Subject: Nottm Forest Rant

I don't go to that many games, but I've been to 4 this season and seen a few on Sky, and they're playing surprisingly assured football. I have to pinch myself a bit, because the Forest I know recently are utterly unreliable, unpredictable, and flatter to deceive... The fans expect a lot, but the team has been pants for a fair few years. The last time we were doing this well, and playing this well, it was ten years ago and we had Kev Campbell and Pierre van Hooijdonk up front and were banging in the goals. A few years after that we had a decent enough team and nearly got there (ta Sheffield Utd) but they blew it, Hart's academy players (Jermaine Jenas, Michael Dawson, Andy Reid, Gareth Williams etc) got sold off and shortly after we were in League One with Kris Commons (Andy Reid replacement and never got a look in when Reidy was there) our only really creative player. It's a different sort of team this time round; in a way, there aren't any real stand-out players that we rely on, it's just a team that has started, and kept on, playing really well. I think the team spirit is better than with the last manager, and they're trying to keep a lid on promotion talk and have been all season. Old Forest teams would never have won away games like that crunch match with West Brom. I think we'll get 1 or 2 decentish signings in this month - if we keep playing like we have done so far, I'd be confident that we'll be up there or in with a good chance in the playoffs. The squad is ok too, a few players that can come in to fill if we get a couple of injuries, but if McKenna or Gunter get injured I don't think we've got as good players on the bench. Same for when Nicky Shorey's load ends - he has been steady in a position where it's back to having a square peg in a round hole when/if he goes back to Villa.
In short - it looks good at the moment, but it's a fickle confidence and Forest are more than capable of ballsing it up. And if you believe the manager, he doesn't want to go up anyway as it's too soon (hmm).

Davies is a great believer in to survive in the premiership you need a certain level of infrastrucutre in place. He said it at Derby mate - they got promoted and then he got sacked after about 7 games - his retort was "told you so". From what ive heard him saying he thinks your clubs infrastructure isnt too far away and he may be attempting to push the boards buttons to get their ass in gear and get it sorted in time. He refers to youth setup not being correct and of course training facilities.

Going back a few posts, oxford united would be 9th in that scottish list, and we only have 3 sides! Incidentally, we just beat woking last night in the "fa" trophy 2nd round with a 1,500 attendance...

The real problems start if you get promoted. Best players in the world are in the Premiership, and they've been brought there by billionaires. You can either buy your way in, or get lucky with a good manager, a squad of good athletes, and a lot of luck. Portsmouth are going bust, Hull possibly too. West Ham owe 110 million according to David Sullivan. Even Man Utd could be in trouble 700 million debt and rising - and they say Ferguson is a good boss ! I could be a good boss if I had the money to buy the best players in the world !

Totally agree. No money, no long-term competitiveness at the top. I think it's possible to do a Reading/Bolton/Fulham and compete in the middle of the table for a year or a few years based on a good squad and team spirit, inspired signings, and a decent manager (respectively). Course, if you do that then all your players become targets for other clubs, don't sign new contracts, and every replacement is a gamble as to whether they'll improve or worsen the squad and long-term it tends to be the latter.

Man U's debt is mainly derived from their owners' loan used to buy the club, rather than mistakes in the TL by Ferguson, isn't it? I expect his net spend isn't massive. Liverpool's is probably quite a terrible balancebook, and Arsenal's has got to be in the black with Wenger's canniness. I think you should apply to the County manager's job. I hear they've got loads of money (ahem).

Thankfully, I'll never be in a position to have to clear up Svens' sloppy seconds...

And what do you guys think of Majewski? He had about 18 games in Nottingham already, scoring 3 goals and all of them were real screamers. Maybe except the freekick, cause I guess that it was just nothing more than a sloppy cross that eventually came into the net ;-)

Is he any good with playmaking, passing, creating opportunities for strikers? Cause it's the most needed kind of player in our NT...

by the way, and interesting thing - Majewski had problems with getting into the lineup in Polonia Warsaw, a middle-place Ektraklasa[which is our Premiership, except that with retarded players] team. Most of the journalists were predicting that he will end his carreer with the move to Notts, cause he won't play more than 1 or 2 games....

His goals so far:







3rd one is a real crack!

You forgot St Helens Town of the North West Counties Football League Premier Division ;-)

17,500!

And the smallest ground in the League, Accrington Stanley, 5057.

aye but your not talking all seater here are you?

He seems a decent creative player; good technique, unpredictable, quite small. Mostly gets played for home matches (when Forest play more open attacking football) and sometimes behind the striker when we play with one up front. He must have about 4-5 man-of-the-match awards, including in the recent win over WBA (I think). Personally, I haven't noticed him much in matches, but he's quite highly regarded (if you score a goal like he did against Derby, arch rivals, the fans will quickly like you!) and he is getting played more frequently now. Most people'd like his load to become permanent (I think there' s a deal to sign him at the end for £1.5m). I've heard he has been out on the piss around Nottingham misbehaving, but I don't know if that's true or not!

6000 all seater? what is the flying duck point of that?

I am going to have a word with the missus, she grew up near Hamilton - I knew there was something funny about her...

all teams in scotland were forced into that - it used to be you had to have a 10k all seated stadium to get into the SPeeeL but they reduced it to 6k when it nearly destroyed several clubs who have an average attendance of 1.5k. Airdrie are the classic case of that - a 10k all seated stadium and i think there home crowd average will be about 1200.

very sensible!

I used to go and see Stenny play when I was up there and saw two blokes in the whole stand doing a mexican wave... very bizarre.

They got only a few hundred supporters, all with a massive bag of broken biscuits from the biscuit factory next door (closed now) and when anything rubbish happened we all turned round and looked at the very beautiful Ochil Hills instead!

ok, thanks for the info!
His price definitely isn't high, so I guess if he keeps this level of play, he should become a Forest for long :)

he's good, but I reckon £1.5m is a full price - butif we get promoted....