The Mood

[Monkman]

There are lots of doomy warnings in here about how tough it'd be in the Championship next year, as if the general mood were "oh we'll be fine, we'll bounce straight back", but I don't think I've seen anyone say that. No one's under any illusions about it - relegation would be bad and it would be hard to get back up. Look at Leeds and Southampton, I mean they're both well placed but it's still quite possible that neither of them get promoted. But I think we'd be pretty well placed to give it a good go, and that's all you can hope for really.

 

[Cloughie1975]

Who are you thinking of in particular here? I guess Turner and Vlach are probably on a fair whack given their apparent (lack of) quality.

By ‘deadwood’ I meant players on Premier League wages but not necessarily of Premier
League standard-as you say the 2 goalkeepers and the likes of Williams (although I quite
like him) and Worrall (if he returns).
One thing is almost certain in the event of relegation-our top talent (e.g Gibbs-White,Murillo and most probably Awoniyi and Elanga will be flogged off-probably at lower prices than if we
were a top flight club).

 

[Monkman]

Williams would be superb in the Championship imo.

 

[congo_red_49]

Still time to kick on and prove we can get a run of results.
But whatever will be, will be.

 

[Cloughie1975]

I didn't think we would bounce straight back - but come on - we had several opportunities in the early years but sold the good players. Nobody expected what actually happened

Really?
As far as I can recall the only chance of promotion we had in the first 10 years (which included 3 seasons in League 1) after our relegation in 1999 was the Paul Hart play-off team in 2003.
We had a flirtation with relegation in 2000 and genuine struggles in 2004 and 2009 plus
an actual demotion in 2005.
I agree that few were expecting us to drop to the 3rd tier but I don’t think many could see a
realistic promotion push in that decade (the club had been destroyed by the Wray,Scholar
and Soar debacle).

 

['mist rollin in']

Difficult to read too much in to these FA Cup games. What 2024 has done for me has highlighted that there are problems at the club regardless of who the manager is; FFP, transfer policy, regular injuries to key players, goalkeeper situation, individual mistakes in games... the list goes on. I think there are an awful lot of people who thought Steve Cooper was the main problem and was holding us back, whereas it's clear that the club hasn't been managed well behind the scenes.

We're in a better situation with Nuno because I don't think Cooper would have picked up those wins against Newcastle or Man United. I also really like Nuno and hope that he stays with us regardless of where we are next season. I'm fairly optimistic about us staying up if the points deduction is 6 or less. Anything more than 6 points deducted and it's a real struggle.

Funnily enough, I'm fairly calm, even if we do go down! If we get points deducted and Luton continue their form, we deserve to go down. It wouldn't take anything away from the past two years.

Final point is that I think the atmosphere at the City Ground this year has been pretty poor, appreciate we've not had too much to cheer about, but it's not felt the same. I thought the Bristol fans were magnificent and reminded me of what we were like in the Championship. I think Forest fans need a real collective team of 11 to get behind and we've not had that with all the changes. The atmosphere last night did start to come alive, every time Gardner got near the ball, which was great.

General mood is a little bit 'meh'. Maybe that's because after a while, the lights and glitter of the Premier League begin to fade. It's clear that the big wigs want to protect the bigger teams and eventually some form of Super League is going to develop. Let's see what these next 2 home games bring, feel like we need a couple of big wins to boost the mood.

 

[PlayedOnGrass]

Really?
As far as I can recall the only chance of promotion we had in the first 10 years (which included 3 seasons in League 1) after our relegation in 1999 was the Paul Hart play-off team in 2003.
We had a flirtation with relegation in 2000 and genuine struggles in 2004 and 2009 plus
an actual demotion in 2005.
I agree that few were expecting us to drop to the 3rd tier but I don’t think many could see a
realistic promotion push in that decade (the club had been destroyed by the Wray,Scholar
and Soar debacle).

Yes - but when we first went down - and my memory isn't the best - didn't we have daws, reid, jenas etc - and Platt came in as manager and bought the Italians with him. I know Platt made a mess of things - but at the time everyone was positive about our chances. Or am I in the wrong timeframe?

 

[Cloughie1975]

Difficult to read too much in to these FA Cup games. What 2024 has done for me has highlighted that there are problems at the club regardless of who the manager is; FFP, transfer policy, regular injuries to key players, goalkeeper situation, individual mistakes in games... the list goes on. I think there are an awful lot of people who thought Steve Cooper was the main problem and was holding us back, whereas it's clear that the club hasn't been managed well behind the scenes.

