Right, I’m going to try to be deliberately philosophical. One of the curses of my nature is that even when I’m hit by hurt or rage, I’m usually reasonably quick to calm – and after hauling my arse out of bed well into the afternoon after spending the wee small hours gauging opinions around the ‘net, I find myself still livid underneath, but with an outer layer of – whilst admittedly numb – calm.
Everyone associated with Forest has rightly come under intense criticism from all and sundry, and this is understandable in it’s entirety, I’m going to try to run down the list as it occurs to me and try to sum up from a vaguely rational standpoint. I’m not saying this is what I would like to happen, more what realistically we could hope for.
Nigel Doughty – let’s face it, we’re stuck with him for better or worse. Whilst he said that we were in good financial shape last night, we are still beholden to him as to replace him would require somebody buying him out. We may be debt-free with him in charge (or nearly debt-free), but if he were to go I imagine he’d want the debts we owe him to be paid back. In his position in the aftermath of the Yeovil game he has to back his manager, so I don’t really derive any great anger from that. He was largely silent on the subject of his next-in-command, a man who I feel bears further scrutiny.
Mark Arthur – ignoring whatever influence he has on playing matters, he’s culpable for the relationship – or lack thereof – the club has with the supporters. We have been short-changed yet again, a failed season is the reward for those who committed to a disgraceful increase in season ticket prices. Upon leaving the Cricket club those close to this sport celebrated his departure – and Notts Cricket club is now flourishing after years of turmoil. I wouldn’t be sorry to see him get his P45 and an appointment of somebody who actually seems to understand the game, and us fans.
David Pleat – a largely forgotten consultant – does anyone know what he deos? He was brought to the club because of his football contacts, but what has that done for us? I have no idea whether or not he’s on the club payroll, but I assume his consultancy services don’t come to us for free. He seems to spend more time on his punditry career than providing any kind of service in either scouting players or tapping up his ‘contacts’ to get us any decent loan opportunities – as with Mr Arthur, I think his continued involvement with the club is not something I’m eager to see.
Smoulderwood - undoubtedly cost us not only last night, but on other occasions with his bafflingly negative tactics. He was, of course, a defender – so you would think he’d be better at this tactically. He interfered with a defensive unit that was working, and did nothing to take the pressure off them by improving infront of them. He’s reached a position now where whilst I wouldn’t actively call for his head, if he were to fall on his sword and resign I wouldn’t exactly be sorry to see him go. I think he’ll be here next season, and he needs to learn – and fast – about how to create a positive side playing decent and committed football, much like Russell Slade has created at Yeovil.
The players – I lamented last night to the chap I sit next to that as I cast my eye down the teamsheet on the back of the programme, I don’t regard any of them beyond a bunch of people I tolerate. When I was younger I had heroes – some of the standard ones, people like Stuart Pearce, Nigel Clough, Steve Hodge or Des Walker – but even lesser heroes who might not ignite the national imagination, but to me were heroes nonetheless, be it for their passion, skill or workrate. I “quite like” some of the current Forest squad, but there is not one player I would consider worthy of being a hero, and I don’t think any of them would make me particularly sad if they chose to leave.
The fans – almost 28,000 souls turned up last night including the passionate people of Yeovil, and generated the kind of atmosphere that was requested from the outset. It’s true that some booed at half time, and you will always have the moaners – but what more do the club expect of it’s supporters? We have witnessed, frankly, a shit season. Even when we’ve won we’ve often been lucky or just plain negative – yet still they came. This backing was not remotely rewarded with anything approaching effort – nor do I think it’s particularly appreciated. I was particularly pleased that large sections of the support remained to applaud Yeovil Town’s players and supporters.
Now, the word from the top is that our woes were driven by injuries (this is a fair point to an extent – we have had rotten luck with injuries – however, we’ve also had opportunities to replace injured players which we’ve not taken), and the inability to attract sufficient quality of players. Now this grates with me a great deal. Firstly, there is an implicit acknowledgement that our current crop of players are not good enough – because the chairman speaks ruefully about being unable to get any better than them, but this is patently absurd.
