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

The season starts now!

A very quick one before I have to dash off to my sister in law's birthday bash. Not only will I not be in Nottingham for the derby today, I may not even be able to follow it at all. Fingers crossed that I can get a pc somewhere that I can have a peek at now and again.

Up and down season, so far. Well, more down than up, obviously, especially in the league. 2 points out of 4 games is not good, not by any standard. Not with the squad we have. Then again, we've progressed further in the League Cup than we have in ages, so there are some positives. And judging by the last game, we should be able to turn the corner. Coming from behind to beat Boro is not something many clubs will do this season. Of course we needed extra time, but it still means that in a regular game, we would get a point out of it. Which isn't bad, considering they are among the favourites to win the Championship.

So I suggest we forget about the league so far. The season starts now. And it looks like a perfect day to slaughter some sheep...

Thomas and I will both be wearing our home kits, so we're there, in a way.

COME ON YOU REDS!

Be good!

RD

Told you so!

Strange title for a pre-season post! I know. But it is what I hope to be able to say at the end of this season. I have been able to say it twice in a row now and it would be great to get to three. Halfway the 07-08 season, many FF's doubted if Colin Calderwood could get us up out of League One. I was always sure, upto even eight games from the end, when we needed a massive run-in to get there. We did it, winning 19 points out of 21 to finish second after Swansea. I was in the car for the last game, on our way back home from Provence, with my mate Bones texting me about our own game and those of Doncaster and Carlisle. We made it somehow. I'll never forget the excitement. The relief. The pride. The justification. The feeling of: "Told you so!"

Last season was no less dramatic, with Forest in the drop zone or at least in view of it upto the second last game. We got a life saving point away at Blackpool to secure survival in the Championship and beat Saints 3-1 on the final day, just to make sure we ended on a high note. A lovely feeling. Again, I had said at the beginning of the season that we would stay up. A change of manager and some important long-term injuries in spite, we did it. Again: "Told you so."

So, to the 2009-2010 season. We have a new manager in place. Billy Davies was not my first choice when Colin Calderwood had to go. My first choice was always for Calderwood to stay, but he had lost most of the fans. Long-term thinking is not for modern football, so when the results were bad for a spell, he had to go, even if at that very point, we seemed to be getting better, be it very slowly. An admittedly horrible result at home against Doncaster did it. Straw, camel, back. In came Billy Davies. He didn't convince me at first, seemingly alienating some young players and mouthing off at the board from the first weeks. The results weren't good either. We lost twice against D**by in three weeks' time, going out of the cup in a 3-2 replay at home and the losing 3-1 in the league as well.

But the way Billy handled the crisis made me change my mind. He brought in some very good loan signings. And even if our form was shifty, he did enough to keep us up. He impressed every one with the signings he has made in the summer. Nigel Doughty has opened up his wallet to bring some very good players in. Forest look like a very tough proposition this season. We nearly have two good players for every position, so even if we did get the same bad luck with injuries we did last season, it wouldn't have as much of an impact. Only in defence we could do with a little more cover. I have heard Sol Campbell is available on a free. Many FFF's wouldn't agree, but I really think his experience, vision and passion for winning games would work perfectly in a mix with the young players we have at the club. Get him in for a season, make him captain and he'll have them fighting for every ball.

Then there is a dream transfer that will never happen. Anthony Vanden Borre. Belgian international, ex-Anderlecht, now property of Fiorentina. But he doesn't know yet where he will be next season and wants to get out of Italy after a bad experience at the club he played for last season, Genoa. He wouldn't be cheap, but it would be fantastic if he could be convinced to come to a club who have a program for the future. And he would certainly help our bid for promotion. He can play right wing, right midfield, right back and as a holding player. His passing is incredible, he is fast, strong and has brilliant control. Like I said, just dreaming out loud. Oh, and he's used to playing in Red, too!