We're in a better situation with Nuno because I don't think Cooper would have picked up those wins against Newcastle or Man United. I also really like Nuno and hope that he stays with us regardless of where we are next season. I'm fairly optimistic about us staying up if the points deduction is 6 or less. Anything more than 6 points deducted and it's a real struggle.

Funnily enough, I'm fairly calm, even if we do go down! If we get points deducted and Luton continue their form, we deserve to go down. It wouldn't take anything away from the past two years.

Final point is that I think the atmosphere at the City Ground this year has been pretty poor, appreciate we've not had too much to cheer about, but it's not felt the same. I thought the Bristol fans were magnificent and reminded me of what we were like in the Championship. I think Forest fans need a real collective team of 11 to get behind and we've not had that with all the changes. The atmosphere last night did start to come alive, every time Gardner got near the ball, which was great.

General mood is a little bit 'meh'. Maybe that's because after a while, the lights and glitter of the Premier League begin to fade. It's clear that the big wigs want to protect the bigger teams and eventually some form of Super League is going to develop. Let's see what these next 2 home games bring, feel like we need a couple of big wins to boost the mood.

A good post-but the mood was very upbeat after the wins against Newcastle and
Manchester United.Then FFP hit us and knocked us for 6.
I feel we have only ourselves to blame-the club is in danger of being dragged into oblivion
by poor management (yet again).

 

[Alf-engelos Mindminackers]

Perfectly put Misty

Although I'm not sure Nuno will want another stint in the Championship, nor that the fans will have faith in getting us up to the level of what it would have been with Cooper. We'd lived it with Cooper, and so it's easy to believe we could achieve that again.

 

[Robertson]

There are lots of doomy warnings in here about how tough it'd be in the Championship next year, as if the general mood were "oh we'll be fine, we'll bounce straight back", but I don't think I've seen anyone say that. No one's under any illusions about it - relegation would be bad and it would be hard to get back up. Look at Leeds and Southampton, I mean they're both well placed but it's still quite possible that neither of them get promoted. But I think we'd be pretty well placed to give it a good go, and that's all you can hope for really.

Yeah pretty much anything you could say about us - we'll have some big earners, some players will want to leave, etc etc- you could say about most clubs relegated from the PL. I just don't think we'd be in an unusually bad position in that regard. Though we do have the Evangelos Marinakis wild card factor, so we'll see how it pans out. Not least because there's over a third of the season to go, and we're still not relegated, and still in the cup

 

[congo_red_49]

Yes - but when we first went down - and my memory isn't the best - didn't we have daws, reid, jenas etc - and Platt came in as manager and bought the Italians with him. I know Platt made a mess of things - but at the time everyone was positive about our chances. Or am I in the wrong timeframe?

I think everyone started off positive. Platt was perceived as being someone who would translate his experience and success as a player into a managerial role. The transfer business was perceived as bringing in talents from Europe, when in previous seasons, we'd had a squad that was heavily UK player dominated, but we'd had success finding European recruits like Bryan Roy, Lars and Pierre and people assumed the foreign talent coming in would be up to that same standard.
It felt, to me, like it very quickly became a lesson (the first I'd had as a Forest fan), that perception is not reality. Platt was largely clueless, the recruitment was awful and a vast waste of resources on very little ability.

 

[LiarsBar]

Yes - but when we first went down - and my memory isn't the best - didn't we have daws, reid, jenas etc - and Platt came in as manager and bought the Italians with him. I know Platt made a mess of things - but at the time everyone was positive about our chances. Or am I in the wrong timeframe?

Platt gave Jenas his debut in that first season back in the Championship but Reid and Dawson came a couple of years later under Hart.
Platt bought the famous 3 amigos (and Gary Jones) and we had a decent squad with Bartman, Andy Johnson and Tank staying with us but bouncing straight back was never going to happen. I’m sure we started the season strikerless and bought in some weird loans like Beck and Proudlock.
Jack Lester had a banger against us so Platt bought him.
We got hammered at Ipswich first game i think.

 

[Haych]

We will 100% have enough points to stay up, it just depends on what our punishment is for breaking the rules on spending is.

We will get around 40 points IMO.

 

[Cloughie1975]

Yes - but when we first went down - and my memory isn't the best - didn't we have daws, reid, jenas etc - and Platt came in as manager and bought the Italians with him. I know Platt made a mess of things - but at the time everyone was positive about our chances. Or am I in the wrong timeframe?

The Italian signings were a disaster but occurred slightly before Reid,Jenas and Dawson
came into the side.
These talented youngsters (the golden generation) really started to show their huge potential under Paul Hart but sadly were sold to the Premier League before they could help take Forest
back to the top flight.A midfield of Jenas,Reid,Prutton and Scimeca is a Premier League
standard quartet if ever I saw one.
Heartbreaking.

