Nottingham Forest's €17.5m Bid for Gjivairo Read: Liverpool's Missed Opportunity

Nottingham Forest have made their move. Liverpool, for now, are still watching.

Forest have lodged a €17.5m (£14.9m) bid for Feyenoord right-back Gjivairo Read, a proposal confirmed by Fabrizio Romano and swiftly turned down by the Dutch club. It is an opening gambit, nothing more, but it has pushed the 20-year-old’s name firmly into this summer’s Premier League narrative.

Forest are not expected to walk away. Romano reports they plan to return with an improved offer, and the numbers around Read are already being quietly defined. Voetbal International journalist Martijn Krabbendam, via Sport Witness, has suggested that a bid in the region of €25m (£21.3m) would bring Feyenoord to the negotiating table in earnest.

That is not an outrageous figure in the current market. For a starting right-back at a major Eredivisie club, a player with 54 senior appearances at just 20, it looks more like an opportunity than a gamble.

Which is where Liverpool enter the frame – or, more accurately, fail to.

Read has long been admired at Anfield. Liverpool’s right-back situation is hardly settled, with questions over depth and durability in that area of the pitch. On paper, this is the sort of deal that should at least prompt serious internal debate on Merseyside. A young, attack-minded fullback, already tested in European football, potentially available for a fee that would barely scratch the surface of some of the numbers being thrown around this window.

Yet Forest are the ones putting money on the table.

Why? Why are Nottingham Forest driving the move while Liverpool, a club who have monitored Read and seen him linked with Manchester City and Bayern Munich, appear content to stand back?

The answer may lie in Andoni Iraola’s priorities as he begins his first pre-season at Liverpool. The new head coach is expected to take a close look at Conor Bradley and Jeremie Frimpong when preparations begin around July 13. Between the Northern Irishman and the Dutchman, Liverpool may feel they already have their right flank covered.

On paper, perhaps. On the pitch, over a long, unforgiving season, it is less straightforward.

Both Bradley and Frimpong have had their own fitness issues. Relying on them as a complete solution risks leaving Liverpool with what feels like “two halves of a right-back” across a campaign that will demand far more than that. Brentford’s Michael Kayode, once a plausible alternative, has removed himself from the equation by signing a long-term deal, shutting one door just as another appears to be opening in Rotterdam.

Read is not flawless. His 2025/26 injury record is not spotless, with a hamstring problem at 19 interrupting his rhythm. For a young player still growing into his body, that is hardly a red flag in isolation. What matters more is that he has already amassed those 54 senior games for Feyenoord, showing enough to attract interest from some of Europe’s most powerful clubs and to prompt Forest into a concrete bid.

The shape of this story is becoming clear. Forest, battling to establish themselves as more than just survivors in the Premier League, are ready to invest in a modern fullback they believe can grow with them. Feyenoord, realistic about the market, know there is a number – around €25m – that will force them to listen. And Liverpool, a club that once built their resurgence on spotting value before others, are in danger of letting a potential solution to a live problem move elsewhere for what, by today’s standards, is a relatively modest fee.

For Richard Hughes and the Liverpool recruitment team, this is not just about one player. It is an early test of how decisively they intend to operate in a market where hesitation is punished. Forest have already shown their hand. The next move, if there is to be one from Anfield, has to come quickly.

Because if Nottingham Forest walk away with Gjivairo Read at a price that looks cheap in a year’s time, the question will not be why they acted. It will be why Liverpool didn’t.