If Smoulderwood had a time machine…
The manager is preparing to face the media after a disappointing defeat to Brighton and Hove Albion. His side dominated the first half without ever finishing their chances, he had a striker sent off, took the lead before throwing the game away in a matter of 9o seconds. He takes a deep breath and faces the microphone.
Smoulds: “I’m disappointed, but it was a positive performance - I’m still confident in my group and whilst we must work on the individual errors that lead to us conceding two goals so easily, I still feel that we will be promoted.”
Forest fans: “What a load of rubbish! Why does he substitute players when he does? Why does he play that formation? Why won’t he tell it like it is!”
Smoulderwood registers the fans feedback, and activates his time machine in order to face the media again with a clean slate…
Smoulds: “I’m appalled and ashamed of the team - they let me and the fans down, Nathan Tyson, what a complete idiot, as for John Curtis and Paul Smith - what were they thinking? We’re rubbish and we’ll be lucky to get in the play offs at this rate!”
Forest fans: “What a shocking lack of professionalism and ambition! Does he not realise we are the mighty Nottingham Forest and teams like Brighton should roll over and die for us - Calderwood out!”
Slightly perplexed, Smoulds once again triggers his time travelling device to return to the point when he initially faced the media.
Smoulds: “We should be beating teams like Brighton, I’m disappointed the lads couldn’t convert their chances today - because we were the better team, we were let down by a couple of uncharacteristic errors and some questionable refereeing - but we are the biggest team in this league and we will demolish Blackpool and Chesterfield to make up for this!”
Forest fans: “What planet is he on? We’re rubbish! We couldn’t beat our way out of a wet paper bag! I don’t care if we were top of the league for ages, our players are all useless and the manager is clueless and the chairman lacks ambition - and don’t even get me started on Mark Arthur! It’s all doom and gloom, frankly I’d be amazed if we can even avoid relegation this season!”
It’s no wonder Smoulderwood pulls faces like this:
20 February, 2007 at 1:34 pm
good point, well made.
Forest fans are never happy - up Colin, down with Derby.
20 February, 2007 at 2:15 pm
Read Calderwood’s piece titled ‘Still convinced’ on the official website.
It’s clear he’s not watching the same games we are and has no handle on reality !!!
20 February, 2007 at 2:16 pm
I have done… if you had to deal with the media almost daily, would you tell them exactly what you were thinking? Or would you try to preserve the fragile confidence of your players by remaining optimistic?
20 February, 2007 at 2:48 pm
We just seem nieve as a team of late, too many silly mistakes. We are good enough I feel, especially if these two supposid loan signings come in. I think if we put a good run together again we will just get in the automatic places.
I think after the run of results/performances we’ve had of late the Forest fans are quite rightly getting worried. Lets all just get off there backs and give them chance to improve.
YOU REDS!
20 February, 2007 at 2:52 pm
He’s damned if he does and damned if he don’t isn’t he really?
No matter what he says or does there will always be a section of the support that will be out to “get him”. He’s all of a sudden turned into a villain to some people - words like “incompetant” and “clueless” keep cropping up on messageboards and forums.
I think some people need to grow up and take a defeat with a bit more “balls”. They sound a bit like spoilt kids “oh Mummy we lost a game again…I don’t like that…make everything good for me again Mummy!!” and spit the dummy out. Well just get over it and dust yourselves off …take a deep breath… Or don’t go and watch any sports if you expect to see your team win every game.
Well we are always going to lose games and I am as disapointed as everyone that we lost on Saturday - just ask my wife what kind of profanities were coming out of my mouth when the Brighton goals went in ..she was actually scared of me!
It hurts and pisses me off when we lose too..but I’m not going to run around calling for the heads of the whole of the Forest staff because of it. (including Gary Holt of course who seems to get mentioned every time whether or not he had a good game or was actually at fault for any of the goals conceded) because of it.
I think we were spoiled by the 7 point lead we had last year - I was even convinced that no one would catch us . But realistically we were never going to keep up that run. And people are saying “well if it wasn’t for the 7 point lead we had then we’d be mid table by now”…and then they don’t give CC any credit for actually getting the 7 point lead in the first place - that all happened in spite of him of course.