Take a look at the Yeovil side that so convincingly beat us – do you think that they have a better buying power than us? Do you think their players were on anything like the wages some of our wasters are earning for their ponderous plodding? I don’t think they are. In Russell Slade they’ve a manager who has assembled a side of hungry and talented players who work hard for each other and play the game exactly how we’d like to see it at the City Ground. It is possible to get sufficient quality in League One, you just need to have a manager who knows where to find it, and how to nurture the players into getting them to provide it.
Next season will be the proving of Smoulderwood. Five of the top six teams in League One played decent football, with decent players and two are promoted already, three still – as I type – have a chance of it. The remainder of the six is Nottingham Forest, who have rarely played decent football all season, and are deservedly without a chance of going up now. Smoulds will have to rebuild the side, as contracts are up and players with pretensions of playing at a higher level will leave, and if we are to be stuck with him, he must look to the work done by the likes of Russell Slade at Yeovil, Simon Grayson at Blackpool, Nigel Adkins (and formerly Brian Laws) at Scunthorpe and all those other managers whose sides occupy the league places above us and around us.
You see, they are the proof that Nigel Doughty is wrong. Doughty asserts that we cannot attract players of a sufficient quality at our level, but let’s face it, I think that every single one of our players could be significantly improved upon by taking a player from one of the other top-six finishing teams. Are you telling me, Mr Doughty, that Billy Sharp, Wes Hoolahan, Arron Davies, Chris Cohen and countless other players from these sides would not easily walk into our starting eleven without a second glance? They would, you know.
The rebuilding must start here – and it involves the club taking a fresh outlook. It is hard to reconsider our position with the rapidly fading grandeur of the City Ground as a backdrop, but that’s what we must do – we must use the Yeovils, the Scunthorpes and the Blackpools of this league as a model for how we build for the future. No more overpaid primadonnas with pretensions of being ‘too good for this league’ – we want hungry, honest professionals who will graft for the cause and play decent attacking football. Am I confident that the current powers that be can deliver this model? Well no, frankly, and that is why I gloomily predict we will continue to wallow in this league where even now, it is Leeds and not us that will be the fixture that the other clubs are looking out for.
Filed under: Thoughts
been like a zombie all day….
why do they do it to us every time.
bit too rationale and calm for me .
Doughty and Arthur are the problem that we need resolved before the club can
make any progress . We need fans to keep up a consistnet message …that whatever our financial situation in the past …what we need is someone prepared to take the
club orward in the future …A standstill strategy is a recipe for decline ( yes even more ) and the game is changing faster than we are ……Doughty is either not interested or cant raise the necessary capital …surely thats his job as chairman ?…..if its beyond his own personal
means then he has a responsibility ( wether he likes it or not ) to get more finance in ..
plenty of other clubs seem capable where we are not …look at the sheep…..they have found a consortia of wealthy local business people who are prpeared to invest and leverage funds to prgress .. it looks like it might work …..god help us
So lets stop pretending there is no other way ….Mr Doughty owes us a clear plan to progress …and bring in others …. you watch ….Even leeds will reconstruct in a few months and come into league one with a competitive side …roaring …
we need vision we need drive we need Doughty and Arthur to shape up or ship out !
what are the plans for 07/08 Mr Doughty …we need answers now before we drift though another summer of idle speculation and inaction
Just wanted to say us fans were brilliant last night!! We once again backed the team to the hilt and what was our reward?? A team of bottlers who are not fit to wear the shirt! Calderwood is far too negative! And as for Mark Arthur charging £4 for a program that was no better than an ordinary one was a disgrace! The sooner we get rid of Mark Arthur the better until we do we will go nowhere, he employs those security men in our corner along with the stewards who punish us fans for backing the team. Plus i bet he can’t wait to up the price of season tickets once again! Still in shock and not looking forward to work Monday!
