Nottingham Forest and us

[Wsussexspur]

The current situation at our club has the same underlying tones as the situation Nottingham Forest found themselves in last season in the championship. Im not sure how many people on here follow the championship or even Forest guessing not very many. But I keep an eye out for them as they are my Dads team so have a small soft spot for them.

This time last summer they had just appointed Steve McLaren as manager having sacked there most successful manager in some time Billy Davies. In the previous two seasons at the club he had led them to the play offs twice playing great football he was also very unlucky to miss out on automatic promotion on at least one of those occasions. As it was well documented though he had a problem with the board and there transfer dealings at they had a transfer panel set up who would decide on any player they wanted to buy this was headed up by the chairman some members of the board and David Pleat! Im must confess im not 100% sure if Davies was sacked because of his out spoken views on this panel and his frustration on not being able to buy the players he wanted or if it was because of his failure to get the club promoted. Any way he was sacked and with much fanfare he was replaced with Steve McLaren who was returning to English football for the first time since his failure of managing the England team having had great success in Holland and somewhat repairing his reputation. Prior to McLaren coming Forest lost a few key players either from being out of contract or getting good offers for them. McLaren was promised funds for players and I think Pleat left his position at the club any way his first few games were a disaster and he came out on numerous occasions voicing his frustration that he was not being able to buy the players he wanted before the season had started. He left the club after only a few months in charge with club in the relegation zone citing broken promises from the board. The club spent the rest of the season battling relegation having gone into the season one of the favourites for promotion.

To me this has an uncanny situation to what is going on at our club at the moment. Where we have sacked our most successful manger in some time appointed a young manger who has had relative success in his career so far up to his last job and so far we have failed to back him up in the transfer market.

There is also one common denominator between the two clubs David Pleat. Im not sure what if any role he has at our club at the moment but im sure we have heard that he had Levy’s ear on transfer targets etc. There was also talk that we were having a transfer panel set up im not sure if this correct or not.

I for one am extremely concerned at the route we are heading at the moment and to be honest as it stands at the moment I would not be surprised to see AVB gone within a few months of the season starting if things don’t go well and Levy doesn’t back him up in the transfer market over the next two and half weeks.

 

[michaelden]

Yeah I hate Pleat too & I think he's a footy fossil but it's a bit harsh to blame the apocolypse on him

 

[StartingPrice]

So, what you are telling us is that AVB is gonna mutate into Wooden Mardi Gras Clown Head, Mr Punch...

 

[dontcallme]

Interesting comparison.

There are a couple of problems.

The first and most glaring problem is the transfer window hasn't finished yet. If you ask most managers if they'd prefer to have Steven Fletcher for 38 games or Adebayor for 36 I'm sure all would choose the latter.

The second is about financially running the club. Our board have a duty to ensure our club is run well. This involves a long term plan and a short term one. A manager, sadly, has to look at the short term. Poor results leads to a quick firing in today's game.

Levy brought in VDV when HR was crying out for Jo Cole. HR bought Keane at the end of his best playing days and we took a big hit on his transfer fee the 2nd time around.

If the board have a plan in place regarding bringing in younger players whose value will go up then they need a manager who can follow that plan.

In a way it's sad to see HR go as he got genuinely good results. But if we are to succeed long term then we are going to need a more innovative strategy.

 

[talkshowhost86]

As I've said elsewhere it's far too early to be worrying full scale about the situation at Spurs. Yes there are some fairly glaring gaps in our squad and yes there appears to be a delay in filling those gaps but:

1. we already have some very good players in the squad, and we've added Verts and Siggy to that list; and
2. it still isn't the end of the transfer window. There is still time!

If you look around the premier league, very few clubs have done significant business. Yes Chelsea have bought every wide forward in the world but other than that, market conditions are obviously making transfers difficult. I think there will be a massive explosion of transfers in the last week of the window as prices are lowered and clubs/players realise that the bubble has, if not burst, certainly shrunk in size a bit.

There is a part of me that is deeply worried that in three months we'll see AVB blaming Levy for the fact that we're in the bottom half, but I think that there is a plan and I don't think it's a case of Levy 'not backing' AVB at all.

Lets just wait for a few weeks. If we want to splurge apocolypse all over the place come September 1st then fair enough, but I think we should keep our negative ejaculate to ourselves just for now.

 

[tototoner]

Eerie indeed

 

[mill]

If we start off badly without new signings (striker, obviously) and things get worse rather than improve and then AVB's gone before the end of the season who do think the majority of culpability lies with? AVB or Levy? If it's Levy does it make him any better than Abramovich? Curious what people think

 

[tototoner]

If we start off badly without new signings (striker, obviously) and things get worse rather than improve and then AVB's gone before the end of the season who do think the majority of culpability lies with? AVB or Levy? If it's Levy does it make him any better than Abramovich? Curious what people think

Jenas

 

[hellava_tough]

Our first 10 fixtures have 7 very winnable games in them, so I very much doubt they'll be any serious issues up until Christmas

However, it's around the Christmas period and into the New Year when squad depth comes into play, so it'll be then when the cracks start to appear if our squad isn't up to snuff

If there are problems at that point though, I doubt DL will sack AVB and I doubt AVB will walk out - I'm sure they'd both wait until the end of the season to have a sit down

So basically, if there are going to be changes it'll be next summer