There were some predictions going around recently. I'll go for anything between 3rd and 6th at the end of the season. That's all I'll say. The play-offs are too unpredictable. 5th and play-offs would be brilliant. Anything else is a bonus. I think Boro and WBA or Newcastle will go up through the automatic places. Then us in the chasing pack. Hope to say I told you so. Again.

It all starts in half an hour...

Be good!

Red Devil

Goodbye Sir Bobby

It was with great sadness that I learned on Saturday that the great Sir Bobby Robson had passed away. It's not that I was shocked, as Sir Bobby's long battle against illness was well documented. One could even say we were all waiting for the inevitable news to come one day. Still it hit me with a dull thud to the stomach and brought tears to my eyes.

My first real memories of Sir Bobby are mixed. Italy 1990. The Stadio Renato Dall'Ara on the 26th June. 119 minutes of superior football, with England clinging on for dear life in a game that Belgium could have, possibly should have won. There had been two Belgian efforts off the woodwork, one Enzo Scifo screamer that would easily have made Goal of the Tournament had it gone in. England had a valid goal disallowed for off side as well. It was a brilliant game of football, played between a Belgian side as strong as I have ever seen, and an England side that should really have gone on to win the World Cup. A fair game, too, with hardly any bookings. Just good, attacking football from both sides. Then, from a Paul Gascoigne free kick, came David Platt's moment. Many Forest fans would learn to hate him later, but he was England's hero of the day. And he is still possibly the most hated football player in our country, which surprised him no end, as he explained in a documentary about "that" game on Belgian television. He was just a player doing a job, he said. A player subbed in by Bobby Robson because he thought maybe the then young player of the season might give the team some extra options. If ever a substitution came off...

Bobby Robson's reaction after the game was what made me sit up and notice. A true gentleman, Robson said that this game should not have had a losing side, that he understood how cruel it was to the Belgian team and their fans. Our national manager cried, according to aforementioned documentary. So did most of Belgium, myself included. My passion for English football, however, made me follow England for the rest of that tournament, and I cried again when Chris Waddle missed that last penalty against Germany. England should have won that game and the tournament, because surely the Argentina of that edition would have been no match for Bobby's team in the final.

It would have made Bobby Robson immortal, even more of a legend than he is now, and probably a Sir long before his knighthood eventually came around. How he must have felt when Andreas Brehme converted that cheated penalty in the final to win the World Cup, we can only imagine. I sure know how I felt. That should have been England lifting that world cup. Arguably the best team in two successive world cups, cheated out in 1986, then out on penalties in 1990. Twice against the eventual world champions. Did England have the best players? No, but Bobby Robson moulded them into a superb, winning team.

Bobby went on to successes with Sporting Portugal, Porto, Barcelona and PSV before ending up at Newcastle. After three seasons of good results, mostly finishing just outside the "big four" places, with some decent runs in Europe, Sir Bobby was ousted at St-James' Park in a manner which I remember finding incredibly rude and lacking in any respect for the institution that Robson had by then become.

Things went rather quiet after that. And now the great Sir Bobby Robson is no more, leaving us with a lot of memories, and leaving the world of football orphaned. There will certainly be a minute's silence around the country at the start of the new season, just like there was at PSV's first game on Saturday. A minute that will chill me to the bone and may well bring a tear to my eye.

Rest in peace, Sir Bobby. Thanks for the memories, even "that" one.

Our season of ifs and buts

It's a strange season we're having. We've lost and drawn many games we could very easily have drawn or won, respectively. Not only is this frustrating (enough so to lead to the sacking of the manager who I personally felt was our best and most promising since God himself), it has also left us in a dubious position in the league. We have hovered just above the drop zone since October, occasionally dipping into it. It's a season of "yes, but" and "what if?"

