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'I was outside their stadium' - Ryan Yates reveals club he almost joined during Nottingham Forest struggles
Nottingham Forest captain Ryan Yates has admitted he was on the verge of a loan move away from the City Ground back in 2018 as he struggled to make a name for himself at the club.
The Forest academy product, who signed for the club as a boy in 2005, has become a key player for the Reds in recent years and has played all 12 games so far this season under Nuno Espirito Santo.
Six years ago, though, Aitor Karanka was in charge of the club and had deemed the now 27-year-old surplus to requirements, sanctioning a loan move with two days of the transfer window to spare, Yates told The Guardian.
He explained: "On deadline day I was going to Hull City… I was outside their stadium but they didn’t call me. I think they took someone else, so I was fired up when we played Hull."
Yates has since become something of a cult hero at Forest and was described by previous manager Steve Cooper as a "culture-setter".
He extended his stay at the club back in July by signing a new four-year contract which should keep him at the City Ground until he is 31. But recalling the loan move that never happened, Yates added: "I think people at Forest could see that even though I might have been a bit raw at the time, they could see how much it meant to me to play for the club and luckily I just held on for long enough.”
The Tricky Trees have experienced a sudden rise since those days - they finished 17th in the Championship in the 2017/18 campaign before an astounding promotion season under Cooper in 2021/22 leading to their current Premier League status.
Now in seventh in the top-flight, Forest are three points off the top four after a spectacular start to the new campaign under Nuno, who replaced Cooper in December last year.
