Through the seasons before us..

One of the more surprising headlines I spotted yesterday on the feeds, that we’re being linked with Celtic’s captain of last season to join in a role of player-coach.  It seems to have created excitement amongst the majority of fans, certainly a character such as him would add considerably to the ‘fold under pressure’ characteristics of our current personnel, but I suppose given by general ignorance of Scottish football I wasn’t so sure.

My main memories of Lennon relate to him being an obnoxious clogger playing for Leicester City under Martin O’Neill - now I realise that O’Neill’s Leicester side was hardly a fine exponent of the beautiful game anyway, so it’s not a fair barometer to be judging anybody’s footballing ability.  Indeed, only last season when the dirty Foxes sacked Craig Levein he was linked then with a player-manager appointment - but at the time was committed to captaining Celtic.

Certainly an ambitious signing - I would be very surprised if Neil Lennon doesn’t have plenty of other offers on the table, and certainly some from the league above us at least - so it could be considered a coup if we manage it.  The more cynical side of me sees a combatative ageing ginger Scottish midfielder, and I can’t help but think of Gary Holt, who is a couple of years younger than Lennon (and was also on Celtics books, oddly, although he never broke into the first team).

It transpires that Grant was clearly not too happy with the noises made by Forest over discussions of his future.  He had gone on record of wanting to stay, and indeed, when we tried to sell him in January - without him requesting it - he stuck around and worked to get back into the team.  So it seems odd now that he must have had some kind of assurance from the club that he has a future with us - since they’ve turned down the transfer request he handed in last week.

Does that mean he wanted a new contract perhaps with a bit more cash?  Does it mean he fears his options when he will have the mighty Dobie to try to displace from the starting lineup come next season?  It’s hard to be sure - but it’s a strange decision by Smoulders really - I suppose he could well be hedging his bets until any signings he may be planning pan out and he is able to adequately replace Holt, but his body language and behaviour has suggested that he wouldn’t be sorry to lose the striker.

It seems the ballad of Grant Holt is to play on for a while at least - despite this latest development something tells me Grant won’t be a Forest player at the start of next season, of course, I could be wrong as I have been many times - but I wouldn’t be surprised to see him move on.