Through the seasons before us..

So here we are, finally.  This time tomorrow we’ll know the outcome of our biggest game in a while - I imagine all but the most deliriously optimistic fans think they already know the outcome!  It’s going to be an early start for most of us - the official coaches leave at 8:00am - Forest aren’t allowing fans to park in the carpark due to the sheer numbers going by coach, such is the number of people travelling!

The press still hasn’t let up - the banner I mentioned in a previous post appeared on the back of the Evening Post today, which was quite chucklesome, Nathan Tyson continues to prove a tremendous ambassador for the club in this lengthy interview in the Telegraph, and generally, if Forest could get money for the amount of national column inches they’ve been filling lately, they’d be laughing!

As for me, I’ve picked up some food to take on the coach with me, charged the camera and have made just about all the preparations I can - I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t excited by the game tomorrow; not particularly because I’m expecting an upset - although that would be nice - but I’m really looking forward to taking my place amongst the 6,300 odd other Forest fans (they’re just the ones in the away end!) and making a right racket.

Safe journey to those of you travelling, those of you confined to your front rooms and watching in the pub, then I hope that you’re still able to feel part of a great game - then once the full time whistle blows, the players are applauded off, we can all take stock and get back to our day job business of backing the lads in the league - because that is undoubtedly where our priorities lie!  Yooooooooooooou Reds!

Naturally the stark realisation of how far we’ve fallen has sparked all manner of nostalgia amongst the Reds - some lament calmly about the fact that we were peers with our forthcoming opponents, others bitterly rant about how not all that long ago, a fourth round tie with Chelsea would’ve been par for the course for the Reds.  So on a non-Chelsea related nostalgia-tip it was amusing to come across this Forest Legends website (I same come across, the author emailed me about it!)

It’s early days for the site yet - and it clearly needs more nominations; the fact that Brian Rice is missing is bordering on travesty!  But it’s good fun, and hopefully with more and more former-greats or not-so-greats added it should make for an amusing diversion should you ever have a few minutes to kill whilst online!  Also, how Robert Rosario ranks as highly as “Nearly Man” is a bit dubious!

And so the day cometh, I wonder what we’ll all have to write and talk about when this game is over - certainly it’s enjoyed disproportionate column inches on this blog, and seemingly every other Forest news outlet!  Forest of course are no strangers to giant-killing recently, overcoming Premiership hangers-on Charlton - but that was more of a slightly-fat-bloke kicking than a giant-killing.  On Sunday, infront of the BBC cameras, comes the real test!

Forest have a bit of team news - starting with the positive, Sammy Clingan is available again after serving his absurd suspension, which is great news.  Less good is that whilst Ian Breckin is struggling with a foot injury (but thought to be likely to play), John Thompson is cuptied, leaving us slightly thin on cover for centreback.  Although reported QPR target Danny Cullip is available, and given that Sammy’s back, there’s always the (not desirable, in my opinion) option of moving Perch back into a defensive role.

Chelsea may be able to welcome back former Forest loanee and captain John Terry to their side after he resumed training this week following his back injury.  It seems unlikely the Special One will risk him in this game though, so we might well face up against a makeshift defence - for all the good it will do us!  Andrei Shevchenko is expected to play, and may feel additional motivation if he spots this banner some of our fans are taking down to the game!  Can’t help but see this as a portent for Sheva’s first senior hattrick for the Blues!

It’s difficult to imagine Forest getting anything from this game - any kind of result against the champions would be a tremendous upset, and possibly one that on some levels would provide an unwelcome distraction from the much more important league fixtures we have coming up.  The sensible “wish” would be for a replay to get more money in - but so long as the lads are up for it and give a good account of themselves, which I expect them to do, then I’m just looking forward to a day out where the pressure is truly off.

We’re often castigated by fellow fans for jibes about our league games being “their cup final” - but the fact remains we’re considered a big scalp at the level we find ourselves.  Sunday represents the first opportunity in a long time where there is no expectation on us, where we are very much the David facing Goliath - with no pressure.  This is a great opportunity for the lads to have a go at a team used to playing at a much higher level, and a chance for the fans to enjoy a day out with no stress - I can’t wait!

