Nottingham Forest submit £5.9m deadline day bid to sign former Newcastle United flop

Nottingham Forest have reportedly submitted a bid to sign former Newcastle United goalkeeper Matz Sels.

The Belgian joined the Magpies from Gent ahead of the 2016-17 Championship season. He started the opening nine games but a series of unconvincing performances led to him being dropped by Rafa Benitez.

Sels featured in the League Cup and FA Cup that campaign but never played in the league again. Sels spent the 2017-18 term on loan at Anderlecht before joining Ligue 1 outfit Strasbourg in a £3.5m deal.

According to transfer expert Fabrizio Romano, Sels could be handed another chance to impress in England by Nottingham Forest.

Romano posted on X: "Nottingham Forest submit official proposal for Matz Sels — around €6/7m for experienced goalkeeper at Strasbourg. #NFFC keep working to find new GK on Deadline Day, next priority after Reyna and Ribeiro deals."

Opening up on his struggles at Newcastle, Sels told Official Ligue 1 Podcast, Le Beau Jeu: "Maybe for me it was difficult, the adaptation Also, for me, it was the first time [playing] abroad, and the first time in another country, so it's a different mentality and new habits.

"It was really difficult in the beginning. Newcastle took me as a No 1, so I needed to be ready immediately, and maybe that was the thing. Maybe I was not ready immediately from the beginning because I needed a few months more to adapt.

"But that is the past; now I try to look forward, work hard, and maybe in the future I will get another opportunity to show the people that it was unlucky for me. I hope I can show them that I was a good signing for them [Newcastle]."

Sels added: "The Championship is not the Premier League; it's more kick-and-rush style, so the referees are not protecting the goalkeepers a lot, and everything like that.

"For the rest it's quite the same [playing as a goalkeeper in different countries]; you have to take the ball, and keep the [score at] zero. I don't know, maybe in the Championship [it is more physical] because there is another way of playing, so it's more physical."