Nottingham Forest have been dealt a blow in their bid to bring Lee Buchanan to the City Ground this summer.

What's the talk?

That's according to a claim made by Alan Nixon, with The Sun journalist revealing in a post on Twitter that Dane Murphy's second bid for the Derby County left-back has been rejected by the Rams.

Nixon continues by stating that the offer was much improved on the initial proposal, however, it that it still fell some way short of an amount that would see Wayne Rooney's side consider parting with the 20-year-old this summer.

In his tweet, the journalist said: "Forest. New and improved bid for Lee Buchanan. Derby said no. Latest package definitely better but not yet enough."

Murphy masterclass

While Murphy has not been Nottingham Forest's CEO for a great deal of time whatsoever, if the American can manage to convince the club's fiercest of rivals to part with one of their most promising talents ahead of next season, it would undeniably be something of a masterclass by the chief executive.

Indeed, the left-back demonstrated a significant amount of promise over his 35 Championship appearances for Derby last season, helping his side keep seven clean sheets, as well as making an average of 0.9 interceptions, 1.6 tackles, 2.3 clearances and winning 6.1 duels per game.

The £2.25m-rated man also chipped in for his side going forwards, registering three assists and creating four big chances for his teammates, in addition to making an average of 0.4 key passes per match.

These returns saw the man Rooney dubbed a "top player" earn a seasonal SofaScore match rating of 6.67, something that would have undoubtedly been higher if the Rams had not lost a total of 24 league games last term.

Furthermore, with Forest currently lacking depth at left-back, not only would the addition of Buchanan be an incredibly exciting signing, it would also solve one of Chris Hughton's major squad issues.

As such, it is easy to see why Murphy appears so keen to land the £390-per-week starlet this summer, although whether or not the CEO manages to convince Derby to sell remains to be seen.

In other news: Murphy must avoid unforgivable Forest transfer disaster over "unbelievable" dynamo