Nottingham Forest midfielder Lewis O’Brien remains in limbo, following the collapse of his deadline day move to Blackburn Rovers.
But today represents a significant signpost in deciding his immediate future, with the cut-off point looming for Rovers to submit their appeal to the English Football League. It comes after the 24-year-old had been due to join the Championship side on loan for the rest of the season, in a deal which would also include a purchase clause should promotion be achieved.
However, an issue over the timing of the paperwork being filed before last Tuesday’s 11pm deadline meant the switch was not approved by the EFL. Here is a look at what happens next.
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Appeal deadline
Blackburn have until 4pm this afternoon (Tuesday, February 7) to submit their appeal to the EFL in a bid to overturn their initial decision on O’Brien. As explained by our sister title LancsLive, the appeal will go directly to the EFL board.
Decision to be made
There is no specific timescale on when an outcome will be reached, with the EFL working on a case by case basis. Nevertheless, a decision could be made this week, to give clarity to everyone involved.
The EFL’s government team, who deal with transfers day to day, dealt with the matter initially. But the appeal case will be escalated above them, leaving it to the board to decide, which means a completely different group of representatives will have their say.
Likely outcome
Blackburn’s director of football, Gregg Broughton, has said he is not confident of the appeal being successful. "To be honest, not very,” he said last week.
“Not because I don't think we have really good reasons, because I think we do, but my understanding is nobody has ever won an appeal against a late submission to the Football League so we are going to have set a record to do it this time around."
What happens if the appeal fails?
O’Brien has been left out of Forest’s 25-man Premier League squad for the second half of the season. If Rovers are not successful with their appeal, he would have to join a club in a country whose transfer window remains open, if he wants game time in the coming months. Otherwise, he faces not playing competitively for the rest of the campaign.
Cooper’s view
Last week, Reds head coach Steve Cooper said of O’Brien’s situation: “Through conversations we agreed he could go on loan. After making that decision, two things happen - you let the player go and he hopefully has a positive experience, and then you plan around his departure.
“For that to happen, where it was no fault of Nottingham Forest’s - we did everything in very good time and very correct in the process - for him to be let down in the way he was at the end, is a problem that’s ended up back in our training ground.
“I feel for the lad. But we will find some solutions for him. We’ll look after him, we won’t let him down, that’s for sure. We treat our players better than that. Hopefully we can find a good solution for him, because he deserves it.”
Asked who had let O’Brien down, Cooper added: “It wasn’t us, that’s for sure. Even though we’ve ended up with the problem, it wasn’t us. It won’t take a genius to work out what’s happened. I hope some questions are getting asked over there, in Lancashire.
“We will look after Lewis. We won’t let him down. We’ll try to treat him like a professional footballer who works hard and cares about his career. We’ll try to treat him as best we can
“He’s frustrated. Through no fault of his own, he’s embarrassed.
“We made the decision that he could go. It wasn’t a straightforward decision or an easy one. I imagine our supporters quite like Lewis, the attributes he has and the energy he plays with.
“It wasn’t a straightforward decision to let him go, but we felt it was the correct one - not just for him, but also for us, so he could carry on developing - because he’s not that old, even though he has played a lot of games.
“Once you make the decision for our player, you expect it to be respected by other parties. Let’s just say, I hope we treat our players better.”
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