Glasner Stakes Forest’s Start on a Free Midfielder

Xaver Schlager played all 90 minutes in Nottingham Forest’s 0-0 draw with Tottenham Hotspur on 5 September. The Austria midfielder had arrived on a free transfer on 23 July as Oliver Glasner’s first signing, on a two-year deal after RB Leipzig let his contract run down.

Forest have two points from three Premier League games and sit 16th. Glasner is still waiting for a first win. Schlager is already in the middle of the wager that brought him to the City Ground.

A Two-Year Deal for Nothing

Forest appointed Oliver Glasner as head coach on 6 July, 17 days before Schlager put pen to paper. The 28-year-old, born in Linz on 28 September 1997, signed a contract that runs to 30 June 2028 and took shirt number 21. Transfermarkt lists his value at €10 million.

He had just started all four of Austria’s World Cup games. He played 59 minutes and made an assist in a 3-1 win over Jordan, the full 90 in a 2-0 loss to Argentina, then 45 minutes each against Algeria (3-3) and Spain. Spain ended Austria’s tournament 3-0 on 2 July. He has 55 caps and four international goals.

It is a huge honour to join Nottingham Forest. It is a very traditional club with a big history, winning two European Cups under Brian Clough. I wanted a new challenge and to join a club with good players, and I am happy to be reunited with Oliver, who I know from my time at Wolfsburg. The club has big ambitions and so do I. I want to be back in European competitions and we have a good chance. It is the best feeling to play internationally during the week, and I want to achieve that.

Xaver Schlager, Nottingham Forest midfielder

Chief football officer George Syrianos called him a leader with years at the highest level in Europe and said there was a strong feeling he could make an immediate impact. The club posted its welcome the same afternoon.

https://x.com/NFFC/status/2080277248477708415

Schlager had been vice-captain at Leipzig, with 108 games and five goals across four seasons, plus a DFB-Pokal in 2023. He won the Austrian Bundesliga four times with Red Bull Salzburg. At Wolfsburg he played under Glasner in a side that reached the Europa League last 16 and finished fourth in the Bundesliga. He has 150 Bundesliga games and seven league goals.

Leipzig Opened the Door in February

The move only existed because Leipzig and Schlager decided not to extend his contract in February. Sporting director Marcel Schäfer said the club had tried intensively, over a long period and in several rounds, to keep him, and then accepted a choice to start a new chapter. The process, Schäfer said, had been honest and open.

Schlager put it more simply. The wish to try something else had been stronger. It was not a decision against Leipzig, he said, but for something new, and he would give everything until the last whistle. He also said he would never forget the 2023 cup and Super Cup nights.

There was a harder edge behind the polite language. After a second cruciate tear in May 2024 and a muscle injury that followed, Schlager barely featured in 2024/25. Schäfer did not attach a pay rise to the new offer. Other clubs had looked. Forest, with Glasner already in the building, were the ones who moved.

Walking out of a Champions League midfield for a Forest side that has not won since he arrived is the other half of the bet. He did not stumble into the City Ground. He chose it, on a free, with a manager he already trusted.

Two Cruciate Tears, Then 26 League Games

The medical file is why Leipzig could let a World Cup starter leave for nothing. Transfermarkt records two cruciate ligament tears on his record, 155 days and 30 games missed after 30 August 2021, then 209 days and 32 games after 4 May 2024. The 2024/25 season that followed was thin: 122 days out, 22 games missed, only four Bundesliga appearances.

THE ABSENCES BEHIND THE FREE

Last season was the reply. Schlager played 26 Bundesliga games and scored three times, plus four DFB-Pokal matches. He still lost 47 days to a muscle injury in September, a short calf problem in November, and adductor pain from 22 February to 12 March, two games missed, close enough to the World Cup to make a medical nervous. Then he started every Austria match at the tournament.

That is the wager in one file. A 1.74m left-footed central midfielder who can cover ground and talk a dressing room through a press, with two rebuilt knees and a full league season finally back on the board.

Anderson Left and Bergvall Never Arrived

Forest did not sign Schlager as a like-for-like for Elliot Anderson. Anderson moved to Manchester City in the summer. Tottenham’s Lucas Bergvall was the first-choice replacement, and the clubs never agreed a price. Late in the window Forest also tried Everton’s Harrison Armstrong and Liverpool’s Trey Nyoni. None of those deals landed.

Glasner had already said he wanted a smaller group and more quality. Deadline day brought loan exits for Zach Abbott and Morato, not another midfielder. The head coach said he was pleased with the window, that Forest had wanted to cut numbers and add players with top character, and that he thought they had achieved everything. He now lists 21 on-field players, two for each position, with one extra in attack.

FOREST’S SUMMER ARRIVALS

• Xaver Schlager: Free agent from RB Leipzig, two-year contract, first signing of the Glasner era.
• Ousmane Diomande: Centre-back from Sporting CP, reported £34 million, four-year deal with an extra year option.
• Liam Delap: Striker from Chelsea, club-record initial £45 million, add-ons that can take it to £50 million, five-year contract.
• Daniel Muñoz: Right wing-back from Crystal Palace, about £22 million, a player Glasner already knew.
• Steven Benda: Backup goalkeeper on a free, one-year deal with an option.
• Gustavo Sá: Signed from Famalicão and loaned straight to Olympiacos.

The expensive spine of the window is Diomande, Delap and Muñoz. Schlager is the cheap one who already speaks the manager’s language. James McAtee, signed a year earlier from Manchester City, is the player Glasner has been shifting into a deeper role to cover the Anderson minutes. That is the objection that keeps coming back: the free transfer is not the £116 million ghost. McAtee is.

Has the Wager Started to Pay?

On the pitch, the early evidence is better than the table. Glasner still has no win. Schlager already looks like a Forest midfielder.

GLASNER’S FIRST FOUR MATCHES

1. 22 August 2026: Forest lose 0-1 at home to Leeds in the league. Schlager comes off the bench. Glasner said some players had only two, three or six weeks of pre-season and he did not want to start them because he could not risk a physical substitution later.
2. 25 August 2026: Forest lose 0-2 at home to Leeds in the League Cup, another blank at the City Ground.
3. 29 August 2026: Forest draw 2-2 at Liverpool. Dan Ndoye scores in the 24th minute and Morgan Gibbs-White converts a 70th-minute penalty. Schlager starts, takes two shots, and is not overrun in midfield.
4. 5 September 2026: Forest draw 0-0 at home with Tottenham. Schlager plays the full 90, breaks up play, and is named among the best on the pitch. Neco Williams has a second-half finish ruled out by VAR for handball. Liam Delap makes his first league start. Forest still have no goal in three home games under Glasner.

Forest visit Aston Villa on 12 September, then host Coventry City on 19 September. They have scored twice all season, both at Anfield. The home wait now runs through three Glasner games and a longer barren stretch that started under the previous two managers.

A free agent pushing 29, with that injury list, is the kind of signing people talk down until they watch him. After Tottenham he looked calm, carried the ball when the game let him, and talked teammates through a spell when Spurs had the territory. The adjustment to Premier League tempo is still there in the extra half-second he sometimes wants. The 90 minutes were not a cameo.

Sangaré Stayed and McAtee Dropped Deeper

Ibrahim Sangaré, who signed a new contract after the World Cup on 28 July through 30 June 2029, is the physical partner in that midfield. McAtee is the one being asked to receive in tighter spaces and play the Anderson passes. Schlager is the lieutenant who already knows how Glasner wants the press to start, because he ran it at Wolfsburg.

Glasner left Crystal Palace after the Conference League in May, the third coach to have won both that trophy and the Europa League, and took a three-year contract at Forest through 30 June 2029. Muñoz followed him from Selhurst Park at the end of August. Schlager was the earlier reunion, and the cheaper one.

We wanted to reduce the number of players and also add quality players with top character. I think we achieved everything.

Oliver Glasner, Nottingham Forest head coach

Forest go to Villa Park on 12 September with two points, a 16th-place start, and a midfielder who has already made a free transfer look useful. The first win is still outstanding.