Check out Gary Crosby’s quick throw-ins, and Pearcey shoving over the defender before scoring a deft outside-of-the-left footer… aaah, the memories.  It’s great to watch, but also a stark reminder of the differing fortunes of the teams set to face each other on Sunday.

The Evening Post has gone a bit obsessed with the Clough/Mourinho comparison - hardly relevant given the mighty BC parted ways with Forest fourteen years ago, but it’s a comparison that’s been drawn before now.  Famed for his arrogance and self-belief, it’s certainly easy to see why the similarities between the two men has been picked upon by journalists.  I suppose comparing across the ages is difficult - football is now a very different game to what it was back in Cloughie’s heyday.

James Robson of the post has a go at it, and doesn’t make a bad fist of it I suppose.  It’s true that Cloughie was no fan of chairmen at all, and wouldn’t tolerate them interfering - and Mourinho is showing hints of irritation with his boss right now, but I suppose the difficulty that Clough never had to contend with was the fact that players at the top level are now considered celebrities and superstars to global proportions - even lowly division three Forest players think they’re some kind of big shots!

Garry Birtles opts instead to try to rank the two managers against one another, a rather futile exercise given that they are in effect operating within different games with different rules.  Certainly if you were to divide trophies won by resources spent, then it’s a no-brainer, Cloughie wins hands down - although Jose has a few years ahead of him to play catch-up, all in all, I can’t really envisage a sensible way of comparing the two - the only reason the journalistic impulse is there is because of the similarities in their public personas.

To finally compound their comparisons, they have published a few classic Cloughisms, along with some classic Mourinhoisms.  Certainly Cloughie wins again in terms of being able to put ‘isms’ on the end of his name without it looking a bit silly.  All in all though, I think it’s not fair to compare - my biasedness will always elevate Sir Brian ahead of any other manager you can name, but you can’t compare him to a modern manager, who must deal with unprecidented media coverage, the ever-present agents and multi-millionnaire footballers.

Ultimately, nobody compares to Brian Clough - but how would he have fared in an era when if he were to practice some of his discipline techniques he would probably have been sued?  He wouldn’t have been able to avoid agents, and in an era when footballers are much more athletic and fitness orientated, would his piss-ups on the eve of important Cup Finals really have proven the masterstrokes they might have been back in his day?  I guess we’ll never know!

I’m a big fan of Wikipedia - all those random questions that crop up randomly throughout the day can be answered at the drop of a hat thanks to the all-encompassing encyclopedia maintained by the masses of the world.  However I’ve since discovered it can also tell the short term future - see the screen grab below from the page for Barry Cogan:

I’ve highlighted the bit of interest - he will apparently sign tomorrow, as I type (well, just) - so if this happens, remember to check out any player we’re linked with on the hallowed site to see if they do, in fact, have their transfer date preconfirmed!  Of course, with the site being open and free to be edited by anybody, it could be that somebody is just having a bit of a jape - or maybe Barry updates his own page? Who knows!  Made me chuckle though.

Whilst we’re talking about genius websites in the context of Barry Cogan, below is a clip from YouTube of him in action..

I suppose it’s inevitable from now until Sunday that we’ll get cheesy soundbites from the Forest squad members in the run up to the game.  Apparently, for Forest World subscribers, Nathan Tyson is seeking a chink in the Chelsea armoury, whilst skipper Ian Breckin is hoping to recover from a foot injury to take his place in the lineup having missed training earlier in the week because of it.

Even local boxer Carl Froch has been getting in on the act by joining the squad for training, and apparently scaring poor Kris Commons in the process!  Hopefully we can live up to Carl’s reputation and deliver a knock-out ‘cobra’ strike to humble our more illustrious opponents, but I think not somehow!  The less optimistic John McGovern reckons that we need to watch out for Lampard.  That’s all well and good, but what about the rest of the Chelsea team, John?

Sammy Clingan played a full 90 minutes in a reserve friendly to give his match fitness a boost now he returns from suspension, whilst apparently Jack Lester is back in contention, and Dobie scored twice in the reserves.  Smoulderwood has spoken about selection headaches, as whilst everyone in the squad will be champing at the bit to play, we need a reality check in many ways because we can’t risk any damage to our arguably much more important league fixtures - starting with our trip to Carlisle on Wednesday.