Just look at the table today. Fifth from bottom. Better than where we were when the year began. After a perfect start with four league wins on the trot, and that massive win over Man City, FF's could be excused for thinking: "Right, we'll have the Sheep in the cup now, storm up the league and maybe challenge for a play-off spot. Good riddance to CC, long live BD." But then came the QPR game, in which our opponents were allowed to score straight after we got in front, 3 minutes into injury time in the first half. We went behind soon after the break but managed to scrape a 2-2 draw. Good point, but should have been three. Then came Birmingham and Ipswich away and the Sheep at home. Fixtures we should have got four points from but which we lost all three, with a dismal 3-1 loss to Derby at home. Depressing stuff.

Luckily Billy Davies then brought in some good loan signings in Osbourne and McSheffrey, and Guy Moussi finally came back from his long injury lay-off. This has changed the team so much I think it is forgivable to think back to the results under Colin Calderwood and how different things could have been without that injury. Most of the games we lost were lost by one goal and looking back at reports, mostly due to a lack of presence in midfield. Presence that is brought, very obviously, by The Moose. Just look at all the 1-0, 1-1, 2-1 and 0-0 results in that period and think what a difference Moussi could have made. That injury, and the transfer window system, are what caused our current predicament. Just think that if we had scored only 6 more goals in that period, three in games lost, three in draws. That would have meant 12 more points!

Back to reality. We're March now, and we've gone two places up. Better than we were in December. Yes, but. Barnsley are 2 points behind us and have three games in hand. It is not inconceivable that they get 2 or more points out of those three games, which would see us drop back down to fourth from bottom, with a resurgent Southampton breathing down our necks, four points away but also with a game in hand. Scary.

Then again, if you look at tomorrow's fixtures, there could be some really good results there, if we get our own stuff right. Getting our own stuff right means beating Watford and gaining a place in the table, leapfrogging our opponents of the day. Barnsley play Birmingham away so we can safely assume they won't get any points at all, meaning we'll peel away from them nicely. Blackpool, currently just ahead of us, are away to Sheffield. Not an easy task, so I don't count on them winning. Even if they manage a draw, we'll still go over them. Up two places. And if we get really lucky, Swansea beat Plymouth at home and we slip into 17th position, cosily behind our old rivals.

But of course, we may again stumble with a late equaliser. Or the ref gives Watford a dodgy penalty. Or something else goes wrong and we'll find ourselves again thinking what if and yes but. It's that sort of season, I've said it before. I can't even write a decent blog about it...

Be Good

The Damned United

I have seen a lot of discussion on the Forest fora about a film being made of the book "The Damned United." I haven't read the book yet, but I have ordered it and it is on my "to read asap" list. I have read many comments and reviews, though, nearly all saying it is a fantastic read. In the book, writer David Peace uses the setting of Brian Clough's early years, specifically his time at Leeds Utd, as a backdrop for a tale of corruption, drink and paranoia. Now of course the rumours of bung payments and drink are still in the headlines today. As for paranoia, well, that often comes with drink abuse, so it isn't even unreasonable to assume that Brian Clough may have suffered from a light form of paranoia. These darker sides of a personality are the things that make a character interesting. The squeeky clean Glenn Hoddle is not likely to ever have a book written about him, but a film about Paul Gascoigne is not at all unthinkable. Peace does not represent his fictional version of Brian Clough as a very pleasant person and some fans seem to have a problem with that.

While I can see that it is hard to see one of your heroes (and Brian "God" Clough is exactly that to generations of Forest - and, for that matter, Derby - fans) described as a paranoid, corrupted drunk, it must be kept in mind that this is a work of fiction, which uses a real setting and a number of real people to hang up a story. This is not new. A great many works of fiction use real characters and happenings to build a story. And we can be assured that not all those real characters come out smelling of daisies. (The same works the other way round. Think of the outrage when Bruno Ganz portrayed Adolf Hitler as an actual human being in Der Untergang...) The book is not meant to be a biography of Sir Brian, so we shouldn't be upset when the picture painted by Peace is not exactly the same as how we have all known Cloughie. Of course there was a lot more humour to the man than comes out of the book. Of course he was never as bad and one-dimensional a person as his fictional counterpart apparently is ("apparently" as, again, I have not read it yet, so I am going by what I have read about it), but that's why it's called a fiction. This characterisation is probably needed to make the book work. And let's be honest. Brian Clough could be a right pain in the buttocks when he wanted to and he was first to admit that and even used that side of his character as almost a marketing tool. Don't we all lovingly call him "Ol' Big 'Ead?" Having a big head isn't usually likely to generate love, admiration and devotion the likes of which were bestowed upon Cloughie. But he used those traits to his advantage. I am sure that, with the humour and mischief that was in him, he would have thought this was all a good laugh.