Still feeling very low, my boy started crying when he saw wembley on the telly!! I cannot believe next season under cc will be any better in terms of management. All any team needs to get of this league is a goalscorer on form all season. With Nathan and Junior we have the firepower to get us out. However if the wheels come off again can cc manage us through bad times ? For me he cannot.trust me unless our best strikers are on form and injury free we will struggle again.
Still in a dream (nightmare!) about last night…did it happen?
This was the end of forest as we know it, first 3 years in the Championship we lost good players and repaced them with OK players, then the OK players went and we saved money by buying fair players, they will now leave and we will replace tham with Shit players.
Welcome to mid table Division 1 Forest, I just hope the board can live with an 11,000 average gate.
Vaild points in article and I agree with it all, this is what I was saying last night. I am still in shock to what I witnessed last night, I just think now we are on a downward spiral. I have seen some lows but last night was the final straw for me.
Season after season we see shit football, we have the most money in the league, the most fans the best resources yet we still under acheive dramatically every season. This cannot be right.
I would rather play the kids now and have a hungry team who are proud to wear the shirt, I couldn’t care less if all the players left, lets face it, they are crap.
Doughty blamed injuries last night, hold on a minute, wasn’t Tyson Aggogo and Clingan playing in November, December Jan and Feb when we lost the league.
Feeble excuse and one I am tired of hearing.
Yes still annoyed from last night but I can no longer give my full support to this club, I have spent thousands over the last few years watching this shite home and away and I have had enough.
You get to a point where you have to think, is it worth it anymore.
£4.00 for a programme…you robbing bastards, £20 for the ticket….all the fans are looked upon by the board is a cash machine…..nothing more, Nothing less.
I think this summer will be interesting. See what players we pick up. I mean, Smith and Agogo last year were good buys. I really think CC inhereted a pile of shite and currently IS rebuilding albeit slowly so lets see who is brought in and to a large extend who leaves/stays…eg can he talk Commo into staying with us?
Then see how what football is fed up next season. With Charlie and Frank the players were given the freedom to play their football, and I think CC needs to think about doing the same. You gotta remember the man is learning his trade. The thing is about him is that he does seem to talks so much gobsite. What was that crap about is ‘going for it’ last night. He talks a game he wants the team to play (probably) yet he is not telling the team it seems. I’d give till mid Nov. If we are suffering the same crap up to then he needs to go.
Good article, NFFC. Whatever happens, I (and i’m sure many others would agree) are hoping that you continue your excellent website.
Now the praise is out of the way, and after several pints watching the cup final, i’d like to think we won’t start calling for Doughty’s head. Whatever we think from last night, the fella has kept our club from going under. Yes, he’s made some errors (not backing Hart, not hiring a hit man for Megason) but he’s still ensured there is a team called Nottingham Forest (YOOOOUUUU REDS!).
CC has defo showed some dubious tactics. And when we were 7 points clear, did amyone really think we were playing magic football?? I don’t think so!
However we need stability and CC is a young manager who i think we need to give time, especially since he inherited some players who are blatently not playing to their full potential (that’s being kind to the over paid w*****s who are letting us down- and we all know who they are) .
No doubt we’ll see calls for Psycho to be brought in….whilst he’s my favourite all-time Forest player (i’m too young to properly remember the European Cup winners and the missus reckons Metgod isn’t a proper middle name for my next kid) he’s not the answer. Just look what he’s done to Man City!!!!!
So i think we need to be patient, hope for some decent summer signings (perhaps Mr Pleat might get involved) and pray that next season we go unbeaten!! (Did i mention i’d had a few pints……)
Excelent comments as usual.Arthur certainly HAS TO GO !!Calderwod will use the injuries as an excuse not to resign but he has to change his tactics.If yeovil dont win promotion maybe Slade could be persuaded to come here.Comments from Northampton supporters all say they were glad to see the back of negative Calderwood.A good start next season with attacking foootball has to be provided by……………….