I’m not some sort of CC fanatic or anything like that but to me he seems a decent honest bloke who is doing his best and, while he should be questioned, he should ultimately be supported because a) he won’t get the sack this season anyway and b) he doesn’t deserve the sack.
I’m still pretty confident.
But what do I know. I think I’ve lost my pessimistic streak since I moved away from Nottingham - they must put something in the pies at the ground - or maybe it’s in the beer at the TBI?
20 February, 2007 at 2:55 pm
I feel that being honest about how the team is performing can be voiced to the media by admitting he has made mistakes but has learnt from them. Taking the blame shows he’s trying to sort the problems but deflects personal criticism away from the team.
I believe that although the team are struggling Calderwood has made mistakes (dissrupting the back four by bringing on a defeder in the last few minutes at Bradford) which have impacted on results directly.
At the moment his ‘head in the sand’ attitude can only make fans wonder if he knows what he’s doing.
I hope and believe he will sort it out starting tonight and I would ask all fans reading this to ’sing your hearts out for the lads’ like I will be doing
PS if we go one down or are losing at half time no booing please !!
20 February, 2007 at 3:19 pm
The Greek voices will also be with our Forest tonight, screw the Champions League and all that, I’m gonna be in front of my PC “watching” the play by play on BBC, Skysports etc. sites.
Smoulds had said long ago that we needed 10 more wins to get automatic promotion. Two of them are in the bag already, and we have 8 of the remaining 14 games at home, plus a whole month (April+last game in May) against clubs from 12th position and under. Who doesn’t believe we can do it? Moreover, if Scunny loses at Swansea and Port Vale beats Oldham tonight (not in the sphere of the imaginative I reckon, as the Swan players would love to prove that Jackett wasn’t the right man, and if I’m not wrong Oldham lost to Vale at home), we might get close to first place again. Promotions -I know well- are not built on ifs, but hey, it’s the same squad and the same manager who built “that” 7-pt lead, and who says they can’t do it again? Anybody believe that we have a worse team now despite the addition of Prutts…?
So please stop whining (and booing!) and get behind the team. Sing your heart out for the lads and put in some extra decibels for me. I wish I was there with you tonight, and you guys can’t imagine how hard it is to be so far away and jealous of you that are going to be there…
Am I being a little naive? Maybe. But no matter tonight’s result, I BELIEVE! The only game I watched this season was vs Charlton because it was shown live on TV, and I’m sure I wasn’t the only one trembling with delight and saying “I’m watching the Forest of my dreams”. We can do it! Again and again and again!
P.S.: Just in case things go pear-shaped again, I think CC should call Charlie McP and ask him how he put together that magnificent end-of-season run last year…
20 February, 2007 at 4:40 pm
Very well said NFFC! A similar illustration is to compare the tactical discussion going on now with what happened under Paul Hart. I vividly remember many fans lambasting him for sticking rigidly with one formation and never changing it….yet Calderwood is criticised for not sticking with a given formation.
20 February, 2007 at 5:34 pm
how long has Mark Arthur been at Forest? — too long i think
Achieved nothing
20 February, 2007 at 5:40 pm
I’ve always said that criticism of Mark Arthur is much more logical than the constant stream of Doughty-out-isms… he runs the club on a day to day basis, and it has to be said, his tenure hasn’t exactly been a rip-roaring success.
Coupled with the obvious poor performance of the team, there is no financial dependence on him either - so much fewer things in favour of him retaining his position.
20 February, 2007 at 5:52 pm
i have just had a look at Arthur’s record of under achievement and it makes poor reading. if he were CEO of another business he would be asked to spend more time with his family. Its no good having a go at Doughty its his train set and he can do what he wants with it.
14th in Div1
11th in Div1
16th in Div1
6th in Div1
23rd in Championship (relegated)
7th in League 1 (good old Charlie!!)
this season - God knows (sorry he is not with us now)
20 February, 2007 at 6:49 pm
If we played good football, had 11 players on the pitch who gave 100%, fought for every ball and gave the fans the hart to shout and sing nobody would care what was said in the post match interview….we would all still be talking about the blood and guts performance.
Say it with a ball Forest, stand up and be counted……show we still have a back bone at the club.
and last but not least….Mr Aurther……yes I agree, it was his 5 year plan, it was a shame he was holding it upside down