Nottingham Forest opinion: Forest should not hesitate to sign Quentin Vieira

According to Nottingham Post, Nottingham Forest have taken former Lyon defender Quentin Vieira on trial for their pre-season fixtures, with reports claiming that the 20-year-old has emerged as the club’s first trialist of the summer.

Vieira spent four years as a teenager in the youth ranks at Lyon but he apparently failed to make the grade in France and was released by the Ligue 1 heavyweights earlier this summer.

That, however, hasn’t stopped Championship giants Forest from pursuing a keen interest in him.

It has been an eventful week for the two-time European Cup winners, with the club sacking legend Martin O’Neill after just five months in charge and replacing him with the relatively-unknown Sabri Lamouchi. 

Now, as it seems, Lamouchi is keen to add some fresh young talent to the club’s ranks and the new manager made his intentions clear by naming Quentin Vieira as a part of the 25-man squad for the pre-season friendly against Dundee United on Tuesday.

And he might as well become Forest’s second signing of the summer following the acquisition of Sammy Ameobi should he manage to impress the new manager in training.

Born in France to parents of Portuguese descent, Vieira started his career in the youth ranks of Saint-Etienne before being snapped up by bitter rivals Lyon back in 2015.

He signed a two-year trainee contract in the same year and penned a further two-year extension until this summer. The talented defender rose through the ranks quickly and featured prominently for the club’s U-19 side in the UEFA Youth League.

The 20-year-old didn’t make it to the U-23 side or the first-team due to stiff competition for places but he has now got a chance to impress and earn a new deal at the City Ground.

A left-footed central defender who can also play at left-back, Vieira has also represented Portugal at the youth level.

To put things into perspective, the news regarding Forest taking Vieira on loan is unlikely to create too much excitement amongst the fans at the City Ground.

However, his failure to make it to the first-team at Lyon should not put Forest off, given that he is still only 20 and very much in the developmental phase of his career. 

After all, Lyon are a big club with a reputation of nurturing quality young talents and he must have picked up some virtues over the course of his four-year stay in their youth ranks.

Vieira would probably only go into the U-23 side initially even if Forest offer him a deal, however, given that he is available for free, it won’t be a bad idea for the club to play a gamble on him.

Having failed in their pursuit of promotion last season, it remains to be seen what kind of approach club owner Evangelos Marinakis adopts in the transfer window this time around.

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Conclusion

Forest should not hesitate to offer Quentin Vieira a professional contract should he manage to prove his worth in pre-season, as his arrival could increase competition for places in the club’s youth ranks. Keeping that in mind, Forest should look at him as one for the future.