Paul Merson has revealed in an interview with the Express and Star that Nottingham Forest had mentioned a player swap deal for Matt Fryatt.

Merson’s nightmare scenario has always been that an offer will be made for the England under 19 star that the club and player will want to accept, but too late for him to look for a replacement before the transfer deadline.

One answer to that is, of course, a player in exchange for at least part of the fee and, this week, as he expects an increased offer from Forest for Fryatt, Merson has revealed that their former Ipswich Town and Crewe star David Johnson was verbally offered to him as part of the unacceptable opening gambit.

While it is likely that Forest will come back with more cash this week, it still seems unlikely that Fryatt will want to move to another club in the same division and Johnson’s wage demands would be likely to be too high for the Saddlers, although Merson has said in the paper that he is an admirer of the player and he does have similar attributes to Julian Joachim and could play the lone striker role in the 4 5 1.