Murillo Santiago Costa dos Santos, known mononymously as Murillo joined Nottingham Forest from Brazilian club Corinthians in the summer of 2023 for a five-year deal that cost the Tricky Trees €12 million with an additional €3 million in potential add-ons. Since then, he has gone on to make 36 appearances for Nottingham Forest, with four coming in the FA Cup and 32 in the Premier League.
Those performances have seen the 21-year-old Brazilian catch the eye of his national team, who are looking for ways to get him into the setup. More than that, he is now the subject of another North London derby.
According to Football Insider, Arsenal and Tottenham Hotspur are preparing bids to sign the player who Forest now deems to be worth more than five times what they paid for him to Corinthians. His current value is set at €70 million but it is not deterring either side, who believe that he will be a massive upgrade to their current centreback options.
For Spurs, interest in Murillo comes after they invested in centrebacks Micky van de Ven and Radu Dragusin last season. Arsenal, on the other hand, currently have the best centreback pairing in the league and one of the best in the world in William Saliba and Gabriel Magalhães while having the likes of Jakub Kiwior and Ben White who have been forced out wide to give them playing time. This makes their interest in Murillo a bit of a surprise, seeing as none of these defenders are on the chopping block.
Forest are being forced to listen to offers for many of their top talents because of their financial standing with the league. They need to raise at least €20 million to €30 million in transfer fees by the end of June to be able to fall into the allowed profitability and sustainability threshold of the league.
One other player they are looking to sell is Taiwo Awoniyi, who was unable to affect the Tricky Trees season as much as he did in 2022/23 due to recurring injuries. He played only 23 games for Forest in all competitions but managed nine goal contributions (6G 3A) for the team. West Ham United are reportedly interested in his services.
Awoniyi’s replacement is another player from Corinthians, Carlos Miguel – who has reportedly agreed to move to the City Ground.
It remains to be seen how they will navigate deals for Murillo and Awoniyi in the coming weeks.
