Nottingham Forest are in a race against time to sell players with club under threat of ANOTHER points deduction... despite £47.5m Brennan Johnson sale last summer

Nottingham Forest know they have to sell players by June 30 if they are to comply with the Premier League's profitability and sustainability rules this time around.

Forest, who survived the drop, received a four-point deduction last season for breaching the league's financial rules and could face a similar fate if they do not act quickly.

Clubs must submit their accounts for 2023/24 by the final day of June with Premier League auditors then examining the three-year period up until then.

Under PSR, they are allowed to lose up to £105m across three years, or £35m per season.

And the Reds don't have long with the transfer window only opening on June 14, leaving them with two weeks to complete sales. 

Transfers can be agreed before then and then confirmed once the window is officially open. 

And i report that they will need to do so in order to avoid a further breach of regulations despite January's £47.5m sale of Brennan Johnson to Tottenham now being included in the figures.

The Johnson transfer formed a key part of Forest's defence when they appealed the four-point penalty earlier this year with the Appeal Board ruling that it could not be taken into account as was completed after June 30.

'The Brennan Johnson sale is now included in this year's figures,' football finance expert Kieran Maguire told i. 'They've got that boost to finances. And shifted some of the high earners off the payroll.'

'But it is not yet enough. Forest spent heavily after earning promotion to the Premier League via the Championship play-offs in May 2022, spending more than £100m to build a squad capable of staying in the league. Players such as Jesse Lingard and Jonjo Shelvey signed on high wages, but have since moved on.'

'Their wage bill for a club in their first season in the Premier League was ludicrous,' Maguire added. 'They were averaging £67,000 per week. So many players came on big deals.'