How much ouzo did Evangelos Marinakis have for breakfast this morning? Quite a lot based on Nottingham Forest making an enquiry about signing Brighton captain Lewis Dunk.
In what must rank as the weirdest piece of attempted business of the January transfer window, Forest reportedly approached the Albion to express their interest in signing Dunk.
Brighton predictably said they would rebuff any sort of offer for a player who passed the 500 appearance mark for the club last month.
This is not the first time the Tricky Trees have looked at signing Dunk. Forest also considered a move for his services towards the end of the summer as they looked to bolster their squad for the extra demands brought by Europa League football.
Maybe Marinakis is determined to land Dunk after being impressed by the way he got himself sent off at the City Ground in November 2023 for calling referee Anthony Taylor a bald prick? I know I very much enjoyed it.
Dunk has been one of the first names on the team sheet for Fabian Hurzeler this season despite Brighton signing two new centre backs in the summer and the Albion failing to keep a clean sheet until November with him alongside Jan Paul van Hecke.
Some fans have called his form into question at various points over the past 18 months. Yet he remains a vital player for Hurzeler and one who would surely have no interest of moving at this stage of his career nearly 16 years after his Albion debut.
Dunk recently triggered a one-year contract extension through to the summer of 2027 after reaching appearance-based criteria.
Should he remain a first team regular for the next season-and-a-half, he would be within touching distance of breaking the Brighton all-time appearance record of Tug Wilson which has stood for a century. Dunk is currently 58 games behind Wilson.
His astonishing Albion career has taken Dunk from playing League One football for the Albion at Withdean through the Championship, the Premier League and into Europe.
There have been two FA Cup semi finals along the way, a history making sixth place finish and six England caps.
That number should undoubtedly be higher but Gareth Southgate had an unexplained and strange aversion to picking Dunk when he was at the peak of powers between 2019 and 2023.
Dunk still managed to make it to a major tournament with the Three Lions, being part of the squad which went all the way to the Euro 2024 final in Germany.
After all that success and thanks to his longevity, Dunk is rightly considered one of the greatest Brighton players of all time. It all makes for very bizarre behaviour from Forest to think they might be able to take Dunk to the City Ground.
Dunk has been subject of interest in the past but remained with the Albion for different reasons. Brighton rejected a £5 million offer from Fulham in 2015, causing Dunk to hand in a transfer request and refuse to play in a League Cup tie at Southend United.
How different might both recent Albion history and the career of Dunk look if he had got his way and been allowed to join the Cottagers?
Tony Bloom and Chris Hughton stood firm and after being dropped because of the incident, Dunk worked his way back into the starting XI as Brighton came so close to promotion to the Premier League in the 2015-16 season. The rest is history, as they say.
Fast forward to the summer of 2019 and Dunk was on the radars of Leicester City (when they were good), Arsenal and Chelsea amongst others.
A move to Stamford Bridge would clearly have been impossible for Dunk to turn down as a Blues fan who named his dog after Didier Drogba.
Luckily for Brighton, no offer was ever forthcoming. With each passing season, Dunk seems to have become more wedded to the Albion; making a departure less and less likely. Good luck breaking that bond, Mister Marinakis.
Forest will hopefully have more luck with their other strange and bold January transfer attempt to snare a player from a fellow Premier League club than with signing Dunk.
The Tricky Trees have bid £35 million for Jean-Philippe Mateta from Crystal Palace. Mateta is out of contract in summer 2027 and has shown no inclination to sign a new deal with the current turmoil around Selhurst Park.
Oliver Glasner is leaving come the end of the season and club captain Marc Guehi completed a £40 million move to Manchester City earlier in the window.
Mateta joining Forest would be particularly glorious given the hatred Eagles fans have for the Tricky Trees. The Palace board failing to read their emails regarding rules over multi-club ownership and UEFA competitions saw them replaced in the Europa League by Forest.
And now the Tricky Trees might be about to take Palace’s star striker just six months later. How magnificent.