Nottingham Forest tried to do a swap deal for Dembele in the summer, but there has been no contact between the clubs recently

Peterborough United director of football Barry Fry has revealed Nottingham Forest tried to swap striker Tyler Walker for Posh star Siriki Dembele at the start of the season.
Tyler Walker (near) in action for Coventry City. Photo: Getty Images.Tyler Walker (near) in action for Coventry City. Photo: Getty Images.
Tyler Walker (near) in action for Coventry City. Photo: Getty Images.

Fry made the disclosure while rubbishing an online report of Forest trying to take Dembele on loan during the January transfer window before making the deal permanent in the summer.

Fry told Nottinghamshire Live: “It’s total rubbish and there’s not a cat in hell’s chance we would even consider that kind of deal.

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“There are Premier League clubs interested in Siriki, but he has 18 months left on his contract and we don’t want to lose our best players in January.

“I did speak to Ioannis (Vrentzos) at Forest at the start of the season about Siriki and they wanted to do a straight swap for Tyler Walker.

“While we liked Tyler, we did not feel he was in the same bracket so we told them that we were not interested.

“We’ve heard nothing more from Forest whatsoever and I’ve not spoken to Ioannis since that conversation at the start of the season.”

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Dembele handed in a written transfer request in January, but Posh will only sell him if they receive a multi-million pound offer.

Forest have changed manages to Chris Hughton since the start of the season. Walker, who scored against Posh for Lincoln last season, signed for Coventry City before the start of the 2020-21 campaign.