Nottingham Forest have had their fair share of players that have left the City Ground over the years to clubs playing their football at a higher level. 

One of those was Oliver Burke, who left the club in favour of a move to German giants RB Leipzig in 2016 for a fee believed to be in the region of £13million.

The Scotsman made 31 appearances for Nottingham Forest's first-team in his breakthrough season under the management of Philippe Montanier.

Montanier has spoken out on the club's decision to cash-in on Burke, and felt as though Burke made a mistake in leaving the club so early into his career.

Burke is now playing his football with Sheffield United, but has struggled for consistent game time since leaving the Championship club.

"I think they are often mistaken, yes. Only the financial proposals of the big clubs are sometimes so interesting. Also for the parents.

"At Nottingham Forest, I worked with Oliver Burke. A great talent. Suddenly all the planet wanted him. Oliver said to me, ‘I’ll stay’.

"Until one day I got a phone call: ‘Coach, sorry, but I’m on a plane (to Leipzig). With this contract, I can secure the future of my family."

"But look at the evolution of his career. I always take the example of Zinedine Zidane.

"He made his Cannes debut, went to Bordeaux and when he was an adult player he moved to Juventus. Real Madrid followed later.

"He did it step by step and patiently. Do you know what to do? Map all young Belgian football players who left abroad at a young age.

"For the three or four who have passed, there are 50 that you will not hear from anymore."

Burke has previously revealed that he felt that Nottingham Forest's owner (at the time of the deal) Fawaz Al Hasawi had shown little intent of keeping him at the club before moving to RB Leipzig.

"I feel they were very happy to take the money and let me go.

"A lot of people are saying my agent forced the deal for the money. It was never forced. I didn’t have talks with Fawaz, but we knew they were accepting offers, anything over a certain amount.

"I thought they could have at least pulled me aside and said, ‘look, this is going on’. Had a chat."

Nottingham Forest are set to return to action on Wednesday evening, when they take on promotion-chasing Watford, in what is certain to be a tough test for Chris Hughton's side.

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The Verdict: 

You can understand his point here.

Burke impressed in the early stages of his career with Nottingham Forest, and I wasn't surprised to see other clubs in Europe register their interest in landing his signature at the time.

But the financial side of the ideal was seemingly right for Forest at the time, especially when Burke hasn't quite hit the heights that were originally set for him after departing the City Ground for such a hefty fee.

It'll be interesting to see whether he can recapture the sort of form that made him a player in demand whilst with Nottingham Forest.