Town skipper Luke Chambers’s surprise return to his former club Nottingham Forest could take place before this evening’s 11pm deadline, TWTD understands.

News that Forest were making a shock move for their ex-skipper broke earlier this morning but with the Blues understood to be unwilling to allow their captain to move on.

However, we understand the 31-year-old is far from averse to a return to his old side, which he left for Portman Road on a Bosman in the summer of 2012, and discussions between the clubs are ongoing.

At a press conference a fortnight ago, the Kettering-born defender admitted his frustration that no new contract had been offered by Town with only six months remaining on his current deal, although the Blues have an option to keep him at Portman Road for another year.

Town are likely to want a not insignificant fee for Chambers, who manager Mick McCarthy would be loath to lose, recently describing him as “important to me as captain”, following previous reports of interest from Wolves.

Chambers joined Forest from Northampton in January 2007 and made 209 starts and 20 sub appearances, scoring 21 times, before moving on to the Blues.

Speaking after joining Town, Chambers said he had good memories of his time at the City Ground but admitted he wasn’t popular with supporters towards the end of his time there, largely due to comments which he felt were misinterpreted as “hammer[ing] the fans”.

Forest are currently without a manager, the latest incumbent Philippe Montanier having been sacked earlier this month. Academy manager Gary Brazil is currently the boss on an interim basis.

Town are understood to be working on a number of potential deals ahead of tonight’s deadline with McCarthy still searching for a striker to replace Daryl Murphy who departed for Newcastle towards the end of the summer window with the Blues boss appearing to have given up on persuading Preston to part with Jordan Hugill having had a £2 million bid rebuffed last week.

Photo: TWTD

Kesgraveblue57 added 12:15 - Jan 31 My opinion is to let him go and get a free for him, he's not happy at here and it was never a good captain not a born leader
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enlaw added 12:16 - Jan 31 The financial fair play rule is really starting to baffle me! Correct me if I'm wrong but it appears ME just uses it as an excuse.. Notts Forrest have this morning been linked to both Chambers and Ross McCormack! We can't even splash 2m+ I can't see light at the end of this tunnel with poor management on and off the pitch. Hey ho Knudsen will always provide funds through "you've been framed"

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blueboy1981 added 12:21 - Jan 31 ........ if it comes off Good Luck Chambo - can't say I would blame you for getting out of this shambles. Let's face it, the guy has done his best for this Club, continuously played out of his best position - and overall has deserved better. As for the 'running of this Club' .......... absolute JOKE.
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jas0999 added 12:23 - Jan 31 Whatever your view of Chambers as a right back, Chambers is our captain - a leader and just like Murphy in the last window a key player. We were supposed to be strengthening in this window. So far it's been five very low key, low budget players. Three short term, two with potential for the future. For me losing Chambers and failing to replace with a long term permanent player plus failing to replace Murphy, would be just that complete and utter failure from our owner. Sadly, with the way the club is run nowadays - they don't care - this isn't a surprise.

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bostonusablue added 12:25 - Jan 31 Want to bet our deadline day ends up with Chambers leaving and mysteriously none of the million pound players chased joining. Typical for Town.
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GiveusaWave added 12:27 - Jan 31 We will seriously struggle without him, I don't think this club has any idea what they would lose. rumour amongst NF fans that a striker might be coming our way on a 6 month loan, however not one of their main strikers. Hardly compensation for losing our Captain.
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midastouch added 12:28 - Jan 31 The other obvious thing would be for our player recruitment policy to offer very generous performance bonuses (and I mean above the norm). So offer players a rather average salary but then offer very big bonuses for certain key criteria. I.e. for goals, assists, clean sheets and so on. That way the key performers get the biggest rewards (make the bonus rewards really big carrots to make a substantial difference). That way the younger players stepping up will have a huge incentive to take their opportunity. When a player signs you show them what they will earn if they reach the required standard. So if they score 15 or 20 goals a season they will be on a very good earner, and rightly so as they will have earned it. if however you are just going to pass sideways for 90 minutes and have little effect on the game (to the extent half the fans forget the player was even on the pitch!) then they will just get their billy basic salary which is nothing to write home about in the modern era. Hungry players who believe in themselves would sign such a contract, has beens or players looking for a free lunch will look for easier options elsewhere. And that's fine by me! Reward the consistent performers, economise on the deadwood.