This is why I have to admit to being slightly puzzled by the reaction of Brian's family, who are, if what I have read is correct, not at all happy with the way the book portays our great former manager. Brian's family and fans should realise at all time that this is a fiction. It is not as Mr Peace is "out to get" Brian Clough through his book. People, mostly Forest and Derby fans, have commented that Brian Clough didn't have any opportunity to react to the book, which is seen as tarnishing his great reputation, but then that goes for thousands of people. Clough has become almost public property, every bit as likely to pop up in a novel or film as Winston Churchill, of whom we have seen all sorts of portrayal, from flattering to downright demonising. We have a saying in Dutch that says, litterally, "high trees catch a lot of wind." I am not sure if this is an English expression as well but its meaning is pretty obvious. The bigger your status, the more likely people are to have an opinion about you, talk about you, write about you. Brian Clough is a legend, so him being in a book or film was bound to happen sooner or later. This book or film cannot, can never tarnish the reputation of this great, great man, nor was it intended to. Brian Clough's achievements have generated a love from millions of people that can and will never fade. No book, no film can ever change the way we think of him at the City Ground or at Pride Park. Or in Deurne, Belgium. Or anywhere around the globe.

So let's just watch the film or read the book and remember what it is. A work of fiction, featuring a fictional representation of the greatest manager ever to work in England, our hero, our God. I think as Forest fans, we should all read the book and watch the film, even if it's about the Leeds period. The memory of late Sir Brian Clough has become very much like the statues that have been erected in his honour. When a bird has the audacity to drop anything on Sir Brian, it is swiftly washed off and Brian restored to his former, shining glory.

Be good.

Welcome!

A win. I didn't really expect much from the Reading game, but we somehow got three points out of it. Three much needed points, in terms of steering clear of relegation. And a much needed win, in terms of giving our young team something to be proud of, something to lift their heads. After the recent run of results, the last thing they needed was their manager telling the press they weren't really good enough. That could have had a devastating effect. (I have been writing more extensively about this, expect a long-ish post soon...) But I think there was a salvaging factor, a deus ex machina. A comeback that, had it occurred sooner, I am sure would have seen Colin Calderwood still in charge as Forest manager.

Guy Moussi is back. And the impact was instant, judging from all the match reports. From what I read, The Moose bossed the midfield and Forest were able to convert from defence to attack in seconds. This ability, vision and sheer physical presence is something we have missed since Moussi was injured in October. He has rapidly become one of our most important players, it seems. I have repeatedly compared his impact to what happened when Patrick Viera arrived at Arsenal. He soon became a talisman for them. We can never be sure but I do think that a prolonged absense would have affected Arsenal as much as Moussi's lay-off did Forest. Even if it's only one player, some players are missed more than others.

It was good to read Billy Davies' comment in Monday's Guardian about his little (perceived) spat with the club. He has taken time to point out that there is no major rift between him and the powers that be, that he is still committed to getting Forest up the table. And as if out to prove he really does mean business, we have signed a promising young midfielder on loan from Aston Villa. Apparently Martin O'Neill says he's useful. If Martin says so, I am happy to believe him. Just look at Villa...

So welcome to the City Ground, Isaiah "Ozzy" Osbourne. And welcome back Guy "The Moose!" Moussi. Onwards and upwards!

Be good.