The Telegraph have revealed that Nottingham Forest could be set to argue that Brennan Johnson’s sale to Tottenham should be taken into account in a bid to escape Premier League’s Profit and Sustainability sanctions.
Forest and Everton were both charged with breaking the spending rules this week (BBC) and potentially face a points deduction, which would be Everton’s second of the season.
The period in question concerns the three-year period ending on June 30, 2023, with the rules allowing teams to post a maximum cumulative loss of £105m in those three years.
Nottingham Forest point to Johnson’s sale to Spurs
It is explained that Forest are confident of avoiding sanctions and the crux of their argument is expected to be for the £47.5m sale of Johnson to be accounted for, even though it happened nearly two months after June 30.
The reports says that the club’s legal team will argue that they could have sold Johnson before June 30 but would have had to accept a much lower fee for the winger.
In fact, the Midlands club allegedly rejected two offers of £30m and £35m from Brentford for the Wales international earlier in the summer, and instead sold the winger to Tottenham for a premium towards the end of the transfer window.
As a result, Forest’s legal team are expected to argue that profits from Johnson’s sale should be taken into account, thus putting their total loss for that period below the aforementioned £105m threshold.
Spurs Web Opinion
One can certainly understand Forest’s point as it would have been counter-productive for them to sell Johnson for a considerably lower value than the one they knew they would get for him later in the window.
However, they were always aware of needing to submit their accounts on June 30. So, it remains to be seen if their argument is entertained.
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