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blueboy1981 added 12:30 - Jan 31 Has any person (sane) following this Club, any confidence in anything that comes out of this Club anymore ??? ABSOLUTE SHAMBLES - and fast becoming a laughing stock - that we will never recover from. That's if we are not already there .... !!!
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Mick_Mills_Tache added 12:32 - Jan 31 I've been quiet on here as of late as I've lost 95% interest in the club now all thanks to Evans, Milne and McCarthy's ineptness. As for Chambers, have we not learnt about doing this sort of thing from the summer transfer window; re: Murphy. We still haven't even replaced him yet! As much as I have berated Chambers for being the worst right back in the league, losing him now would be shooting ourselves in the foot. A) he's the captain and is probably the only leader we have on the pitch and b) Taylor is injury prone and hasn't got clearance yet, Smith isn't match fit, Webster is out for the season, Berra is past his best, prone to mistakes and is out of form which leaves Digby, who, isn't good enough (IMO). The usual drivel of, "we tried, the funds were available, clubs were trying to hold us to ransom" will come out tomorrow no doubt. Bet the million pound bids they've been spouting about were for the likes of Diego Costa, Messi and Ronaldo...just to say they tried. No ambition. No plan and no passion. I've fallen out of love with my club.

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Campag_Velocet added 12:35 - Jan 31 If we get a fee for him, will we get to reinvest in in the team, or will that disappear into the same black hole that the Cresswell, Mings and Murphy money disappeared into?
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Cloddyseedbed added 12:35 - Jan 31 It seems ITFC transfer policy with ME and MM is to raise money in transfer fee's, which is good..............but. The replacements are players coming in on low wages, free's and injury prone has been's. Good luck selling season tickets next season. How many players have been through the door to sell Mings? If we do unearth a gem we don't use the money to progress, we use it to go backwards in paying a large squad of average players, many of whom aren't good enough and don't/won't feature in the 1st team. No forward planning, just getting by on a daily basis.

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blueboy1981 added 12:38 - Jan 31 ......... if he leaves - what's the bet that McCarthy will blame the supporters for Chambers becoming disillusioned with the Club ?? ........ can see it happening. Not the fact that he has continuously been played out of position, not offered another contract, or the fact that he has finally become 'bored' (putting it mildly) with McCarthy's tactics and style of play............ no, not never ...... !!!

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Sixto6 added 12:43 - Jan 31 Probably a good thing for all involved, he has been really poor for a couple of years now (yes I know he's not a RB - and that is down to our stubborn manager, and I feel for him for that). I'm also not convinced of his leadership skills ! Yes he shouts a lot, but there is no evidence he's saying the right things !?!? We look all at sea at the back and no get up and go elsewhere on the pitch ! It would be just like the top brass to sell him at 10:30pm and suddenly realise they're running out of time to find a replacement ! Come on Town sign someone to get us excited about the rest of the season !!!

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GiveusaWave added 12:43 - Jan 31 Rumours are pretty rampant right now but FORUM suggests that we may be giving away Chambers for free/nominal fee. Unbelievable decision by ITFC if true.
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Global_Blue added 12:44 - Jan 31 I can only see this making (marginal) sense if: - he plays tonight and the deal is officially done after the game and before the 11pm deadline. That way we have cover for this evening, have Taylor to fill the gap this weekend and we should have Smith back in a week or so. That would give us CB options of Taylor, Berra, Smith and Digby, which should be enough to see us through to the end of the season. - we get a substantial fee for him, although these days I've no idea what that means given the figures thrown about for players. I'd suggest at least £1m. - the money earned is put towards (in its entirety) a new quality and proven striker along with the 2 million already muted for Hugil. A £3m war chest for a striker might be enough to tempt one of the players we've been linked to over the last few weeks. With the 11pm deadline approaching some clubs might be keen to do a last minute deal. If all the above happened, then I consider it a good bit of business. Chambers has been a good captain. He's been played out of position and done so without complaint and has always worked hard, despite strong criticism. He's also shown he's a good CB when played there. So I think can leave the club with a good reputation and the thanks of the fans. I don't blame him for wanting to move on and get some certainty regards his future, especially with the Town dallying over his future contract and not being sure who the manager will be in the summer.

