This morning sees the Johnson to Forest transfer taking a number of different directions. Town are variously claiming that there has been a second offer from Forest for the striker, while George Burley said on Radio Suffolk this morning that there hadn't.

Meanwhile in the Midlands David Platt has been reported as saying he hadn't made another offer, but we also hear from other Nottingham related sources that negotiations have been ongoing since the original offer of £2.5 million. The implication of this presumably being that the deal possibly being put together is of the £2.5 million/£3 million plus some form of appearances/promotion/goals top-up to Town.

The player himself is quoted at the reserve game at Watford last night where he scored a first half goal: "You think I would be playing here if I had joined someone else?"

The game at Watford was watched by scouts galore many of whom left as soon as Johnson was substituted in the 75th minute.

So what do we make to it all? Well, for starters it seems clear from George Burley's comments after the Birmingham game that David Johnson is unhappy at not playing first team football. Burley said: "I've spoken to David and he wants first team football, but at the moment I can't offer him that. He will decide if he wants to go. If he doesn't want to then we are happy to keep him as he has been a tremendous asset."

However, Burley and Sheepshanks have both consistently said that they don't need to get rid of players and Sheepshanks said very firmly on Saturday that he wasn't going to let Johnson go. He said he was important back-up for Marcus Stewart particularly in the Worthington Cup, a competition in which Alun Armstrong can't play. But, as with any player, there must come a point when an offer is too tempting for Town bosses to turn down. And with David Johnson in the reserves his value is going down all the time and not up.

And what of these other scouts at last night's game? Could someone else be about to make an offer for the striker? If Johnson is less than keen on joining a First Division club he would almost certainly jump at the opportunity of first team Premiership football should an offer come in.

I think there could be quite a lot of this story still to run...

Town's reserves beat Watford 2-1 at Vicarage Road last night. The Town goals came from David Johnson and Nabil Abidallah. Town side: Salmon, Artun, Karic, Nicholls, Miller, Brown, Bloomfield (Westlake 46), Abidallah (Ambrose 75), Johnson (Midgley 75), Logan and Friars. Unused: Pullen and Snowdon.

If anyone who was at the game wants to write a short report mail it to us and we'll post it on the site and mail it round.

Photo: Action Images

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