Nikola Milenković close to leaving for Nottingham Forest

We’ve been speculating about what all the centerback transfer rumors mean for Fiorentina, and it turns out that we figured it out. Nikola Milenković, Fiorentina’s longest-serving player and occasional captain, is reportedly on his way to Nottingham Forest for a relative pittance.

It’s a huge blow to Fiorentina, as Milenković, despite a dip in form last year, is unquestionably the best defender on the roster. It wasn’t long ago that the Viola were turning down €30 million offers for him, so to see him go for barely a third of that sum is disappointing. This is, after all, a 26-year-old with 57 caps for Serbia, a mainstay at club and domestic level for half a decade (he’s played 30 or more Serie A games every year but one since his breakthrough in 2017-2018). Even in an off year, he’s a fantastic, reliable, and versatile defender. So what happened?
The problem is his salary. At €5.6 million a year, he’s the club’s top earner by quite some distance (the next-highest is Nico González at €3.85 million), and owner Rocco Commisso has supposedly instructed Daniele Pradè and company to slash the payroll. It’s a sad end to a long relationship, but that’s the modern game: a billionaire’s profit margins overshadow a team’s success.
With Lucas Martínez Quarta and Luca Ranieri in the fold, Viola mister Raffaele Palladino still has a couple of above-average defenders to work with. Maybe the club can accelerate Nicolás Valentini’s arrival; otherwise, the candidates to round out the defense are youngsters Lorenzo Lucchesi and Pietro Comuzzo or an out-of-position Cristiano Biraghi.
It’s a reminder of the financial might of the Premier League that Serie A’s 8th-place team can’t come close to spending like England’s 17th-place team. The €12 million fee and possibility of a few million more in bonuses aren’t enough to reshape the squad or to adequately replace Milenković’s quality. The optimistic outlook, of course, is that Fiorentina hasn’t spent more than it’s earned on sales in 3 straight years and has somehow kept its head above water, so this is just business as usual. Those 12 million euros probably wouldn’t have gone back into the roster anyways. It’s totally fine.
Assuming this goes through (and it sounds like it very well might by the end of the week), it will serve for many fans as confirmation that Commisso lacks ambition. We’ll see how it ends up, but as of now, it’s a massive blow to the team on the pitch and to the optics in the boardroom.