Nottingham Forest's blockbuster first summer signing could be bargain of the summer window

While the news cycle at the City Ground has largely focussed on the future of Elliot Anderson, Nottingham Forest are also moving gradually in the direction of adding their first new signings of the summer – with a player who’s currently at the World Cup among the potential arrivals.

Reports suggest that Forest are keen to strike a deal for Belgium international Arthur Theate, who made his World Cup debut as a substitute in his country’s group stage game against Iran. But with other sides in the race, will Theate be among their first new signings of the transfer window? And will he strengthen a side which came perilously close to relegation last season?

Will Nottingham Forest sign Athur Theate this summer?

While stories linking Nottingham Forest with Theate, who currently plies his trade in the Bundesliga with Eintracht Frankfurt, aren’t new, fresh reports from Germany have added further fuel to the fire.

Sport Witness provided a summary of a paywalled report from German tabloid Bild, who suggest that Forest’s interest remains “concrete” and that the player himself is keen to make the move to the Premier League – while Frankfurt themselves are also prepared to let the 26-year-old move on.

The asking price is expected to be in the region of €20m (£17.2m), a fee that Forest can certainly afford and which looks like good value for an accomplished player who still has three years remaining on his contract. The only likely barrier to a deal is interest from other sides.

Premier League rivals Bournemouth are also said to be monitoring Theate’s situation, while there is also interest from unspecified teams in Italy – Forest look to be the frontrunners at this stage, but with the player’s future unlikely to be resolved until the end of Belgium’s World Cup run there is time for another team to muscle in.

While Theate has apparently specifically expressed an interest in playing in the Premier League, there is no suggestion that a move to Forest would be more appealing than a move to any other team – suggesting that Bournemouth could well be a serious contender for his signature if they do enter the market. With Marcos Senesi having left on a free transfer, they are certainly in need of a new centre-back.

Bournemouth seem to be maintaining a watching brief as it stands, however, suggesting that Forest have a good chance of getting a deal over the line in the coming weeks – but is Theate a player who can improve Vítor Pereira’s squad next season?

Theate would be a high-ceiling signing – with a few distinct drawbacks

The fact that Theate is a member of Belgium’s World Cup squad is a testament to his qualities – but the fact that his playing time at Frankfurt diminished over the second half of the season may also serve as a hint towards the downsides.

Theate found himself dropped by Frankfurt for the run-in after a bad knee injury impacted not only his fitness but his form, although neither concern dissuaded Roberto Martínez from calling him up for his second major tournament. Should he recapture his best form again, he would likely prove to be a very fine signings.

Equally comfortable at left-back or at centre-back, Theate is a genuine versatile defender who plays in both slots with regularity and looks at ease in both thanks to his technical quality. Theate is a fine passer and comfortable on the ball, making him highly press-resistant and capable of creating a strong base for possession.

He’s also blessed with excellent positional sense and is a superb one-on-one defender who lets very few ball-carriers dribble past him. When the ball is on the ground, he is a very fine defender. It can be a different matter against teams who take more direct routes to goal, however.

At 6’1”, Theate is tall and imposing enough but can struggle to get enough height when tested out by crosses, and his 40% win rate in aerial duels is a concern. It’s not a sufficiently serious weakness that it would immediately render him a bad signing, but it is an area in which he can fairly be said to be below average.

When playing left-back, he also lacks the dynamism to be effective on the overlap and seldom looks to get too far forward or to hit the byline in the hope of stretching defences – no doubt partly because his crossing has typically been poor. He completed just 8% of his attempted crosses last season, a long way below an average which usually hovers at around 22%.

In other words, Theate is a fine player with weaknesses that make him a bad fit for certain tactical systems or situations, and with at least some degree of concern over his form and fitness. For €20m, however, it’s a relatively low-risk gamble for Nottingham Forest to take – if they can get the deal over the line after the World Cup.

READ MORE: Eight World Cup stars who could be on their way to England this summer