Nottingham Forest have made a move in their bring Tom Holmes to the City Ground this summer.

What's the talk?

That's according to a report by Football Insider, who claim that Dane Murphy has submitted a £1.5m bid for the Reading centre-back, with the 21-year-old having recently entered the final year of his deal at the Madejski Stadium, having yet to accept the Royals' offer of a new contract.

The report goes on to state that Reading may be tempted into sanctioning the departure of the defender this summer, as the club are currently searching for ways to balance their books after being placed under a transfer embargo as a result of breaking the EFL's profit and sustainability rules.

Hughton would love him

With Chris Hughton currently experiencing something of an injury crisis in the heart of his Forest defence, with both Joe Worrall and Loic Mbe Soh being on the treatment table, leaving the 62-year-old with only Scott McKenna and Tobias Figueiredo available for selection in the position, the addition of a fresh face at centre-back this summer would appear to be a smart move by Murphy.

And, considering how much potential Holmes appears to possess, the 21-year-old would very much appear to be a signing that Hughton would love to see the Reds CEO get over the line before deadline day at the end of the month.

Indeed, over his 39 Championship appearances for Veljko Paunovic's side last season, the £900k-rated defender helped his team keep eight clean sheets, as well as making an average of 1.1 interceptions, 1.1 tackles, 2.6 clearances and winning 4.1 duels per game.

The man Talk Reading dubbed an "impressive" player also helped out in a creative capacity, registering two assists, creating two big chances for his teammates and making an average of 0.3 key passes per match.

These returns saw the £600-per-week centre-back earn a seasonal SofaScore match rating of 6.77, ranking him as Reading's 14th-best performer in the second tier of English football.

As such, it is evident that, with the right environment, Holmes very much appears to possess the ability to flourish into a real talent in the middle of defence, as well as being a player who fits Murphy's signing criteria of being young, highly-rated and with a big potential resale value - leading us to believe he would be something of a perfect fit for the Garibaldi.

In other news: Forest transfer news confirmed on "talented" £2.5k-p/w gem, Hughton will be buzzing