Forest Waited for Garner on a Free and Missed

Nottingham Forest closed the summer window without James Garner, the Everton midfielder they once had on loan and spent months hoping to sign for nothing. Everton had already tied him down until the end of June 2030. The paper old scouting contacts called a selling tactic outlasted every late enquiry.

Deadline night then attached a different club’s name to him. David Moyes said that story was untrue. Garner started the new season in royal blue anyway.

Everton Tied Him Down Until June 2030

On 23 January 2026, with six months left on his old deal and a one-year club option sitting unused, Garner signed a four-and-a-half year contract running to the end of June 2030. He was 24. He had joined from Manchester United on deadline day in September 2022 for an undisclosed fee.

He had started every match in all competitions by then. Club figures put him top of the Premier League for combined tackles (64), interceptions (32) and key passes (27), 123 in total, and on the pitch for 2,274 of a possible 2,280 minutes. Moyes called him a midfielder turning into a leader, with the legs to fill in elsewhere.

I’m really excited to commit my future to Everton. I’m very grateful for all the support and all the love I’ve had over the past three-and-a-half years, but it’s just the start. I’ve got family members who are all Evertonians, so I know exactly the passion and, like I’ve just said, what it means to play for such a massive football club like this.

James Garner, Everton midfielder, to evertontv

He also said the aim was Europe, “nothing less,” and that he felt closer to a senior England call-up than at any point in a short career. The club posted the deal the same afternoon.

https://x.com/Everton/status/2014760290580152640

Mick Brown, the former West Ham and Manchester United scout, later read that paper as a way to guarantee a fee rather than a vow. Born in Birkenhead, with Evertonians in the family, Garner had not been forced to sign. The gap between those two readings is the whole argument.

Two Loans at the City Ground

Forest’s claim on him is older than any January clause. Manchester United sent him there in January 2021 after cutting short a Watford loan, then sent him back for 2021-22 after he signed a new Old Trafford deal to June 2024. He had been in United’s academy from the age of eight, debuted against Crystal Palace in February 2019, and made seven first-team appearances without locking down a role.

GARNER AND FOREST, FROM LOAN TO DEADLINE

1. January 2021: Joins Forest on loan from Manchester United after Watford is cut short, then scores four times in 20 league games.
2. 22 August 2021: Signs a United deal to June 2024 and returns to the City Ground for a season-long loan.
3. May 2022: Plays in Forest’s Championship play-off final win at Wembley as the club goes up.
4. 2021-22 season: Makes 49 appearances, with four goals and 10 assists in all competitions, per Everton’s own biography.
5. September 2022: Leaves United for Everton on deadline day instead of a permanent Forest return.
6. 1 September 2026: Summer window shuts at 11pm. Forest do not sign him.

That 2021-22 run is why the admiration never quite died. He was already a Forest player in the promotion year, on loan, cheap, and available again in theory once the United contract wound down. Waiting for a free was the clean version of a reunion they had already rehearsed.

What Happened to Forest’s Interest in Garner?

Oliver Glasner still wanted another central midfielder after selling Elliot Anderson to Manchester City. Forest had tracked Harrison Armstrong, Garner’s teammate, and talks over an initial £35 million structure were considered at Everton and never accepted. On 1 September, Brown told club briefings not to be surprised if Forest moved for Garner himself, “very highly thought of there, after his loan spell from Man United a few years ago,” as the Anderson replacement.

They did not complete that move. The window’s midfield answer at the City Ground was already in the building.

HOW FOREST FILLED THE ANDERSON HOLE

• The free signing: Glasner’s first midfield add was Xaver Schlager on a free transfer from RB Leipzig, a player he already knew from Wolfsburg.
• The in-house fix: As pre-season went on, Glasner trusted James McAtee in a deeper role rather than paying Everton prices for a second eight.
• The missed targets: Lucas Bergvall stayed at Tottenham after the clubs disagreed on value, and Armstrong stayed at Everton after fans erupted at the talks.
• The Garner file: Brown’s deadline-day warning never became a completed transfer.

Forest still needed a midfielder on 1 September. They also had cheaper ways to patch the hole than buying an England international whose deal had just been pushed to June 2030. The romance was a reunion. The budget bought Diomande, Delap and Munoz, and used a free Austrian instead of a Merseyside fee.

