Through the seasons before us..

Brecks: heading back to Chesterfield

Whilst the world has been consumed with talk of the untimely demise of Michael Jackon, I’ve been keeping my ear to the ground and some of the white noise of endless whispers and rumours are starting to become a little more discernable than others.  Having chatted with a few folks it would seem that a lot of the rumours doing the rounds regarding agreements with players are indeed factual.

I have absolutely no idea why Forest are apparently sitting on their hands and not releasing information, I’m assuming finalisations need to be happening or something, since tomorrow is the deadline for season ticket renewal I would’ve thought ideally an announcement before now would have been preferable for them.  That said, I took the plunge and renewed mine earlier today, despite the lack of news!

So, unfortunately I can’t say who I’ve been talking to – but what I have heard is consistent with rumours elsewhere regarding eight ‘confirmed’ incomings, one of them from Liverpool (I wonder who that could be?), one from Brighton (with Thornhill going on loan there, it would make sense, wouldn’t it? – strengthened by news of Joe Heath going out on loan yesterday).

The other snippet was a loan signing, with no other detail than that – there’s been endless speculation about loan targets already – so I shan’t add to it or try to pick a name!  As for the supposed other five signings, well, I have no idea – we do need them though, so let’s hope to actually have some concrete news to write about soon rather than rumour-peddling.

Given the gargantuan size of the list of players we’ve been linked to, it would be churlish to speculate although much of internet-land still seems pretty certain that Adebola has been a done deal for weeks (if that’s true, why not release that information?!), which leaves four more slots to fill.  Billy will want to get stuff sorted soon before pre-season begins a-proper.

In the world of confirmed news, some good news for former skipper Ian Breckin, he’s agreed a two year deal with former club Chesterfield, turning down moves to Burton and Walsall to team up with another former Red (just!) John Sheridan.  Good luck to you, Brecks.  Chesterfield is rapidly becoming a team of Forest cast-offs!

Pembo: Leaving with our very best wishes

The fixtures have lured me back onto the internet – Bradford in the cup isn’t the most inspiring, but of course today’s release of the league fixtures is always going to pique our interest!  For the first time in ages we start and finish away from home, but firstly a few other things.

John Pemberton has departed the Reds, and I’d like to wish him well – I don’t ‘know’ any of the Forest staff but he always struck me as a diligent man of integrity, and of course his time as a caretaker manager last season was incredibly successful – so thanks for your hard work, John, and I – and I’m sure all other Forest fans – wish you all the best for the future.  Also the chap who vandalised the Brian Clough statue in Nottingham has been jailed.  Good.

So, on to the fixtures.  The Football League are incredibly uppity about people reproducing their fixture lists – so whilst I probably wouldn’t have done anyway, I legally can’t.  Obviously the eye is drawn to fixtures against Derby – we start off at home this time at the end of August, playing the return fixture in the badlands at the end of January.  Newcastle are the other opponent that most seem to look out for – they visit us on 17th October, our trip to St. James’ Park on 27th March.

You can browse our fixtures in full on the BBC website (predictably the Forest website is yet to be updated with them as I type!).

Makes it seem somewhat more real, doesn’t it?  Now we could just use some nice positive transfer news to engender a bit of optimism!

Around this time thirty years ago Nottingham would’ve been a great place to be – Munich would’ve been a better place to be, of course, because Forest would have just been crowned Champions of Europe.  You know, back when you really had to be a Champion to qualify for the competition.

There’s been lots of reminiscing around the internet which I’ve been keeping tabs on – sadly being of a certain age I have no recollection at all of those legendary events, although of course have become as familiar as one can with them in retrospect from videos and stories from my elders.  It’s certainly a story worth telling, I reckon!

I’m sure you’ve seen numerous pieces yourselves, but my favourite by far has been Gary Roe’s five part recollection of the Annesley Reds and their tour to Munich.  Released over five days in installments over on LTLF, it’s made essential daily reading for me – incase you haven’t already caught it, then I’ve provided a link below – a great account!

• Part one
• Part two
• Part three
• Part four
• Part five

Hats off to you, Gary – a thoroughly enjoyable read!  There is also an interesting alternative account on LTLF courtesy of ‘Me Owd’ whose general recounts of past glories or players I would recommend reading too.  You can find this by clicking here.

