Might take a bit of getting used to…

It’s a rotten job but somebody has to do it. That just about sums up what it is like to be a Forest fan. Arguably, it also describes pretty accurately what it means to be Forest manager. The season has hardly begun but already our new manager is rumoured to want to jump ship. I would be surprised if he did; I am sure Mr McLaren has much more steel in him than that, but it is sad that this is the main topic of the day, this early in the season. And even more sad is the fact that, if there is any truth in this, it is again caused by transfers not materialising and the blame for that being thrown around the club. It is only September, but already the fans are divided. There is a large proportion who want to get rid of the chairman, saying he has never done anything for NFFC. Then there is the “other side” who thank Mr Doughty for everything he has done for the club, for the fact even that they still have a club to support. The first group right now are quite vocal in their opinion that the sacking of Billy Davies was a disgrace. The second think he had it coming and that no employee at no company would get away with constantly rubbing the bosses the wrong way as Billy did.

As you can probably guess from earlier blogs, I am in the second camp. I liked Billy Davies. I called him King Billy now and again. Why? Because he gave us something to be proud of, now and again. In his first full season, there was the incredible away form early on. In his second, it was home form. Both were amazing, featuring massive unbeaten runs. But that was offset by points lost elsewhere. The City Ground wasn’t exactly a fortress in that first season and then last season we were horrific away. Also, twice we were in a great position around February, March, only for it to go completely off the rails for some reason, with the manager unable to get it going again and Forest twice just scraping into the play-offs. There was a depressing run last season where we couldn’t seem to win a game to save our lives. And then there was Billy’s mouth. Always moaning, about transfers, about lack of support and loyalty. At the same time, he openly flirted with other clubs, most famously with Celtic, even saying he would consider any offer from any bigger club. Choosing to live in Glasgow and travel up and down didn’t help, even if I will not judge him for that, as we will never know his reasons. But a lack of loyalty toward your employers, coupled with up and down results, is not going to cement your position. So after another bust-up, it was: “Bye bye Billy.” I wasn’t surprised, I even thought it was overdue.

But now here we go again, apparently. Now Steve McLaren is said to be frustrated at the lack of signings and it is reported that he is thinking about leaving the City Ground already. It’s hard to say how much of this is true. We don’t know what is said inside the City Ground offices. We’re not there so we can only guess. Steve has said that the transfer period was a frustrating time. But whereas – with Billy Davies in mind – many choose to see that as unveiled criticism of the way Forest go about transfers, I think he isn’t just talking about himself. I think he means it has been frustrating for all concerned: for him as a manager, for the board, for the players and the fans, it has been frustrating looking at good players and some big signings not happening, for different reasons.

Let’s look at these big targets, then. There is frustration on the fora over the non-signing of Wayne Routledge. A Newcastle United player who did well on loan at QPR last season, he was a fantastic target and it looked quite good for a while until Routledge decided he would go to Premier League new boys Swansea instead. You cannot blame anyone for that apart from maybe the FA and UEFA. The gap between countries and, within countries, the gap between divisions has become so big that we cannot possibly compete with the pull of any Premier League club. Also, Swansea played some amazing football last season. Then there was the fantastic prospect of Wesley Verhoek, whom Forest wanted to sign for around 2M. Big one, that. Very good and exciting player, he was going to boost Forest in a big way. Everything was settled, Verhoek was in the Midlands for a medical and to sign a contract but then decided against it. Not something anyone said, not a lack of wages, nothing of the sort. He just got cold feet and decided he didn’t want to leave his home country. Massive bummer but fair play to him. Ashkan Dejagah, a winger from Steve McLaren’s old club Wolfsburg, was another target. He chose to stay in the Bundesliga, which we will all agree is a much bigger (and wealthier) league than the Championship. I’d rather play Hamburger SV and Bayern Munich than West Ham and Southampton. And Max Gradel of Leeds went to the old green giants of Saint-Etienne, a club which I incidentally see as possibly my second love in football. Nowhere near the passion I have for Forest but I always keep an eye on them and would love to catch a game once. I can’t blame Gradel for picking a top flight club in the South of France, with a massive stadium, fiery support and regional derbies with Olympique Lyon to look forward to.

Looking at all those, it is very hard to see how the board or the much-maligned Transfer Acquisition Pannel can be faulted. Routledge, Gradel and Dejagah went to or stayed at top flight clubs, Verhoek got home-sick and did the same. There is nothing anyone can change about that, unless the club employ a Luca Brazzi-like enforcer, to make the transfer targets offers they can’t refuse or they’ll sleep with the fishes. Sadly, it doesn’t work that way. More money, a bigger league, those are the things that we can’t compete with. The moment a player has to choose between a top flight club in England, France, Germany, even Holland, and Nottingham Forest, we lose out. We are not a big club anymore, sadly. We don’t pull. But for those names to even be mentioned in relation to Forest, shows ambition on behalf of our club. We were after four players who all went to or stayed in big leagues in the end. And that is exactly what many fans are saying the club doesn’t have: ambition. They should learn that ambition is in trying, not in succeeding. It was NFFC’s ambition to sign those players and I applaud it, even if it is frustrating when they go elsewhere.

But look at the players we have got in. Ishmael Miller, Matt Derbyshire, George Boateng, Jonathan Greening and Andy Reid are all very good signings. We’ll be OK. Steve will stay. I’m sure he has more backbone than to walk out when he doesn’t get his way. He’s not at a Premier League club that gets what and who they want. He will soon get used to that. He will get used to having to win over a number of fans who are still hoping that somehow the previous manager will come back. Those fans will get used to having Steve instead of Billy. The players will get used to him and each other. And we will see Forest in the play-off places at the end of the season. Just as we have been getting used to.