A Late Chelsea Story Moyes Called Untrue

The name that actually dominated the 48 hours after the window was not Forest’s. Briefings claimed Chelsea, hunting a midfielder after moving Enzo Fernandez, made a late run at Garner and were prepared to go to £65 million, only for Everton to refuse so close to 11pm. Moyes was asked about it on 4 September.

WHAT WE KNOW

• The contract: Garner is signed through the end of June 2030, so any buyer needs Everton’s consent and a fee large enough to justify a hole in Moyes’s midfield with hours left on the clock.
• The Forest file: Brown publicly linked Forest to a late bid on 1 September. No deal followed.
• The manager: Moyes said the Chelsea version was false.

WHAT IS UNCONFIRMED

• A formal Chelsea bid: The £65 million figure circulated after the window. It has not been backed by a filing or by the Everton bench.
• A formal Forest bid: Interest is documented. An offer is not.
• January: Fresh briefings still float a winter move. Nothing is agreed.

What was said was completely untrue, so I don’t know where that’s come from. There’s no truth in that whatsoever.

David Moyes, Everton manager, to reporters, 4 September 2026

A four-and-a-half-year deal is how a club says no at 10pm even while other sales are flying through. Whether Chelsea ever sent the email, the number attached to him in public was already far above the free Forest once waited for. That is the joke inside the tactic Brown described. If the paper existed to force a fee, it also existed to make that fee easy to reject.

How Good Was James Garner Last Season?

The player Forest would have been buying in September is not the loanee who left in 2022. He started all 38 Premier League matches in 2025-26 and played 3,413 minutes, the most of any Everton outfielder, then won Everton Men’s Player of the Season. He finished the league campaign with two goals and seven assists. Thomas Tuchel still left him out of the World Cup squad.

GARNER’S 2025-26 SEASON

• Club load: 38 Premier League starts and 3,413 minutes, the high mark among Everton outfielders.
• End product: Two league goals and seven assists, after Moyes had asked him to add more than tackling and switches of play.
• England: A first senior cap against Uruguay on 27 March 2026 in a 1-1 draw at Wembley, then a second against Japan four days later.
• The snub: Two friendlies, no World Cup place, after Tuchel had used him in midfield and seen 93 percent passing, four key passes and five crosses on debut.

England list him as legacy number 1299, 6ft 1in, right-footed, from Birkenhead. The national-team ledger gives him two senior England caps and no goals, a start against Uruguay (69 minutes) and a 19-minute cameo against Japan in a 0-1 defeat. He had already won the 2023 Under-21 European Championship with Lee Carsley, often at right-back.

That international step is what changed the market around a contract Forest hoped would expire. A Championship promotion midfielder on loan is a reunion. An England eight with a deal to 2030 is a different spreadsheet, which is why the cheap version of the chase died in January even if the compliments did not.

Deadline Day Took Ndiaye, Not Garner

The retention test in the source briefings was never the clause. It was whether Everton still looked like a club going somewhere in the summer that tested Everton’s project. The window that followed was messy in attack and busy in midfield.

EVERTON’S SUMMER ARRIVALS

On the way out, Iliman Ndiaye joined Manchester City, Beto joined Fiorentina, Tim Iroegbunam joined Hull City and Nathan Patterson joined Torino, all dated 1 September, while a late striker move collapsed. Moyes said he had 18 senior players and was looking at free agents. Midfield was the one department they stocked: Hackney, Nørgaard, Röhl, plus Garner and Armstrong still in the building.

He has already been used as a full-back again. Everton’s own current-season line has him on four appearances, three starts and 214 minutes, with 130 of 140 passes completed and 12 tackles won from 19. Against Manchester United on 6 September he played 77 minutes of a 2-2 draw at Hill Dickinson Stadium, shifted to right-back, then went off after going down with a problem. Maitland-Niles, on for him, scored on debut.

Forest wanted him cheapest, on a free, after two loans that had already proved the fit. Everton signed him through June 2030, sold other senior pieces on the same night a £65 million story attached itself to his name, and still sent him out for the new season in the No. 37 shirt. The next enquiry, if it comes in January, starts from that paper, not from a handshake at the City Ground.