I say afar, more like half way between Barnsley and
Sheffield, but far away enough to be removed from water cooler conversations at
work and to not be at games. (I know people travel to every game from further
away - cry me a river)
I have been silent most of this
season (and last). I lost the love for a while. I really did. I just couldn’t be
bothered with Forest. And then around Christmas just as I was getting the love
back, we changed manager again and I sort just thought, oh well, here we go
again. I just felt distant.
But the last few weeks seeing
the ridiculous arguments from some fans that seem to have ridiculous expectations
or are just fishing for attention (any attention, even people telling them they are
twats) I have sort of been dragged in in a need to level the argument somewhat.
There is a lot of soul
searching for Forest fans, anyone under the age of 25 won’t have seen us play a
Premier League game in the flesh, and even then, it was probably one we lost. A
generation devoid of success.
Now they want success. Now this
is a point I
have banged on
about before, an even dating to the days we had a forum attached to this site
(RIP Soccer 24-7 - you'd have been 17 years old this year) where I complained
that younger fans hungry for success want the club to mortgage its future to
win something. We had a kid on the forum then, I forget who, and he basically
wanted the club to spend, spend, spend and didn’t care if we did
a Portsmouth because at least he'd get to cheer winning something. At the time we all
shouted him down and called him a moron. Portsmouth were slumping down the
leagues in danger of going out of business for one FA Cup.
But was he right? Because in
those year in between we have gone nowhere. We did splash the cash, and then we stopped.
We nearly did jeopardise our future (anyone saying clubs always find a new
owner - they don’t) but we survived. So we sort of did a half-way house.
So when am I going to get to
this season? Well here we go. This season will finish with us likely missing
the playoffs again. Ok. Not what we wanted or set out for. Is that
failure? Well you could say yes, and you definitely point to sacking Karanka (was
he sacked? Did he walk? Pushed?) Those actions speak of a club
trying to save a season. We spent a lot of money on the likes of Carvalho, Grabban etc.
But consider that Carvalho is
a valuable asset that we could sell (and if FFP came
looming I imagine Olympiacos may
well take us off his hands for a surprising sum of cash) We didn't go full on gung ho
as we could, but the wage bill won't be light.
With that in mind then surely
yes we have failed to achieve success. Sheffield United are far out performing
us having spent a fraction with an ex player spearheading their promotion bid.
Other clubs who also were more frugal are doing better. But other big spenders
are messing up too. It's a bloody hard competitive division. We tried to do a
bit of a Wolves with the Portuguese lads, and well Dias was not a
success, Domingues...
yeah well him neither but Carvalho is a player on his day can win
games.
But when you look at the size
of other clubs and other budgets we are probably par for the course. Stoke and
West Brom came
down with premiership budgets. Other clubs are like us, similar size grounds,
traditional top flight clubs when 24 teams were up there and petro-dollars
didn't dictate business, Norwich, Sheffield Wednesday, even Derby. All clubs
whose home in the 80's and early 90's was the top flight. So is that our level?
Are we doing ok?
Well yes, it is our level,
except we've won the League; we've won in Europe, which makes us that little
bit more special. It means nothing NOW< but in the context of history, it
means a lot. We did it. You lot, apart from the mega rich, you haven't.
Karanka bonded with many fans, but there was always an undercurrent
of fans that weren't happy. You know the ones, they are NEVER happy. They
always want the manager out. They always say we should be better. But Karanka ultimately
was always going to end up leaving. If he succeeded he would have used as a
stepping stone. If we failed, he’s the next name in a very long
line of managers to fail.
Managers who led us to failure.
So many names. We've spent 20 years changing manager every 9-10 months. And it
has got us nowhere. We are where we were when Platt took
over and started this huge spell without top flight football, via a patch in
league One I think we all tend to forget ever existed now. In that time we've
had splurges. We spent under Platt, we spent big for League One when down
there, even under Davies despite his protestations we splurged, and then under Fawaz. And we
are exactly where we were. A team in the second tier who once won the European
Cup before most fans were born.
That is why we fail. A lack of
trust in a manager through the bad times. Don’t get me wrong, not all of them
needed trust when it got bad. Megson and Kinnear definitely
not. But often we get rid of one guy to bring in another because things haven't
instantly worked.
Norwich last season didn’t pull up any
trees. But they stuck with Farke. And now look where they are. Wilder has
had a few years at the Blades and has them clicking. Lee Johnson has had a
while with his squad at Bristol City. Yes other clubs have chopped and changed
and are up there, but it works both ways. We tried the sacking managers route.
It didn't work. Platt,
Hart, Kinnear, Megson, Calderwood,
Davies, McLaren, Cotterill, O'Driscoll, McLeish,
Davies again, Pearce,Freedman, Warburton, Montanier, Karanka, and
now O'Neill. That's not even all the names who took temporary charge too. That
kind of turnover creates instability and that's why we are where we are.
Get behind the manager.
The end.
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