Alex Baena to Nottingham Forest - who is the £51m Villarreal star compared to Phil Foden?
Nottingham Forest are reckoned to be poised to smash their transfer record as they prepare to activate the £51 million release clause of Villarreal's Alex Baena.
The 23-year-old winger has been in fine form over the last 18 months, managing to pick up eight Spain caps, including an Olympic Gold medal for his efforts in winning the football at Paris 2024 - but who is he and how will he fit into head coach Nuno Espirito Santo's plans at the City Ground?
Baena has been in the Villarreal set-up since he was 10 years old, amassing 93 league appearances for the Yellow Submarine since his professional debut in 2020. He had a promising loan campaign for Champions League side Girona during their 2021/22 season, when they won promotion to La Liga.
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Baena, who is also attracting interest from Newcastle and Bayern Munich, has been a regular in Villarreal's starting line-up since. He notched 14 La Liga assists and two goals in the 2023/24 season and already has five goals and five assists in 18 league games this campaign. He has been utilised primarily on the left but can also play as an attacking midfielder or on the right.
Football statisticians, Football Reference, rank Villarreal's number 16 in the top 99 percentile for assists, expected assists and shot-creating actions in Europe's top five leagues. Based on these metrics, Football Reference most likens Baena's style to Premier League trio Phil Foden, Martin Odegaard and Kevin De Bruyne.
His current contract expires in the summer of 2028, but includes a £ 51 million release clause which has sparked intrigue from around Europe.
Forest are poised for an intriguing end to the transfer window as they look to build on a brilliant first-half of the season by pushing on for European qualification in the second. To that end, Nuno is looking to bolters both his squad's attacking and midfield ranks.
A £22 million bid has already been rejected by Brentford for the services of Yoane Wissa, but Nuno remains keen to relieve top scorer Chris Wood of some of the pressure to provide goals over the second half. He has been in superb form, scoring 14 league goals in 22 Premier League appearances this season. But, elsewhere, goals and assists have been lacking.
Morgan Gibbs-White is second in both the goal-scoring and assists charts, with four a piece, while Anthony Elanga and Elliot Anderson have both set up team-mates five times each this league season.
So Baena's versatility could be of use to Nuno as he rotates Gibbs-White, Elanga, Anderson and Callum Hudson-Odoi without a drop in the number of chances being created for Wood. If Yoane Wissa was also to join, the Congolese forward could be utilised as a backup striker to Wood or as a wide man to further provide much-needed cover.
With 10 days to go until the transfer window closes, fans will hope some business can be done to bring attacking reinforcements to be brought to the City Ground as Forest continues to hunt for an unexpected return to European football.
