Nottingham forest

BC is still a hero to Forest fans who remember him, they pass on all the stories to their kids and grandkids. The story is a football fairy tale: when he took over in 1975, Forest were in the old Second Division and going nowhere. For those of us who had been supporting the club through thick and (mostly) thin, what happened next was almost unbelievable. In ’76 his best mate Peter Taylor followed him to Forest from Brighton. Taylor was actually a Nottingham lad, born & bred, and he was the one who picked out the players Forest needed to succeed. In ’77 they were promoted to the First Division in 3rd place and that was only after a nail-biting finish, courtesy of Wolves beating Bolton and denying Bolton third place.

First match was Everton away (you’ll like this, Steve) and we won 3 – 0. Then we won the Div 1 championship and League Cup. We supporters were on Cloud 9 by now, but next season we won the European Cup (you won’t like this, Steve!)  on the way to Magic in Munich (the final) we beat Liverpool 2 – 0 in Leg 1 of Round 1, then drew 0 – 0 away at Anfield. I was there with a few thousand others and we had to hide our colours on the walk back to the train. We won it again the following season, Magic in Madrid, and the League Cup (here we go again Steve) which we won in a replay at – wait for it – Old Trafford, 1 – 0. Against Liverpool. We won the league Cup in its various forms several times after that. For a small-city club, it was a magic carpet ride and most of us older supporters have never recovered from it. Then the rot set in. Taylor was offered his own managerial job at Derby and took it, BC was miffed, and Taylor then bought a Forest legend, John Robertson, from Forest to Derby. Clough never forgave him. Robbo came back to Forest, but by now Cloughie, always a drinker, was necking far too much. He didn’t have the guy who could spot a player and he began making bad decisions. For the next few years, the club was bleeding money, after a succession of bad buys for too much money. Then Taylor died and I  think that was the beginning of the end for BC. He resigned in 1993 after we were relegated to the Championship and a succession of managers followed. The club slowly went downhill, possibly the least effective manager was David Platt, an England international who had played in Italy, brought in a succession of foreign players who were expensive failures. The club would eventually have folded, had it not been for a millionaire Forest supporter Nigel Doughty who bought them and wrote off £100 million of debts. Unfortunately the club kept on haemorrhaging money and Nigel Doughty was later found dead at his gymn. He had poured most of his own money into the club. His successor, Al-Hasawi, seems to have no clue. One minute he is selling, next he is not. Fans are all opposed to him, but the fact is that he has just written off another £100 million in debts. The future of my old club looks uncertain, but the truth is that supporters are still stuck, looking back at the Clough era and contrasting it with today. Players from that time still stroll into the club whenever they wish, and trophies are displayed all over the place, with posters of “the Glory Days.” I wonder what effect that has on today’s Forest players?

The truth is that Clough brought to the club, the most successful period we ever knew, then blew it apart because nobody wanted to challenge the legend, after the legend was obviously failing very badly. It was unheard of for a small club to challenge the Big clubs. Leicester have been applauded for winning the Premiership once: I do not think they will win one European Cup, never mind two.

Steve, imagine if Bill Shankly had never had a successor who carried on the torch to even more success, and Liverpool had slid down the Leagues. Forest actually slipped into League One at one point and it’s entirely impossible that they may do that again this season. It saddens me to see it happening.

Arsene Wenger is doing the same thing in a different way. He has one way of playing and everyone has figured it out: Arsenal players cannot handle physical pressure, they don’t have the players who can compete with pressing football. Apart from all that, he is the most miserable bugga who ever sat in a football dugout and his views are all one-sided, he makes Alex Ferguson look impartial!

