Through the seasons before us..

Lee Camp reminisces about a recent fishing trip

Popular former loanee Lee Camp looks set to be confirmed as our fourth signing of the season after Forest have announced that we’ve agreed an undisclosed fee with Queens Park Rangers, and terms with the player himself.  Certainly speculation has been mounting for a while, particularly after Paul Smith returned to training wearing a kit with 21 rather than 1 on it (not that squad numbers have been decided yet,  but Camp wore 21 whilst on loan with us).

Subject to a medical he will be joining us for an undisclosed fee from the London club, and signing his name to a four year contract.

Camp became universally popular after saving a penalty at former club (and the team he supported as a lad) Derby County, and celebrating rather enthusiastically.  Certainly his tenure in goal coincided with some degree of turnaround in our fortunes on the pitch, and upon his departure Paul Smith returned in outstanding form – so having a bit of healthy competition in such a key position makes a welcome change.

Of course, that wasn’t the last we saw of Lee Camp, his bungled attempt to claim a cross for QPR allowed us to nick the points at the City Ground, so he even did us favours whilst wearing the colours of another team!  Whilst I welcome the signing as I would the majority of them, I don’t quite buy into the hype that some quarters lavish upon him, so will be viewing with great interest should be be our starting choice just how he performs – and indeed, how long he retains his status with our notoriously fickle supporters!

Welcome aboard, Lee – it’s great we now have to genuinely credible choices to play in goal, both ‘keepers will now have to stay on their toes to keep their place – which is great for the team.  Although can we please for the love of god come up with a better chant than ‘Lee Camp is a Forest fan’, being a slightly grumpy old sod I find that incredibly embarrassing.

Can’t wait ’til this time next year to see if we can finally bottom-out the ‘Smith vs Camp’ debate – if both players can develop from the other, then we could end up with two excellent goalkeepers!

Hopefully not the last time I get to use that headline – but Forest are about to post on their site that we’ve signed Anderson.  The Nottingham Evening Post are suggesting for as little as £250k – which is an absolute steal!  Another former loan-club Swansea were also chasing his signature.

Despite having a torrid time with injuries, Ando made 28 appearances for us last season – and despite only snagging a couple of goals, our results with him in the side were generally better than without him.  A tireless worker and prepared to do the dirty work – not to mention play on with a cast on whilst his arm was recovering – this is our most exciting signing yet, I think.

Great to have him back, a busy couple of days for the Reds in terms of signings – it also makes the £1m price tag for McGoldrick seem easier to swallow – as £1.25m for the pair looks like great business to me!  Oh, and as I type this, the official site has been updated (and almost used the same headline as me!).

He’s signed a three year contract, and this news has cheered me up immeasurably in preparation for an afternoon of fairly dull meetings!  Welcome back, Paul! (He also looks a bit like that bloke Andy Murray was playing at Tennis yesterday, I notice, as I look for a picture of him!).

There are tribes in the Amazon rainforest, as yet untouched by what we call civilisation, who knew that we were signing Dele Adebola on a free transfer from Bristol City.  Forest finally feel able to announce this news today, further bolstering our strikeforce after yesterday’s capture of David McGoldrick from Southampton.

If you’d asked me part way through last season about us signing him, I would probably have been less than impressed – however I thought the frontman put in a cracking performance against us for Bristol City last season, and gives us the physicality we’ve lacked up front for a while now – so as long as it doesn’t herald the beginning of long ball football (and it didn’t for the Robins, so why should it for us?) then I’m not unhappy with the free signing.

He will sign a two year contract – one year more than City were prepared to give him – tomorrow when the transfer window opens, when Forest are also expected to announce the £750k capture of Paul Anderson from Liverpool – which is a tremendous coup, and one I’m really pleased about.

There remain question marks over the competition we seem to be facing to sign Mills from Doncaster, as well as Rovers’ chairman not exactly appearing to want to do business – since the Jones rumours have gone quiet, rumours of us talking to Blackpool about securing the services of Shaun Barker.

Welcome on board, though, Dele – deployed correctly you will be a potentially exciting new dimension to our attack.

The gossip-mills have been circulating for a while, and indeed, continue to suggest that deals have already been done – but today Forest have confirmed that David McGoldrick has sealed his move to us from Southampton for a seven-figure fee.  McGoldrick is a Nottingham-born lad and spent time over the river with the Magpies before ending up down south (with loan spells at Bournemouth and Port Vale before breaking into the Saints team).