Good article NFFC. Doughty rescued the club without him we could be in the Conference by now. His ony crime is poor ability in picking the right men for the job.
Mark Arthur’s brief appears to be to rip off the fans at every opportunity (programme £4 !!) and to ask the stewards to employ gestapo tactics in controlling the fans.
Colin Calderwood, where do I start, firstly I belive we will not get promoted while he is in charge. I felt sorry for the players on Friday night they were let down by the inept decision making of thier manager. It is the Platt syndrome all over again, allow a young manager to learn at our club regaredless as to wether he has the attributes to be sucessfull in the first place (was it 4 years with money to spend at Northampton before he finally gained promotion ?). Friday night showed in one game all the kinds of mistakes Calderwood has been making all season from idiotic substitutions to bewildering tactics.
Doughty has to make an intersting decision does he fire Calderwood costing him compensation or does he stick with him knowing that season ticket sales will collapse.
I would predict sales less than 7,000 unless a new face that the fans believe in is in place soon.
Finally I truly believe that there is no club in the land, whose fans, after going through what this club has put its fans through over the last 10 years culminating in a third division play off game could command the level of support and the noise generated on Friday night I was proud, as I always am, to support this club.
We, the fans, were the only part of Friday night totally above criticism.
As you are getting a lot of praise today, I will join in too. I have thoroughly enjoyed this site over the past year when by complete chance I came across it. Coming from a newspaper background your journalism is informative, amusing, and very well balanced. All in all compulsive reading especially as I am a bit out of touch living in the land of the giant killers NORTHERN IRELAND. KEEP IT UP!
Now onto other things: Now I am a bit like you, numb at present. Over the years I have backed every manager giving them the benefit of the doubt in the belief that they will turn it around (even Platt). All year I have been thinking when things have not gone well (lost, bad football, poor formations, wrong substitutions, putting players in alien positions) that CC will learn from his mistakes and he won’t make it again, so I am happy when something goes really wrong that it will never happen again and he will have seen the errors of his ways. OH HOWI AM WRONG! All year I have been waiting for this team to break lose and take games by the scruff of the neck, now I know we are not going to win every game, but at least lose with some dignity. I now see that CC has not learnt one thing from all the really low points of the season, even though he says all the right things in the press (best communicator of all the club managers) he never puts into action what he says in the press. “We are going to take the game to them” never seen it, just ends up being the same old rubbish from the first game of the season.
This is why I am calling for his head, as if it was any other job (does not matter if you are poor to begin with, as long as you learn from your mistakes and improve as time goes on then you will keep your job). This has never occurred, just sound bites and I will stick to my tried and trusted techniques “It works best you know”, and the fans know nothing.
Or after all is it the players? Please let me know someone?
Us Forest fans may have been spoilt in the past but we want to watch good football, not hoofball. We have been deservedly beaten by better footballing teams and CC has constantly proved to be a dour, defensive manager. The substitutions on Friday night has to rank among the worst I’ve ever seen from a forest manager. The much maligned Dobie was having his best game in a Forest shirt and then taking Lester off with only a one goal lead it left us completely devoid of attacking options should Yeovil equalise. There was only ever going to be one winner in extra time.
I dont think CC has the ability to turn us into a good side. Once you have lost the fans then you’re just prolonging the inevitable. I think we need a change.
I have to go to work in Derby tomorow.
Actually, I’m getting used to being the laughing stock.
I think we need one of those lovely rich foreign types to come and buy a great, magnificient club,full of history and a trophy cabinet that has not been opened for quite a long time.In response to above,Mr doughty has obviously been playing things safe,not wanting to splash any cash around,you know,the kind of cash that buys you decent players.And for David Pleat,well i think he does alot of commentary on the tv,he has an annoying way of explaining things,thats about it with him.Ans lastly our Colin.well he was a defender and i am thinking ex-defenders are prone to being defensive minded managers,look at our main man Stuart.