Through the seasons before us..

Eoin Jess has retured from playing football now, his last club being Northampton Town - where Smoulds snapped him up having been released by the mighty Reds.  He arrived here and - I’m being kind here - never exactly set the world on fire.  He was quickly singled out by supporters as someone to give stick to, and never really found any kind of form in a Forest shirt in 93 appearances from 2002 to 2005.

He’s studying for his coaching badges, and Forest have very kindly offered him an opportunity to work part time for the Forest Academy.  He’s going to be coaching our under 13 side in order to gain experience, which is interesting since his last role at Forest was scaring children at the annual Forest open days (according to a friend with a couple of young daughters, he was particularly good at this role!).

Since he’s coaching mostly pre-teens it’s going to be some time before we see any benefit, if there is any, to his early coaching abilities - but good look to him, whilst I was never particularly fond of him as a Forest player, it’s good that we are prepared to give opportunities to retired players who hopefully have what it takes to be decent coaches - and since both our coaching staff and Smoulders himself will know about his temperament and likely aptitude, hopefully that bodes well!