Newcastle, Leeds and Crystal Palace all look set to be foiled in their bids to land starlet Brennan Johnson - with Nottingham Forest upping their efforts to pin him down to a new deal.
Wales international Johnson’s career is being watched over by David Beckham - a former teammate of the Forest youngster’s father David, at Manchester United.
Beckham has taken a major interest in the young Wales international, and has sent him several supportive messages in Instagram - when he scored his first goal, while on loan at Lincoln and after his performance in Forest’s FA Cup win over Arsenal.
Speedy 20-year-old Johnson has netted nine goals in 31 league games for Forest this season, as Steve Cooper’s side have pushed themselves into promotion play-off contention.
Forest turned down several bids, the highest of around £18 million from Brentford, for their home grown product in January who has also been linked with Everton and Burnley.
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Johnson is out of contract at the end of next season and has so far stalled on putting pen to paper on a new deal.
Dad David revealed that he had a meeting with Forest owner Evangelos Marinakis to try to resolve the issues last week - and said: “I spoke to the owner last week and had a very good chat with him. He came across really well.
”He told me how he sees the club and its future. We said great, we'll carry on talks. There's 15 games to go so let's sit down and try to get something sorted by the end of the season. We're in no rush.
”We knew Brennan was always going to stay through the January window.”
Forest boss Cooper has praised the maturity of Johnson and is not surprised Premier League clubs have been scouting him.
He said earlier this month: "What you see on a daily basis is a young player who is never late - who comes in with the right attitude and works hard in training.
"He wants to do extra and review how he can improve his game. He's a local boy and is very proud to play for the club.
"He comes from a lovely family and lovely home. I was never worried about him leaving because I see him every day.
“It's a good thing he's getting interest. It shows he's doing something right. We're enjoying working with him.
"I see the bits no one else sees - how hard he is working. Sometimes you have to be careful what you say about young players. You don't want them getting carried away.
"Sometimes they want the limelight, but Brennan is the opposite. He shies away from it.”
