Lewis O'Brien wants to stay

For the right price, definitely 👍

We've seen glimpses of what he can do - keeps injury free he will be a tremendous asset imo.

HOWEVER. We do need to sign a CM beast, possibly 2 if Hackney goes.

And get Howson a one year deal - getting us promoted can be his swansong👍
 
Depends on the financial size of the deal. He has been decent in patches, no more, hoepfully would kick on next season.

Forest paid a fair whack to get him and Toffolo, 8 mil for them both if I remember rightly, and he will be on a good wage.
 
I'd happily have him back.

He's not been as influential as I'd hoped but he's still been decent and a lot of it will have been down to his long injury.
 
He’s good but his passing isn’t up to Hackney’s level so I’d hope we have another lined up or Hayden stays and O’Brien is cover
 
He's good but if we keep Hackney then I don't think he starts so really depends how much we are willing to spend for our 2nd string. I see it as him or Hackney for one position and Howson and Barlaser for the other (when so are fit). Ideally we'd replace Barlaser with a better player, a specialist DM hopefully, and Howson can be the 2nd choice there. Easier said than done though because we've been trying to do that for about 4 years now.
 
Could be a bargain. Hard to come back and be 100% after the injury he's had, but his mixed form this season should have lowered his value.

Full pre-season behind him, gets a run in the side and I think we could easily see the Huddersfield version next season if he does stay.

Just depends on the fee and wages of course.
 
I'd like to have him back but I think a lot of it will depend on whether Forest stay up.

If they stay up they'll be desperate to offload him, but I think they'll regard him as being a useful player to have if they go down.

I wouldn't offer any more than £4m for him. I think that would be a fair price and if he's genuinely desperate to sign for us I'd imagine he'll be willing to accept a pay cut.
 
parmoboy said:
I'd like to have him back but I think a lot of it will depend on whether Forest stay up.

If they stay up they'll be desperate to offload him, but I think they'll regard him as being a useful player to have if they go down.

I wouldn't offer any more than £4m for him. I think that would be a fair price and if he's genuinely desperate to sign for us I'd imagine he'll be willing to accept a pay cut.
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I'm not sure Forest want him even if they come down. They'll need a firesale of fringe squad players regardless.
 
BoroMart said:
I'm not sure Forest want him even if they come down. They'll need a firesale of fringe squad players regardless.
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They might choose to offload the high earners who don't have that Championship experience.

O'Brien has proven himself at this level and that may influence their thinking.

Smallbone had seemingly been classed as being surplus to requirements by Southampton when they were in the Premier League, and so they sent him out on loan to Stoke, but he's been a first teamer for Southampton this season in the Championship.
 
I think we are more likely to be able to sign him if they are relegated because he will have a wage reduction clause. His wages will drop to something closer to what we can offer.
I'm guessing while Forest are in the PL he will be earning £40k+ with 2 years left on his contract. I doubt he's going to cut his wages that much.
 
B_G said:
I think we are more likely to be able to sign him if they are relegated because he will have a wage reduction clause. His wages will drop to something closer to what we can offer.
I'm guessing while Forest are in the PL he will be earning £40k+ with 2 years left on his contract. I doubt he's going to cut his wages that much.
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A lot of it will depend on how desperate he is to play regular games of football.

Is he one of these types who's happy to sit on the bench, or not even make match squads and still pick up his high wages for two years?

Realistically I can't see a host of other Championship clubs coming in for him, so his options might be to either waste the next two years of his career not playing games, or sign for us and resurrect his career, whilst earning less.
 
Only a squad player for me. He works hard and makes the opposition work hard, but Hackney and Howson have more influence on a game. We will have fairly limited transfer funds, so I would not pay £2.5m for a squad player. If Forest would take around £1m and O'Brien wages demands are reasonable OK.
 
B_G said:
I think we are more likely to be able to sign him if they are relegated because he will have a wage reduction clause. His wages will drop to something closer to what we can offer.
I'm guessing while Forest are in the PL he will be earning £40k+ with 2 years left on his contract. I doubt he's going to cut his wages that much.
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He would have to take quite a bit less than £40k/week to come to the Boro more like £20k/week.
 
parmoboy said:
I wouldn't offer any more than £4m for him
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I think there's zero chance of us going anywhere near £4m.

We'll have paid a loan fee already I guess, given Forest wanted a permanent move for him last summer, so that needs factoring in.

I'd think around £1.5 - 2m would be our ceiling, assuming his contract is doable.
 
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