toney was banned from all football-related activity for eight months after breaching the Football Association betting rules and while this has temporarily derailed his immediate career, the 27-year-old looks destined to ply his trade at the very top of world football.
With his ban concluding in January, several big clubs have already registered an interest in the striker, including Chelsea, Tottenham and Manchester United, who have all been told that £70m-plus could seal a deal for him, according to Football Insider.