Feyenoord sporting director Dennis te Kloese has admitted neither the club nor striker Santiago Gimenez were ever 'convinced' by Nottingham Forest's interest.

As Nuno Espirito Santo hoped to add a forward to his ranks before the close of the summer transfer window, one name on Forest's list was Gimenez's. At 23-years-old with a record of 53 goals across 90 appearances in Dutch football, it was evident why this was the case.

However a heavily-hyped chase heading into the final week of the window, one that saw three incrementally building offers, ended in the club's failure to land the target. It ultimately came down to the player's preference to steer clear of a move to the City Ground - a decision his sporting director now discloses the details of.

"I think that Santi has shown in the past two years that he is a very important player for Feyenoord," Te Kloese began to tell ESPN. "The statistics also speak for him. I think that he had a fantastic first half of the season last year, in which he was very valuable in the second half of the season.

"I think that the expectation was that several clubs outside of Nottingham Forest would come. They did come, fortunately we were able to keep that internal. I think that he was not one hundred percent convinced about Nottingham. And we as a club were not one hundred percent convinced about a transfer to Nottingham. That is why we decided to sit down with him and his management, well we are just going to continue."

Forest also missed out on Eddie Nketiah over a misalignment in negotiations, he later moved to Crystal Palace, then Omar Marmoush finally rejected a switch to England so that he could continue with Eintracht Frankfurt.

As Gimenez does the same in Rotterdam, Te Kloese added more on the leadership role the Mexican is expected to step into this season plus his pleasure in the club calling the shots over their transfers rather than succumbing to Europe's major leagues.

He continued: "We have a lot of obligations. Eredivisie, Champions League, cup. You are also moving into a different role. Perhaps a bit more of a leadership role. I am not sad about it at all. And on the other hand. I cannot just respond to every interest from every club abroad of our player and just throw players out the door.

"We can give trainers fantastic facilities to put their best foot forward. We can give players a wonderful platform to play themselves into the spotlight and make another transfer. We are in the fortunate position that not everything has to be done."

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