Angus Gunn said he pushed hard in January to leave Nottingham Forest after being left frustrated by limited football, but injuries inside the squad blocked the move and kept him at the club until his contract expires this summer.
The Scotland goalkeeper is now heading into a World Cup campaign with a very different workload to the one he had before Euro 2024. He has been handed the No.1 shirt by Steve Clarke and says he feels physically sharp after spending the year training “full pelt” at Forest, even if the lack of matches has been a concern.
Gunn made only one appearance for Forest and said he had begun weighing up his options as far back as last October, when he was prepared to cut short his one-year deal. He had a few options, mainly abroad in Europe, before deciding to stay and see how the season developed.
What changed was the club’s approach and then the squad list. Gunn said Forest told him he would be on the bench, challenging and involved in cup games, but the plan shifted quickly at the end of the transfer window when they signed Stefan Ortega from Manchester City on deadline day. He said that was difficult to accept, particularly because he had expected a clearer path to minutes.
The January window then closed the door on an exit he had been trying to force. John Victor’s knee injury came in the same month and left Forest unwilling to let him go, even though Gunn said the club had been open to a move before the injuries hit. “Everyone wants to play football and I pushed hard in January to get out,” he said, adding that not being able to leave “kind of moved the goalposts again.”
There is still a sharp sporting logic to the situation. Gunn said he managed to get a B-team game in the week before coming away with Scotland, and he believes the muted club schedule could leave him fresh for the biggest games ahead. Before the Euros in 2024, he said he went into the tournament after playing 50-odd games in the season; this time, he says, “it is a different situation.”
Scotland face Bolivia next Saturday before opening their World Cup against Haiti on Sunday, June 14, and Gunn says the group is focused on the balance between competition and support. “We all want the best for our team and whoever plays, we’ll be pushing each other,” he said. For Forest, the story is already moving toward its end point: Gunn will leave when his contract runs out this summer, still trying to turn a season of frustration into a clean start.
