Report: Nottingham Forest shocked that Premier League club didn’t sign their 28-year-old this summer

Nottingham Forest were shocked that Luton Town didn’t take up their option to sign Ethan Horvath on a permanent basis. The stopper has been on the bench for the Reds for the opening four games of the 2023/24 campaign.

According to The Athletic, the Reds were hopeful that Rob Edwards would activate the clause and take him to Kenilworth Road on a permanent basis. Horvath, will now remain at the City Ground, unless a club in Europe lands him before a number of deadlines.

The 28-year-old was quality for Luton last season. He kept an impressive 20 clean sheets as the Hatters completed their fairytale and reached the promised land of the Premier League by winning the Play-Off Final.

Now, he will find himself in limbo, unless he can find a move somewhere. Forest added Matt Turner to their ranks in the summer and Odysseas Vlachodimos signed for the club on transfer deadline day to provide competition.

Horvath signed for Forest from Genk in 2021. He was signed to provide backup to Brice Samba and made 11 appearances for the Reds as they won promotion during the 2021/22 campaign.

Forest shocked that Luton didn’t sign Horvath

This was a bit of a disappointment from a Forest perspective. Horvath is surplus to requirements and with Wayne Hennessey also at the club, it’s unlikely that he will be playing any football this season.

Hopefully, something can be done before a number of deadlines across Europe close. Horvath will want to continue getting called up by the USA and he’s unlikely to do that without playing football.

Forest goalkeeper Horvath is a decent character in the dressing room at the City Ground. He’s deputised for his compatriot Turner in the first five games in all competitions but he would surely jump at the chance to play regular football.

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The narrow reverse at Kenilworth Road, which was hosting a first top flight game in over 30 years, saw the Hatters go into the international break sitting second bottom of the division, and without a point to their name from the opening three matches.

However, it wasn’t a major cause of concern to Andersen, who felt his side had gone close to getting themselves on the board against the Hammers, saying: “There’s loads of positives I think, we kept them away from many chances, they were just very clinical on the ones they had.

“We created a lot of chances to score, we did the basics better than we had done in the previous games, so loads of positives.

“This is not a sprint, it’s a marathon and I’m sure you can see we’re improving every game.

“The lads are going to keep on going, we’re going to keep working hard in training and learning from the games.”

After a positive opening half hour in which Luton went close through Ross Barkley twice, the former Everton and Chelsea midfielder dragging both efforts wide, David Moyes’ side then started to make their extra quality show.

Jarrod Bowen and Said Benrahma threatened, before the former opened the scoring on 37 minutes, when left unmarked by Ryan Giles and Amari’i Bell, his header having enough on it to beat Thomas Kaminski.

Towering centre half Kurt Zouma made it 2-0 with five minutes to go from James Ward-Prowse’s corner, as the manner of both goals certainly annoyed Andersen, who continued: “It’s so frustrating and that’s something we’ve got to learn from.

“We shouldn’t concede from a corner, we’d been dealing with the corners so well the whole game.

“You have to really be ready and in this league they’re going to punish you, so that’s a little bit disappointing.

“But we have to look at the positives also, there’s so many good things, so we have to keep working hard, that’s it.”

Meanwhile, on having to wait over a week before Luton’s next game, a trip to Craven Cottage to face Fulham, Andersen added: “I want to keep going, but it’s good, we can take a look at all the games and everything we’ve got to improve on.

“We’ll work hard on the training pitch and then be ready for the next game.”