Nottingham Forest are exploring a deal to re-sign Aston Villa right-back Matty Cash.
The 28-year-old is among Forest’s options as they look to strengthen the right side of defence. The club have also been pursuing a deal for Manchester City’s Rico Lewis.
Villa have not received a formal approach, with Cash’s current contract, which he signed in April 2022, running until 2027. There have been discussions over extending his stay in recent months.
A move to the City Ground would see Cash return to the club where he began his senior career and made 141 appearances, scoring 13 goals and providing 14 assists.
Forest are also interested in England international Lewis (Alex Pantling/Getty Images)
Cash left Forest, then a Championship club, to join Villa in a £14million (now $18.9m) deal, with potential add-ons, in 2020.
His salary would make it a potentially challenging deal for Forest, but he would be a cheaper all-round package than Lewis, who would command a much higher fee and stated publicly at the weekend he would like to stay at City.
The defender started Villa’s first game of the 2025-26 campaign, a 0-0 draw with Newcastle United on Saturday, and made 38 appearances last season under Unai Emery.
Villa’s transfer activity this summer has been stifled by various financial sanctions, such as the UEFA Squad Cost Rule (SCR), which states that a club can only spend up to 71 per cent of overall revenue on player salaries. Villa have had to be mindful of this, having had a previous wage to turnover ratio of 91 per cent.
As well as this, Villa’s need to sell was underlined by the departure of homegrown midfielder, Jacob Ramsey, who joined Newcastle. Villa also have to comply with UEFA’s Football Earnings Rule as this season will be their third successive campaign in European competition and thereby need to comply with the rule that states they cannot lose over €60million across that period.
This is tighter than the Premier League’s profitability and sustainability Rules (PSR), which permits losses of up to £105m over three years.
Ramsey’s departure has been followed by other players, including Leander Dendoncker to Real Oviedo and Leon Bailey, who is set to join AS Roma on a season-long loan with an option to make the move permanent. Villa hope to add players once they are compliant and are targeting a defender and an attacker.
Cash spent time in Wycombe Wanderers’ academy as a teenager before joining Forest in 2014. He had a one-month loan spell at Dagenham and Redbridge in 2016 before making his senior Forest debut in August of that year.
He joined Villa in September 2020 and has gone on to record 10 goals and 12 assists in 181 appearances for the club, helping the side qualify for the Champions League with a fourth-place league finish in the 2023-24 season.
Born in England, Cash represents Poland at international level and has been capped 19 times, appearing at the 2022 World Cup in Qatar.
Forest have been active in the transfer market this summer, securing the arrivals of Dan Ndoye from Bologna, Jair Cunha and Igor Jesus from Botafogo, Omari Hutchinson from Ipswich Town, James McAtee from City, Arnaud Kalimuendo from Rennes and Angus Gunn as a free agent.
(Top photo: Dan Istitene/Getty Images)