I have friends in North London (High Barnet) and the whole family are Arsenal supporters. Mum and dad are long-time mates to us both, so dad tells us all about family doings, as we tell them ours. The Wenger situation has apparently caused a family split: majority want  Wenger gone, as outlived his usefulness. Mate tells me that he was trying to be impartial and keep the peace at one of their family gatherings, when mum (not a footie lover) spoke up. “Are you going to let ****ing football upset this family? I will stop talking to anyone who keeps on arguing about this right now!” Mum has never been known to use language like that, says my mate, their dad. Shocked faces around the table: “Sorry mum,” from all of them. End of argument. “I will not hear another word about this! It ends now!”

That, says my mate, shows who is the real power in the family… :good: 🙂 But he thinks privately (in a PM to me) that Wenger should go. His own choice would be Eddie Howe at Bournemouth. This is a 5th. generation Arsenal family, even their German relatives (via maternal gran) are Arsenal fans, they come over regularly for games. I upset them once by saying I preferred to watch West Ham, or Borussia Dortmund. (The Germans are from Hamburg) :whistle:  :unsure:

Yep City fell on their feet – and then hit the jackpot when the owners bought the stadium outright and ploughed zillions in…..We got trainwreck of a stadium on HP for 99 years. To rub salt in the heralded “world class transport links” have turned out to be another myth. Stratford Station can’t cope (on the very rare days when trains are not cancelled due to engineering works), and they block off Westfield shopping centre so the walk back there is twice as long as it needs to be – with pedestrian stop/go contraflows all the way. Because it is not built for football there are three times as many ladies toilets as gents, and £4.60 for a tepid plastic bottle of beer….When you see up close how bad the stadium is – especially the upper tier (originally planned as temporary) – it is staggering to think that £700m+ has been done up the wall on it.

Jason I have watched Burton Albion rise gradually, which IMO is the best way to do it: promotion – consolidation – promotion. How many clubs have we seen shoot up the Leagues, then implode and slide back down? That includes Forest of course, although atm we are just 2 places above BA, you have a game in hand so I expect that to change. You also have BC’s son as manager. He was sounded out for the Forest job two weeks ago, but stated that he wants to work to help Albion stay in the Championship before committing. I personally believe he would be daft to leave, and dafter still to go to Forest. There was bad blood between the Clough family and the club for some time after his dad resigned, but after BC died fan pressure (and lots of it) changed that. Now, as has been said, there is a statue of his dad at the City Ground and the A52 is Brian Clough Way between Derby and Nottingham, to recognise his achievements at both Forest and that other team down the A52, who like sheep. I have seen so many “Forest Legends” come to manage the club ‘Post-Cloughie’ starting with Frank Clark, moving through Stuart Pearce an others such as Douggie Freedman. None have made an impact, I have no idea why but I think the rot starts at the top and has worked its way down. My mate at the club, is convinced that Al-Hasawi is having the wool pulled over his eyes by certain people, including some ex-players. TBH, I am becoming disillusioned with mainstream football. If I was able to go to a match today, it would be to my local Louth Town and Lincoln City. They play with heart and give 100% to the game that they obviously love.

Lincoln’s story is of course incredible: they should have had no chance of beating Burley, but nobody gave them the script, they didn’t know that they were not supposed to beat a team 81 places higher than themselves. What many people do not know, is that Lincoln almost went bankrupt and out of football in 2012. Local concerns saved it: a Lincolnshire businessman, Lincoln Co Op and a Lincolnshire building company, Lindum, invested the money to pay wages and keep the club financed. In 2015, another expatriate Yellowbelly<span style=”color: #ff0000;”><span style=”font-size: 18pt;”>*</span></span> from South Africa, invested a lot more and became a Director. Because of these local investors, who are also fans, the club exists and is on a sound financial footing.

I am currently looking at Leicester City and wondering if their bubble is about to burst so soon after it was inflated 🙁

<span style=”color: #ff0000;”><span style=”font-size: 18pt;”>*</span></span> Lincolnshire-born natives are called Yellowbellies, there are so many explanations, just choose your favourite:

https://tinyurl.com/j2pgns6      – just don’t tell a Lincs lad (or lass!) that it has another meaning! :negative: