After returning to the Premier League for the first time in 23 years Nottingham Forest are now making preparations and according to reports have made enquiries with Southampton regarding midfielder Will Smallbone..
James Garner of Manchester United was pivotal in Forest's promotion campaign, but the East Midland's club are seemingly not hopeful of signing him given the news that they have contacted Saints regarding the availability of Will Smallbone.
Ironically Saints are also one of the clubs linked with Garner, so Smallbone's short term future could depend on where Garner goes.
Smallbone looked set to break into Saints first team squad on a regular basis before sustaining an injury at Leicester in January 2021 which kept him out for the best part of the rest of the year.
However he was used in the final part of the campaign just finished and showed himself to be a tidy midfielder.
However the question is still there as whether he can oust the experienced players ahead of him in the pecking order and at 22 he needs to be getting in the side on a regular basis.
In many respects he can be compared to ex Saint now at Fulham Harrison Reed, so far Smallbone has started 8 Premier League games for the club with another 8 off the bench, that is very similar to Reed's career at St Mary's where he started just 6 games with 11 off the bench.
He too at the age of 22 found himself on the periphery at Saints and then went on loan to firstly Norwich, secondly Blackburn and finally Fulham before joining them permanently two years ago for £6 million.
So the question will be that if he goes, will Smallbone go on loan or on a permanent deal.
Reed spent three seasons out on loan as he was on wages that were too high to be matched by a Championship or lower Premier League club, another legacy of the period when players such as Alex McCarthy, Jack Stephens and others including Reed were given long contracts on wages that their contribution level did not merit and therefore stayed put.
He had a year left when the then newly promoted Fulham paid £6 million for his services.
Smallbone has two years left on his contract and although his Saints career matches Reed's he hasn't the experience on his CV from loan spells.
Therefore his potential permanent transfer value will not be the £6 million that Reed commanded, Saints would be lucky to get half of that.
I would therefore surmise that the club will perhaps be more interested in a loan deal than a permanent move, like Reed his actual transfer value could improve with a seasons experience away and in some respects it could be better to gamble on that, a loan move would remove his wages from the books from the season and at worst he would not be worth much less in a years time, at best he could have blossomed into a player we want to keep and the middle ground is that he does well and like Reed his fee rises due to that.
Will Smallbone has had some bad luck in his early career at Saints, whether his future lies at St Mary's or elsewhere all Saints fans will surely wish him the best of luck.