I expect a stream of announcements this week, with probably Anderson next as it seems to be common knowledge we’ve agreed terms and a £750k fee with Liverpool for the pacy winger.  Indeed, it does make £1m (or more) for McGoldrick seem a bit pricey, although he’s been a fairly long-term target for us, so it’s good news on that front to have landed him.

So some great news, and a bit more reason to start scanning the news feeds with a little bit more optimism, perhaps!

Firstly, I think that Billy Davies has made the right decision in suggesting Brecks seeks his future at pastures new – he still has a bit of playing to do, and if we can’t offer him a regular starting position then he should do so elsewhere.  And I imagine in doing so he’ll take the good wishes of Forest fans with him.

He joined us back at the start of 2005-2006 – and was an ever present in the side for league games, notching ten goals largely by nodding home Nicky Southall corners if memory serves.  In 2006-2007 he again featured in every league game although the goals started to dry up – only netting three in this season.

As times got more lean for the club last season Breckin found himself marginalised by Smoulderwood.  It was an emotional return to the side for him against Norwich at Carrow Road once the bronzen one was removed, and under Pemberton and later Davies, Brecks found himself called upon and never let us down.

So personally I’d like to thank Ian for his professional contribution to Forest over the last four years.  He’s had a long career spanning Rotherham, Chesterfield, Wigan and us – taking in more than 600 appearances.  All the best for the future, skipper!

Is this the end for the maligned Smith?

It seems to be on pretty good authority that Forest will complete the loan signing of Everton’s Iain Turner, somebody I hadn’t heard of until rumours started circulating.  Reluctantly I think the ballad of Paul Smith has reached an inevitable and self-fulfilling end.  A promising keeper who I still maintain was improving weaknesses in his game was undermined by unnecessary criticism from the stands.  Admittedly, other players have endured such criticism and shone through regardless – but clearly that confidence level thing is something that did wear away.  Coupled with the Keystone Cops in defence, it was only a matter of time before it all came crashing down.

So, we get to see if Turner can tap into the magical ‘Lee Camp Syndrome’ with some of the intelligentsia in our fanbase, or whether a couple of mistakes or hesitations will be so mercilessly leapt upon so as to hardly give the lad a chance.  His most notable past action is whilst on loan with Brian Laws’ Sheffield Wednesday, where an eleven game stint saw the Owls unbeaten.  He returned to Everton where he’s signed up ’til 2011 – but an injury curtailed any claims he might make on the first team, so he’s not exactly match sharp!

Either welcome on board, Iain – or massive apologies for prematurely posting something that turned out to be a pile of rubbish!  Bear in mind that we can only have five loan signings in a match day squad, so one of Anderson, McSheffrey, Osbourne, Lynch or Gunter will have to miss out should this turn out to be true and Turner is in goal against Wolves at the weekend.  Another would have to miss out if the rumoured courting of Marlon Harewood ever comes to fruition.  And that still leaves us with the same inadequate defence we had had in the first place.  Ho hum.

As I’m sure regular readers will realise – whilst I acknowledge that Paul Smith does have his faults, his treatment by some of our supporters – and some of his teammates – has been shameful in my opinion, and personally I would – if this is to be the beginning of the end of his Forest career – thank him for his efforts which I believe have been significant, certainly in contributing to our promotion last season, but also in some of the points we’ve managed to grab this season too.  I don’t buy into the scapegoating, but if Turner works out better for us, then so be it, because for whatever reason it doesn’t seem to be working out for Smithy at the moment.  Cheers Smudge.

Official texts have been confirmed from numerous people more generous than me – for once they do seem to have been the first to hear the news which is yet to appear on the Forest website! So I’m assuming it’s true, but don’t have any other official confirmation than the text received by a few folks who kindly emailed in:

“Nottingham Forest have sealed their second loan signing of the week with Gary McSheffrey checking-in from Birmingham City.”

However, here is more detailed confirmation from the Birmingham website.

Short but sweet!  This is a really good signing, whilst he’s coming back from injury he’s a cracking player at this level – and gives us either more tangible threat from midfield, or an extra option up front.  He’s probably best known to us Reds fans for his time with his home-town team Coventry City – where he primarily played as a winger, but was always amongst the goals.  He signed for Birmingham City in 2006 for an initial £2.6million plus add ons.