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Pedlarjak added 12:46 - Jan 31 Is he really daft enough or desperate enough to go to a club with no manager in place?
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blueboy1981 added 12:56 - Jan 31 .......Pedlarjak .......... he's got a few short months left on contract here - offered anything better (perhaps 2 years) at this stage of his career by another Club, has to be a no brainer - not a question of being daft or desperate at all.
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blueboy1981 added 12:57 - Jan 31 ........ irrespective of who the next Manager at Nottingham will be.
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GTRKing added 13:14 - Jan 31 I hope chambers don't leave but if he dose we need a replacement (Today)... Hopefully we will get a striker as we were promised one this transfer window
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BackTheBlues added 13:20 - Jan 31 I think most fans see the future of our back four something along the lines of Emmanuel Webster Smith Kenlock But with most of that injured and the dire state we're in. Selling our captain before this run of games would be Ludicrous to say the least! What are we playing at?
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cat added 13:25 - Jan 31 If he leaves today we are likely to get a fee, if he leaves at the end of the season it's likely to be on a free. I am clearly in the minority here but IMO he has no pace and his distribution is woeful, is this really the way forward long term, I personally think not!!. Once everyone is fit where will he play??, my guess is MM will revert him back to RB. Finishing on a positive It will give the youths more opportunity to play games.

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Jonnosdreadlocks added 13:36 - Jan 31 never bought into all his fistpump bs. Poor captain, ok centre half, terrible fullback. An overt favourite of MM, an undroppable like Skuse which is one of the factors we are such brown stuff.
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Facefacts added 13:46 - Jan 31 Hopefully this is just speculation, but I fear it is not. We don't make proper use of the January window. From the January we were top of the league, we then sleepwalked down to 6th by the end of the season. We could have strengthened the squad and gone up. I don't think that would have suited Mick. He would have been under pressure and pretty soon sacked. Even more so now, the club appears to be run on an ever tightening shoestring, so that a lid can be kept on match day ticket pricing. So we have no resources really working in the January window, just do enough to make one or two news stories, and react to what other clubs do in January, if it involves our players. We don't have the human or financial resources to be proactive, except looking at non-league players. We use Mick's tired excuse that there is no value in January, which I think Alex Ferguson also used to say, which is therefore unfortunately an outdated view. Because Mick says that, the rest of the club follows his lead. Very recently Marcus has said he won't let valued players run down their contracts and leave on a free. It's clear we don't particularly want to offer Luke Chambers a longer contract, otherwise we would have done it by now. Chambers has either been told, or just assumed by osmosis, that his current deal won't be improved. Players at his age always want 3 or 4 year deals. So it is down to what fee (or fee + player) are Forest offering, and whether it's acceptable to Marcus. He clearly wants to leave. This is the same situation as losing Murphy last August. The club could be better run during January by keeping alert and alive. I think we will let Chambo go. Money talks. I also think the 'relationship' between Mick and Marcus is breaking down, such as it was.

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Lord_Mac added 13:58 - Jan 31 I think it's best for Chambo to move on, as he won't be part of the plans for next season and shoehorning him will Bro the side has squeezed a better player out of the team. We have plenty of CB cover in Smith and Taylor, but will have to get by with digby tonight. The only argument against is that he's going to a rival in the relegation scrap, but the maths suggest that 47 points will be enough this year, so unlikely either will go down - only another 12 from 18!

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MVBlue added 14:00 - Jan 31 Warning : This changing room is Toxic !!! Forest can't buy players can they due to embargo? Ipswich sell their captain on last day if transfer window. Ipswich field full strength side and lose to Lincoln. Its not looking good for us. If only Berra hadn't got that red card.... Its all fallen apart by the looks of things.
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