Nottingham Forest could have a fight on their hands if they revisit their interest in Brazilian youngster Angelo Gabriel in the summer.
The highly-rated teenager is regarded as one of his country’s brightest prospects. He was on the Reds’ radar last month and they made a push to sign him before the January window closed, but he ended up staying with Santos.
There continues to be plenty of interest in the attacker, however. And it seems there will be a race to secure his signature come the summer.
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Making progress
Nottingham Forest striker Taiwo Awoniyi has provided a glimpse into his recovery from injury.
The forward has been sidelined with a groin problem since the start of January. He was forced off in the second half of the Reds’ 1-0 win at Southampton last month, having netted what proved to be the winning goal.
As he continues to work his way back to fitness, Awoniyi has posted a video clip on his Instagram page of him going through rehabilitation work at the Nigel Doughty Academy. He included the caption: “Steps by steps.”
Forest head coach Steve Cooper has previously said of Awoniyi: “It is difficult to give a real time on it. He has been a little bit up and down with it from one day to the next, on the injury settling down and getting into rehab.
Transfer talk
Newcastle United are ready to "listen to offers" for central defender Jamaal Lascelles in the summer, with Nottingham Forest one of the clubs credited with an interest.
The centre-back left Forest in the summer of 2014, but returned to the City Ground on loan for the remainder of the season. He has been with Newcastle ever since, making a total of 222 appearances for the club.
However, this season Lascelles has found game time hard to come by. He has made just three Premier League appearances for Newcastle so far this campaign and was left out of the squad entirely for the weekend’s clash against AFC Bournemouth.
The defender was linked with a return to the City Ground back in last summer’s transfer window. But Lascelles’ first choice was to stay at St James’ Park for another season.
VAR controversy
Lee Mason has not been selected for VAR duty for the next round of Premier League fixtures following his latest contentious performance.
In November, Mason was in the seat at Stockley Park during Nottingham Forest’s controversial draw with Brentford. The Reds had three penalty appeals turned down, only to see Brentford given a spot-kick for a similar level of contact in the box after Mason told on-field referee Andrew Marriner to look at the monitor. The injustice left Forest fans furious.
Mason was in the headlines for the wrong reasons again on Saturday as he failed to spot an offside in the build-up to Brentford’s equalising goal at Arsenal. It was a match-defining incident as the Bees put a dent in the Gunners’ title ambitions by securing a 1-1 draw.
Howard Webb, the chief refereeing officer at Professional Game Match Officials Limited, has contacted Arsenal to acknowledge and explain the error. Meanwhile, Mason’s name was absent from the appointments list published on the Premier League website.
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