Whilst we lose ourselves in misty reminisces of glory, we should also spare a thought to the awful news that Nottingham lad and Forest fan Lance Corporal Kieron Hill of the Mercian Regiment was killed in the Helmand Province, Afghanistan on 28th May.  Kieron leaves behind two brothers, one of whom is in the Forest academy, another on the books of neighbours Notts County.  I’m sure you’ll all join me in offering condolences to his family and friends.  Rest in Peace, Kieron.

Thanks to a spectacular finish from Wade Elliott was all it took to send Burnley to Premier League delirium this afternoon.  Indeed, a bit more composure (and less heroic blocks from Blades defenders) could’ve made it more comfortable for the Clarets.

Owen Coyle’s dark horses have gone the distance and won promotion – having watched the game I don’t think the Blades can have too many complaints.  Whilst they have a chip on their shoulder about the referee he didn’t do much wrong today – indeed, it was quite disappointing to see the Sheffield side resort to diving and pleading for handballs and generally acting like Warnock was in charge again.

So we get to resume our recently rekindled rivalry with the Blades next season, whilst Burnley will be seeking to emulate Stoke and Hull in confounding the pundits and somehow retaining their Premier League status.  Watching the game made me nostalgic and full of regret that instead of making permanent the signing of Robbie Blake, we ended up with David Johnson.

Congratulations to Burnley, certainly we saw how deadly they can be (and indeed how rubbish we can be!) last season, and commisserations to Sheffield United who don’t seem to fare well in Play Off finals – knowing all too well how much it hurts to go out in the semi-finals I can’t imagine the heartache a fan goes through losing at Wembley.

There is now but one opponent to be decided after yesterday’s glibly titled ‘Survival Sunday.’  An off-target Gareth Barry strike deflected off Damien Duff to give Aston Villa the only goal of the game, thus ensuring results elsewhere didn’t matter – the Toon Army were guaranteed a shambolic march into the Championship along with Middlesbrough, who lost to West Ham.  Hull and Sunderland breathed a sigh of relief as Newcastle’s fall meant their own defeats to Manchester United and Chelsea didn’t really matter.

It’s hard not to be taken up by the national amusement at the fall of the North East ‘giants’ – the media love to point their cameras at overweight shirtless Geordies – and there were plenty on show in floods of tears at Villa Park yesterday.  Certainly years of fundamental mismanagement have taken their toll, and provided the Championship with a fixture that everyone is looking out for.

Whether Mike Ashley will try again to cut his losses and sell the increasingly less valuable monkey on his back, whether Shearer – the latest ‘messiah’ the Magpies have turned to – will stay to try to lead the side to promotion, is very unclear.  Certainly from the top, to the management to hapless players on the pitch, Newcastle certain earn their tag as a national laughing stock in football.

The Villa fans summed it up rather well with this slightly cruel, but well observed banner:

However, I can’t quite revel in too much joy over it – certainly I have little sympathy either.  If ever there was a club that could use a healthy dose of reality it is Newcastle United – certainly they will get it, indeed, a season or more in the Championship might reaffirm their self-stylings as ‘a big club’ – because games against them will be treated akin to cup finals by many of us mere minnows in The Championship.

It will require a degree of resilience, passion and endeavour for them to succeed – and on current showings, they don’t seem to have much of that going for them.  Of course, some degree of wholesale personnel changes will be taking place – it will be certainly be interesting to observe their progress, and I’m not too two-faced to admit that I’m really looking forward to a trip to St. James’ Park next season.

Scunthorpe were celebrating too yesterday, after triumphing in a thrilling play off final against Millwall, scoring the winning goal with only five minutes remaining having been 1-0 up, then level, then 2-1 down.  Big congratulations to the Iron, who showed great resilience to eventually get past the Lions.  Poor Gary Alexander must be kicking himself after scoring twice for the London side before missing a sitter at 2-2 that would surely have won Millwall promotion.

The only business left to be decided is whether it is Sheffield United or Burnley who remain in the Championship.  I’m not exactly a fan of either team so it’s a tricky one to state a preference over, although I do greatly admire Owen Coyles work at Burnley I can’t quite get out of my head the numerous unpleasant trips I’ve had to Turf Moor, and well, all of us have a healthy dislike of Sheffield United don’t we?  I think this is as close to a ‘don’t care’ game as I’ve found so far at the end of this season.