Why Winona cold-shouldered me and went for Johnny instead...

Ambition. Strange thing. It can be interpreted in so many ways. I used to be said to lack ambition because I never aspired to any managerial positions with big corporations. Instead my ambition lay in music. I wanted to make a living out of the only thing I really knew anything about. Not for me the company Audi or BMW, laptop or flashy and preferably long-legged assistant. I lived the dream for as long as I could. And yes, I can now see it was merely a dream but it was my own, personal ambition at that time. Just depends on where you’re coming from. I certainly had a lot of fun, but that is a completely different story.

Much in the same way, I and my FFF’s dream of the Premier League. Wouldn’t it be grand to be back among the big boys, fighting it out at the highest level, pushing for Europe? Would it not be fabulous to straddle the top flight and scare the living daylights out of Europe’s biggest clubs the way Chelsea and Man Utd can? Oh, yes. Clough, that would be brilliant. Right back where we belong… Who sang that again? But the question we have to ask ourselves is: do we actually still belong there? Right now, we don’t, in my opinion. We simply lack the budget required to have any chance up there. Nigel Doughty has put a lot of money into our club and he is a wealthy man, but he is no Roman Abramovic or Al Mubarak.

Now some FFF’s blame our chairman for being too careful with his and the club’s money. They say it is his fault that Billy Davies fails to get the players he wants to join the club. In my honest opinion, they are mistaken. Let us look at four recent, high profile NFFC transfer targets. First there was Nicky Shorey, on loan with us at left back for the first half of last season. Billy (and us fans) would have loved for him to stay. Problem was, there was also an offer for him to join Fulham on loan. Given the choice between staying at the City Ground and the chance of playing on one of the biggest stages in the world and showing himself to a possible new club, Shorey did what we would all have done (if we weren’t avid Forest fans) and went to Fulham. Billy Davies (followed by many FFF’s) decided to blame the board and the acquisition panel, creating a negative atmosphere that was partly responsible for the spectacular drop in form in the second half of the season.

But let us look at that a little closer. First of all, can you really blame that sudden poor form on one player leaving? We have to be honest. Billy Davies has to be honest. At least part of the blame for a club dramatically dropping in form has to go to the manager. The buck always stops with him, after all. He cannot hide behind the fact that one player left the club. One player who only played in nine games, I must add. And did Billy himself not say recently that Shorey’s replacement, Chris Cohen, was much better at left back than in midfield? Surely he must have been an adequate stand-in for Shorey then, because we all know how good Cohen is in midfield.

But I mentioned four transfer targets. There was also talk, last season, of signing Victor Moses, then of Crystal Palace. Now first of all, Forest were far from the only club after Victor, who had just had an impressive run of eight games with five goals and was hot as proverbial faeces. Moses in the end went to Wigan for 2,5 million Pounds. Not only is that not the sort of money Forest easily pay, but even if we did have that kind of budget, Victor Moses would have been left with the choice between Forest in the Championship or Wigan in the Premier League. Bigger stage, bigger wages. No brainer.

This summer, Billy was at it again, blaming the board for not being ambitious in their transfer policy. Apart from the fact that he should not say those things in public, Billy was wrong. The fact that NFFC actually TRIED to sign his targets, shows ambition. They had the ambition to sign them. But… The two main targets, Darren Pratley and Peter Whittingham, were key players for their respective clubs, Swansea and Cardiff. Forest tried hard to pry them away from their clubs but failed. It was not disclosed how much was actually offered but some reasons could be pointed out why Cardiff and Swansea refused to let their men go. First, as mentioned, they are key players for their clubs. Second, it would be really bad business to let such key players move to a direct competitor for promotion, which Forest are viewed as. How would Forest fans feel if, say, Lee Camp was sold to Swansea or Cardiff? The only way to change the situation would have been to offer “silly money,” a practice which NFFC and Nigel Doughty refuse to get into, and rightly so.

And there lies the problem of perception we currently face. Many fans see the chairman's careful budgeting as a lack of ambition. In their opinion, the club should take what is seen as a considered gamble and splash out on some of the best players to get us into the Premier League. But that is exactly what Leeds United did about a decade ago, isn’t it? Gamble and throw money at getting to the next level? It proved to be a very expensive gamble, which at one point had Leeds on the brink of disappearing altogether. Now I, for one, don’t want the club I love to be put in danger like that.

