Chelsea are reportedly set to cut Andrey Santos’ loan spell with Nottingham Forest short, with the Brazilian teen having been handed just seven minutes of Premier League football since arriving at the City Ground. The Blues are poised to activate a break clause despite benefitting from a clever transfer trick that forces Forest to hand over money every time the midfielder fails to feature.
Chelsea splashed out £18million to sign Santos from Vasco da Gama at the start of the year before loaning the 19-year-old back to the Brazilian club. And ahead of the current campaign, the west Londoners decided to allow Santos to join Forest on a temporary basis.
Santos, who has won 11 caps for the Brazil under-20s side, played the full 90 minutes as Forest lost 1-0 to Burnley in the second round of the Carabao Cup in August. But he hadn’t made it onto the pitch in the Premier League until Forest manager Steve Cooper introduced him to the action during the closing stages of Forest’s 3-0 defeat to Liverpool at Anfield last month.
According to The Mirror, Forest are paying Chelsea a financial penalty every time he is overlooked when match fit. But the west Londoners still intend to terminate the loan deal prematurely. Santos is yet to feature in a competitive match for Chelsea but did impress during the club’s pre-season tour of the United States.
In October, Cooper explained that he was intending to hand Santos gametime when the time was right. “He’s been good. He’s obviously a really good young player,” Cooper told reporters. “I had a really good chat with Chelsea [about him] this week. I didn’t realise some stuff had been written about him.
“There’s a lot of new players here and we’re really trying to get the balance right in integrating all the players at the right time, while trying to perform as best we can in every single game to get the results we want. That’s a real process.
“With young players, sometimes it can take longer than others to settle in. I’m not saying he’s not, it’s just circumstantial at the moment in some of the games. But we’re really enjoying working with him and seeing him in training. We will continue with that process.”
Forest return to action on Sunday when they travel to West Ham in the Premier League. And Santos will be hoping to make his second top-flight appearance for the east Midlands team.
