Nottingham Forest owner Evangelos Marinakis held a meeting in London last week in a bid to persuade Brennan Johnson to sign a new contract.
Marinakis met with the Wales international's father, David Johnson, the former Reds striker, amidst intense interest in the winger's signature.
Talks were first broached in December 2020 when Brennan was on loan at Lincoln, but his father was concerned about playing opportunities under former manager Chris Hughton and the discussion went no further, Johnson said.
Johnson Snr told the Garibaldi Red podcast formal talks first took place last September and, although a deal is not close to being signed, he gave fans hope one could yet be agreed, with Brennan's current deal set to expire next summer.
"(Initially) I said let's get the wheels in motion and wait until September when the window has closed and the manager can bring his own players in," he said.
"If Brennan was part of his plans we'll consider signing. If he's not then there's no point. We got to September and spoke to Dane (chief executive Dane Murphy). The contract offer wasn't very good.
"Our next contract talks were in December when they had a bid of £10m plus (from Brentford) and I said it wasn't the right time to be talking, Brennan should just focus on the first team.
"We knew Brennan was always going to stay through the January window. That was the fact of the matter.
"I spoke to the owner last week and had a very good chat with him down in London. He was fantastic. 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, but it's so busy it will probably be by email or something.
"That's where we're at. Everyone thinks it's like deadline day and you have an hour to agree the contract.
"It's not. The club take their time. We're in no rush and everything is going really well.
"The club have been brilliant and we'll get there in the end."
Forest rejected what would have been a club record fee when Brentford returned with another offer for Brennan late in the transfer window. This weekend, Crystal Palace were linked with the 20-year-old, while Newcastle United, Leeds United and Leicester City have also been linked.
The Reds could yet earn a place in the Premier League next season as they sit ninth in the Championship, three points off the play-offs.
David Johnson says his son is happy at the City Ground and would turn down moves he does not feel were right for him, but in the end Forest could accept an offer from a club where the prospects are more encouraging, if they fail to win promotion.
"If the club came to us and said we are taking this offer but it's not the right club for Brennan, he would stay. At this minute we've not agreed a contract. We're not close, we're just talking," he said.
"He's really happy playing under this manager. He's been fantastic and so have the players by the way.
"Hopefully we'll see what happens in the summer. Brennan has ambitions of playing in the Premier League, but what's he's good at is, he'll go there when he's ready.
"He doesn't want to be a squad player or someone for the future. He wants to make an impact. That might be this year or the year after.
"Until the season is finished, who knows. If we go to the Premier League, this is the place he wants to be at - in his home city with his home fans.
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"He's enjoying every week. You can only control the controllables. Forest hasn't changed.
"We'd like to keep young players and build a team around them but there's always been circumstances where we've had to sell them.
"Sometimes it's out of our control. Come the end of the year, it's Premier League or nothing. I feel like that is the reason my son gets sold or not."
You can listen to the full podcast here or watch it here, as Johnson discusses the influence of Steve Cooper and Forest's chances of winning promotion this season.