I prefer another season in the second tier as a healthy club to a promotion bought with money we don’t actually have and the possibility of it all going horribly wrong. It’s not like we have a divine right to be in the top flight of English football. Nobody has. Our first ambition should be to confirm last season's performance. If we can get into the play-offs again, I'll be a happy Forest fan. Rome wasn't built in a day and all that.

The whole debate made me think of Winona Ryder. Strange? Bear with me. When I was about 17-18, I wrote a song for Winona. I had a massive crush on her. I recorded the song on a cassette and sent it to her through MGM. Lo and behold, I got a signed photograph back, with a little note saying she loved the song and thanks a million. Seventh heaven. Next thing I knew, she hooked up with Johnny Depp. Well, we can easily translate that to the sort of players Billy Davies and the club want to sign. We all want Winona Ryder. But her current boyfriend will probably not be keen on letting her go. And if she was single and had the choice, then the Premier League would be Johnny Depp and the Championship would be little, scruffy old me. It’s a simple as that, really…

Discipline!

Mrs Devil and I were in France last weekend, visiting the Great War battlefields. Both of us have ancestors buried in various military cemeteries along the Flanders front, a fact that has resulted in a shared keen interest in the history of this horrific time. We saw Loos, Vimy, Thiepval, Hamel. It was rather quiet, which added to the experience. Impressive, poignant. And something has changed compared to ten, fifteen years ago. We saw German number plates at Vimy and an English bus at the German cemetery in Neuville-St-Vaast. Finally. The whole region is dotted with military cemeteries, often holding over a thousand casualties. Generals on both sides sent many young men from all over the world to their deaths in France and Belgium. Some of the offensives were utter madness, and they seemed to have a knack of forgetting factors from which they should have been drawing conclusions and learning lessons. But why did the soldiers and officers obey to these sometimes insane orders, knowing they would again be mowed down by artillery and machine guns?

Discipline.

It is something I can only admit to having a complete lack of, sadly. I loved to learn, but hated studying. I love performing music live, but hate the constraints of studio work. I loved to play football when I had two good knees, but hated training. Likewise, I love the fact that webmaster Steve offered me a chance to vent my thoughts about Forest and football in general, but I seem to lack the discipline, once again, to write regularly. For this, I apologise most humbly.

It is not even that nothing has happened in the past six or seven months. Forest managed to stay up after a not so good start to last season. And there was much rejoicing. Belgium sacked their manager and replaced him with the esteemed Dick Advocaat. His first game in charge saw a 2-0 win over Turkey. And there was much rejoicing. England qualified easily for the World Championship, a league above the competition in their group, including Croatia and Ukraine. And there was much rejoicing. BBC started a Football League Show, meaning I can finally see Forest highlights in Belgium. And there…

In this new season, our manager Billy Davies seems to have found his footing. He has turned Nottingham Forest into a feared side. Another slippery start, agreed, but now we have not lost in what seems like ages. We were even on the Beeb the other day, live. And we look good. There is some great passing going on all over the pitch, good running up front. We look lively, we look fluent, we look dangerous. The game against Cardiff was so good I kept thinking that I had seen many reports on Match of the Day that showed far less accomplished football and less excitement from Premier League clubs. We really, truly look good out there.

And of course it is too soon to think about automatic promotion spots, the Premier League, Europe, Munich, Madrid. But things look a lot better than they did two or three years ago. We have Colin Calderwood to thank for part of that. We have Nigel Doughty to thank for another part. Billy Davis for another. The players, who seem to finally realize that they have to put some effort in it. And the fans, who may be called fickle but seem relentless in their support. An average attendance of 20000+ in the old third division is proof of that.

Like Forest, I will try to change. I will try to be more consistent, to score more points. To think less about football, but write more. I have written this before, I admit with my head hung in shame. I’m serious this time. In part a result of a weekend in France that has made a big impression. Discipline.

Be good.
Red Devil