Nottingham Forest are closing in on a deal for Burnley winger Maxwel Cornet this summer, with the Clarets wanting the club to pay the player's £17.5m release clause.

What's the story?

According to a report in The Daily Mail, a move to Forest seems to be the most likely destination for Cornet if he is to leave Turf Moor this summer, and after impressing during the last campaign, he has attracted interest from several Premier League clubs.

Both Everton and Fulham have shown interest in initially taking the player on loan with an option to buy him, but Burnley seem insistent that his release clause needs to be me.

Forest will play their first top-flight game this century when they kick off their campaign next month and will want to ensure they have a strong enough squad to survive - something that Steve Cooper looks to have already made great strides towards following the signings of Taiwo Awoniyi, Neco Williams, Moussa Niakhate, Giulian Biancone, Omar Richards, Lewis O'Brien, Harry Toffolo and Monday's reports that a deal is now in place for Orel Mangala.

It'd be a big coup

If the newly promoted outfit can land a player of Cornet's quality ahead of their Premier League rivals then it'll be a major coup.

Burnley only signed the player from Lyon last summer for £12.9m on a wage of £44k per week, but with the performances he put in last season, it's clear he's too good to be playing in the Championship.

In 26 Premier League appearances he scored nine goals and assisted one, for a team that were consistently battling relegation last season that's impressive.

His talent was even evident back in 2015 when journalist Robin Bairner called him a "massive talent" and so far he's lived up to that billing.

He's still only 25 years old and has a lot of time to get even better, and playing under Cooper who has lots of experience in developing players could be the perfect fit for him.

It will also give the Garibaldi a great chance of avoiding relegation, as he's proven that he can score plenty of goals in a team that doesn't create a huge amount of chances.

Burnley scored just 34 goals in total in the league last season and tallied just 56 goal-creating actions.

If Cooper wants to get an upper hand on his rivals heading into what will be a tough campaign, then signing Cornet is exactly what he needs to do.

Fulham are newly promoted too so are also likely to be languishing down near the bottom of the table, and given Everton only narrowly avoided relegation last season there's no guarantee they will be safe either.

AND in other news: Interested: Forest eye swoop for "special" 23 y/o "talent", Cooper will love him