 

[Mr. Blonde]

Ah the old "Trio of Italians"

 

[Ashley]

Definitely feels like we are as a crossroads at a club. I think we still have a bright future *if* we can stay up. If we go down I think we'll quickly return to being a bit of a shitshow though and will be stuck in the Championship for a long time again.

It's absolutely vital we stay up, otherwise everything we've achieved in the last few years could end up unravelling very quickly IMO.

 

[congo_red_49]

Ah the old "Trio of Italians"

View attachment 33767

I remember Maninni being so bad that he chose to retire before his first season here was even finished.

 

[Robertson]

Definitely feels like we are as a crossroads at a club. I think we still have a bright future *if* we can stay up. If we go down I think we'll quickly return to being a bit of a shitshow though and will be stuck in the Championship for a long time again.

It's absolutely vital we stay up, otherwise everything we've achieved in the last few years could end up unravelling very quickly IMO.

On the one hand I get this - if we get relegated you have no faith that the club will make enough of the right decisions in order to make the most of the assets we have. Fair enough.

But surely this applies in the Premier League too? It's not going to get any easier.

 

[Mr. Blonde]

I do quite like that third kit

 

[Cloughie1975]

Platt gave Jenas his debut in that first season back in the Championship but Reid and Dawson came a couple of years later under Hart.
Platt bought the famous 3 amigos (and Gary Jones) and we had a decent squad with Bartman, Andy Johnson and Tank staying with us but bouncing straight back was never going to happen. I’m sure we started the season strikerless and bought in some weird loans like Beck and Proudlock.
Jack Lester had a banger against us so Platt bought him.
We got hammered at Ipswich first game i think.

Platt gave Jenas his debut in our 2nd season back in the Championship (2000/1)-an FA Cup
3rd Round tie with Wolves which we lost 0-1(I particularly remember Gareth Edds being
extremely impressive in this game).
Andy Reid also made is debut under Platt in the same season-scoring in a 2-0 home win over
Sheffield United in November 2000.

 

[Alf-engelos Mindminackers]

Definitely feels like we are as a crossroads at a club. I think we still have a bright future *if* we can stay up. If we go down I think we'll quickly return to being a bit of a shitshow though and will be stuck in the Championship for a long time again.

It's absolutely vital we stay up, otherwise everything we've achieved in the last few years could end up unravelling very quickly IMO.

The hope for me if we go down is that the Greeks lose interest in the club like they did when they put Murphy in charge, and we get a repeat of that scenario where we leave to the club to be run by someone far more competent than they are.

 

[Ashley]

On the one hand I get this - if we get relegated you have no faith that the club will make enough of the right decisions in order to make the most of the assets we have. Fair enough.

But surely this applies in the Premier League too? It's not going to get any easier.

If we stay up, we'll be alright financially thanks to the Brennan Johnson and Mangala sales in this season's accounts, another season of Premier League money and the option to sell an asset at a good price if we need/want to. With a lot of players out of contract it gives us scope to build upon the squad we currently have with 4 or 5 good signings to fill the gaps in the squad.

If we go down we will lose our better players at below market value, won't have Premier League money and have a much bigger rebuilding job on our hands. I don't trust the club to make the right decisions in this scenario.

 

[Mr. Blonde]

You've only got to look at things like breaching FFP, signing three goalkeepers, having to pay off Shelvey's contract because we didn't realise we'd hit the loan limit etc to see that despite getting promoted Nottingham Forest still isn't a particularly well run club

If we do get relegated I suspect the failings in our management will only be highlighted further

 

[Berkshire Red]

If we go down we will lose our better players at below market value, won't have Premier League money and have a much bigger rebuilding job on our hands. I don't trust the club to make the right decisions in this scenario.

People keep saying that, it doesn't mean it's true, or that it will happen.

Southampton got relegated and sold Lavia and Livramento for ridiculous sums.

 

[MASE]

You know what, if we go down, f*** it! At least we gave it a good go.

Have we though...have we really? If I'm honest the imminent points deduction has knocked the stuffing out of me, but f***ing hell this last two seasons has been a f***ing slog, largely our own making. Batshit recruitment drives, running scarred in most away games & we've overspent into the bargain!

That initial crazy recruitment drive saw us a laughing stock & bar a few highlights, I don't think we've really shed that tag. Recruitment hasnt been fit for purpose, which is why the likes of Luton appear to be making a better fist of it. Shame given we had a 20 odd year run up to this.

7/4 says we're down, that looks very appealing to me.

Going down isn't an option either, we'd dissappear to where we came from. I say we stay up & do a better job of it.