EXCLUSIVE: Good news as Nottingham Forest now make firm decision on future of 25-year-old who is now set to stay at City Ground beyond this January as Nuno make bold move to keep player

Nottingham Forest have fought off interest in Orel Mangala, with the Belgian now set to remain at the City Ground.

This news comes from the Daily Express.

Well, it has to be said that this is great news. Forest would be losing a quality player had they let Napoli snare the 25-year-old away. According to the Daily Express, Forest have now decided to keep Mangala, with Nuno Espirito Santo happy with his performances.

The 25-year-old had agreed personal terms with Napoli but now they’ve signed Leander Dendoncker from Aston Villa instead.

The Naples-based outfit won’t be signing two midfielders this month and now Mangala will remain at Forest. With Ibrahim Sangare and Cheikhou Kouyate at the African Cup of Nations, this is certainly positive news for Forest.

Mangala has been instrumental of late and has made 19 appearances this season, scoring once back in November. He’s been called ‘wonderful’ in the past by TNT commentator Darren Fletcher who is a big fan of the player.

In our view, this is very sensible from a Forest perspective, with Mangala one of the top-performing players in the squad.

According to Who Scored, the midfielder has the best pass-success ratio of any Forest midfielder at the moment. With that in mind, Espirito Santo is making the right call to keep him and Forest can ill-afford to lose too many top players.

Mangala always gives his all in the Forest engine room and of late, he’s stepped up to grasp a regular place.

Fighting off Napoli and Juventus was always going to be tough but it’s great to see Forest stand firm with this one.