Things all went according to plan for him at the Blues, until injury struck which is now what he is recovering from – but he should give us some proven quality which is much needed!  He’s here ’til the end of the season, and frankly I’m rather pleased by it!  Birmingham have put an instant recall clause on him, I suspect this isn’t with a view to a permanent move – it’s just a means of the player build his fitness.

According to the Aston Villa website, we’ve signed Isaiah Osbourne on loan – although if you click onto the story you get an error.  Presumably the notion of Forest actually making a signing has caused the Villa website to crash.  The Villa youngster will be just the kind of target we need, adding a wealth of experience to our young side… oh, okay.  He’s a young’un, that’s for sure, although he has had pitch time in the Premier League for Aston Villa, and is contracted to them until 2010.

He almost joined Les-dar on loan a little over a year ago but the move fell through due to injury.  He is generally seen as a defensive midfielder from what I can gather – which, given the return of the Moose (albeit still short on match fitness) doesn’t seem to be a priority area for us – but still, if it turns out to be true, then welcome aboard, Izzy.  Although I did just ask a Villa supporting colleague about him, to which he replied “He’s shit!”.  Oh well, then again, I suppose shit to a Villa fan is not necessarily the same for us right now.

Predictably there is nothing on the Forest website, they are probably busy wordsmithing a text message to the mugs people who subscribe to the pay-per-text service which is supposed to break news of new signings!  We shall see!  Not quite as exciting as the Leroy Lita rumours that have been doing the rounds, but signings are always a good thing and an unusual thing for me to write about!

It’s certainly news that a lot of the more knuckle-dragging fans around me will be pleased about; Forest have today completed the loan signing of Queens Park Rangers goalkeeper (and former Sheep) Lee Camp.  Given the nonsense that gets spouted about Smith, it should quieten down those who regularly spout vitriol in the direction of the player who has probably had a big hand (literally) in the miserly collection of points we’ve amassed this season.

That said, whilst I don’t think we need a replacement for Smith – I do think he needs credible competition for his place; and Camp certainly provides that – so I’m happy to have him on board.  If he is capable of gaining some kind of order from our back four, then perhaps the hints in the Evening Post that he will be in the sticks tomorrow night against Ipswich might be a good thing.

I still think that would be harsh on Smith though, however if we get a result then who cares at the moment!  Welcome on board, Lee – I just hope you’re not another Daryl Powell style plant from down the A52 – because imagine that, as a goalkeeper he could do much more damage than the former did as a ‘midfielder’!  I must learn to cage my over-active imagination.

The bottom line is that we had needed another keeper at least to cover for Smith in case of injury – the preference would’ve been a keeper to challenge him for the number one jersey.  I think that, on paper at least, this signing ticks both boxes.  Now we could just do with a couple of fullbacks, please, Smoulds!

Apparently we’re signing Welsh International Carl Fletcher on loan; although the whispers I heard were that it would be completed today – and as far as I can tell, it hasn’t been.  Perhaps Warnock has been time-wasting from afar again?  Or perhaps not.  After Palace’s shameful antics at the City Ground he owes us a favour, and an experienced midfielder like Fletcher would be sure to strengthen the middle of the park.

He has a reputation as a ball winner, but also as someone able to pick out a pass – which is something we’ve really lacked since Moussi went off the boil a bit (and is now injured), although I do think this was partially down to losing the ‘outlet’ that is McGugan, as well as never having the traditional outlet midfielders in this country are used to having, which is of course a winger!  But it’s good to see the Reds going out to try to resolve problems to try to correct the slump we’ve found ourselves in.

So, what do we know?  I profess to knowing very little about him; he’s 28, played for Palace 73 times, his former clubs include West Ham and Bournemouth, and he’s been capped 29 times for Wales.  His latest as early as this week, where he put in a credible performance against a strong German midfield.  Forest are hoping to get him signed and sealed in time for the weekend’s trip to Queens Park Rangers – fingers crossed they’ve either:

(a) Already managed it, but forgotten to update the official website or:
(b) Get it done and dusted tomorrow morning!

In the meantime, me being a person of little faith, has every reason to feel a little humbled – because this morning waiting in my email inbox was the image to the left – a Subbuteo representation of Trevor Francis with the European Cup on his head.  This was courtesy of regular commenter Radgie, and were quickly followed up with the below compilations – can you identify the Forest-related historical moments depicted therein?  Thanks for going to the trouble, Radgie!