This is probably the first time in living memory we’ve had this kind of media exposure where we’ve been presented so overtly as underdogs - certainly in my lifetime anyway, and it’s brought about an interesting polarity amongst Forest fans.  You have the righteous (should that be self-righteous?) indignation from some of the fans who resent we’re so obviously an underdog, and you have the giddy fans awaiting a big away trip and looking to enjoy it.  It seems that even in the undeniably great occasion of facing the league champions in the cup and making a pot of cash to boot, Forest fans will always find a way of bitching with one another in one way or another!

It’s a bit of a “my next door neighbour’s window cleaner has a brother who brushed against someone who’s aunty babysits for somebody who knows a Barnet fan at university in Nottingham” type rumour, really - so don’t treat it as fact, at all, but a poster on LTLF has suggested that Barry Cogan has been sighted in the Victoria Centre in Nottingham, where he confirmed he’s set to sign for us this week.

I found a Millwall forum where a fan describes him as quick, creative and tricky - just the kind of things we like to hear.  The rumoured bid for him his £350,000 - which is not to be sniffed at from Barnet’s point of view, I suppose - so whilst the source is dodgy as hell, it’s at least quite exciting speculation - particularly if we do manage to get him signed this week - of course, the fact that few of us have heard of him is likely to get a few folk moaning - but sod it, it’s a rumour of an incoming player so that’s good in my book!!

Of course, bugger all has happened in terms of actually signing anyone, but we are apparently trialling a French defender by the name of Abdelhazzi Kamara.  He has apparently had interest from both Premiership and Championship clubs, but the lure of first team football is thought to be enough to sway him in our favour.   Aside from that, I know little about him - even Soccerbase doesn’t seem to list him!

We’ve also been linked with midfielder Barry Cogan from Barnet - he joined them from Millwall at the start of this season, and has apparently impressed since then.  Once again, that’s about all I know about him - but certainly a midfielder has been high up on many people’s priority list - but let’s face it, we’ve been linked with all manner of people since the middle of December!

In non-Forest transfer news, Andy Keogh has moved from Scunthorpe United to Wolves for £600k - any news of our rivals being weakened is good, and whilst it would unfairly belittle Scunny to suggest there’s nothing more to them than Sharp and Keogh, those two players are pretty key for them.  With a bit of luck someone will make an offer they can’t refuse for Billy Sharp as well!

As we enter the last week of the window, we should start to see some activity - there will be much irritation and anger if nothing happens.  To return to Forest briefly, the rather dodgy rumours linking Jack Lester to Gillingham peaked my interest - I’ve seen Neil Harris, Scott Dobie, Nicky Southall and now Jack linked with a move to Kent, I wonder whether I’m reading too much in to it or whether there could be some truth in us perhaps trying to find a player-exchange deal for a certain member of the Gills squad?

Out of morbid curiosity more than anything I’d been keeping an eye on eBay to see if any spare tickets for the Chelsea game found their way onto the online auctioning site.  So far I’ve only seen a few “wanted” listings with some fans willing to pay £100 or more per ticket - it was rumoured one was listed for sale too, reached £85 before disappearing from the site entirely.

It was mentioned by Colin Fray on BBC Radio Nottingham on their Matchtalk programme this evening that Forest are pursuing legal avenues to prevent this, which in the light of the many inadequacies in selling the tickets, is a welcome step from the club.  With so many of our committed supporters disappointed either through arriving too late or relying on the bug-ridden ticket website (which only sold 300 tickets apparently), it’s shameful to think some of those fortunate enough to acquire a ticket would be willing to exploit fellow fans in this way.

That said, I imagine that any such sellers are likely to be recipients of corporate or internal freebies rather than those of us who queued up to buy tickets.  For one thing, if you bought a chunk of tickets together they’d be next to each other (well, more often than not), so you’d end up sitting with the person you’d fleeced which I’d hope even the most shameless person would be uncomfortable with.

Given the lack of listings I’ve spotted then perhaps it’s a bit of a non-issue anyway, and I’m sure there are other means for unscrupulous ticket holders to dispose of their tickets for a profit should they have such a motivation and lack of common decency.