The sneaky swap deal that could help both Spurs and Nottingham Forest get exactly what they want

It’s been a week or since the Guardian first reported that Tottenham Hotspur were interested in signing Callum Hudson-Odoi from Nottingham Forest following his sparkling form at the end of the season, and there has been precious little movement in the meantime. That isn’t especially surprising, given how early it is in the window, but it would also be no shock if negotiations were relatively challenging.

While he is hardly a natural winger and would play a very different role than Hudson-Odoi, he has the creative chops to elevate the team in a similar way and could easily add a dimension to the Forest attack that is currently lacking. They simply don’t have an attacking midfielder with his level of vision or his passing range. Given his previous struggles at Spurs, he may not be a sure thing, but he seems like a risk worth taking – and Forest already gambled unsuccessfully on Giovanni Reyna in January, likely in the hopes of finding that extra spark in attack that Lo Celso might just provide.

This is all speculation and conjecture, of course, but it’s not often that two teams provide solutions to one another’s problems quite so neatly. Spurs get their man, Forest get a prospective replacement without upsetting the accounts department too much. No doubt Forest have plans drawn up already for the likely departures of some of their star players, but don’t be shocked if horse trading with the buying clubs is somewhere on the agenda.