Bienvenue to Adlene Guedioura

Well from around lunch today came the rumour that we were looking at French born Algerian midfielder Adlene Guedioura, from Wolves.

I have it on good authority from the Wolves poster on 24-7 "Grobbelaargate" that on his day he was one of their best players but has struggled for form since an injury. That making a step down for games might just be what he needs.

A strong midfielder, he also is not afraid to shoot from what I was told, which is pleasing news. It seems he might be simply to replace the hot and cold Moussi, who as of late has been poor, and maybe just maybe Cotterill has had enough. To be fair, the defence has looked shaky this year because they haven't had quality cover, and this guy might be able to provide that.

He appeared in the 2010 World up for Algeria, appearing against England, which means like Robbie Findley we have two players who did so.

There is some talk he may be rolled out as a defender, but it might be an indicator that one is to come in and Cotterill has targeted the midfield as a weak point, or that Jamaal Lascelles is being earmarked to make the step up.

Big Wes is Off

Well it what has turned out to be one of the most drawn out and obvious sagas in recent times Wes Morgan is poised to sign for Leicester it seems, after Forest decided we need to cash in on their offer for a player who is out of contract in the summer. To avoid the Kelvin Wilson scenario, we have decided to not let him go for free in the summer.

What does this mean for the team though? Will we see Jamaal Lascelles stepping up now that he is back from injury? Potentially it could be that we have let this deal wait till now to make sure Lascelles is fit. Or indeed will we be signing another defender from elsewhere?

I.e. are we in for a loanee from the Premier League, or looking to reinvest the money in a defender from elsewhere? Both options might be a good chance to get some fresh blood in a team that unfortunately has a losing mentality now with its horrendous form. Someone might breathe fresh air into the dressing room and reinvigorate the team.

A cult favourite, it will be a shame to see Wes Morgan leave, and I can’t begin to imagine him in another teams colours, but this is no Michael Dawson or Des Walker. Wes might be a decent Championship defender, but that is all he is. He would never make it at a top level club. So perhaps getting a good fee whilst we can and moving on to a new phase might be for the best. I would prefer him to stay of course, he is a legend at the club, but sometimes legends do need to move on, and I would wish him all the best for the future.

The deal is apparently for around a million and is subject to Wes passing a medical tomorrow.

The Kids are Alright

A Forest team that can win and score goals into the bargain. Who knew? Well apparently all along the very things we struggle for in the First Team are bubbling under in the Youth team. We beat Wigans youth 9-1 the other day and beat Southampton in the FA Youth cup 5-1 last night.

These two excellent wins have grabbed attention in ways that wouldn’t usually happen had our form been good. Considering how our first team is doing, it really does grab attention. Goals, goals and more goals in games for them, and particularly Patrick Bamford have had fans on Facebook and Twitter clamouring for his inclusion in the first team.

Now I won't go as far as a few who got a bit carried away and suggested we play the whole team. The typical knee jerk reactions of the over emotional, people who I often point out always claim certain courses of action have to be taken and all decided that we are being relegated already. I wouldn’t go as far as to say replace the whole first team with a bunch of wet behind the ears kids, but they do need blooding, and the best couple, Bamford and Lascelles need to be given a chance to shine where other more experienced players are failing.

In two games Bamford has scored 9 goals. That’s right 9.Considering since November the first tem have scored 4, and 3 of those were in one game, it speaks volumes. Bamford is banging on that door now for selection. We thrashed a Southampton side that is highly thought of in Youth circles. They invest a lot in their future. Look at the players they have produced. Gareth Bale, Theo Walcott, Alex Oxlade Chamberlain stand out names, but also players like Andrew Surman who are carving our perfectly good Premiership records. Well we beat them, and one hell of a beating. It’s making people sit up and notice.

Jamal Lascelles also played last night and he has been a much vaunted prospect for a while now. Arsenal were linked before, and now the fact is with our shaky defenders at the moment, can Lascelles really be worse than Chambers recent displays? So should these guys be given a chance? It is called a chance, and that means we know it might not work, and with our situation that becomes a risk. Let’s be honest it would be a risk. The step up would be huge for them, but then again top youngsters have to make this step up some time. Every kid has to start somewhere.
Lascelles would likely have had a chance last month when we were missing a lot of defenders, but he himself was out. Now it seems he is back in the frame

The other aspect with last night was that reportedly the likes of Mark Arthur, Frank Clark and Steve Cotterill himself were there to watch. That can only be a good sign; they are watching, and hopefully willing to try. Davies was a little reluctant to blood youngsters, though I am sure in these cases he might have also considered.

The other news is that the likes of Lascelles and Bamford have contracts expiring. This had a lot of people worried on the net, and complaining about the board again. But youth contracts work differently. For a start the money involved won’t be as much. And the club were having dealings with Bamford recently according to Paul Taylor of the Evening Post. So the club seem to be sorting this out.

It certainly gives a few things for us to talk about, and sends the tongues amongst fans wagging. Personally I'd like the youngsters to be given a chance. It sends a message to the next batch that if they do well they can make the step up. Additionally in a home game with the fans support it would only give them a boost. The kids are looking good for an FA Cup success, and at least there might be some success this season.

Defeat Getting Too Easy

It has been a few days now since the West Ham defeat, which I wanted to write about earlier, but couldn't think how best to phrase what i have wanted to say. Basically, my whole mindset is that how things have changed in a year, and how easy it is now to accept that we have lost again.

Well accept might be the wrong word, but this season we have become so accustomed to defeat and disappointment that it no longer hurts as much. It’s like almost expected in some regards. I had no expectations before the game, and promptly not alot was delivered.

Ok, so we scored, there is a one solitary bright point, and it was a good McGugan strike from what we remember before. But on the other hand, we lost; the goal was so deep in stoppage time that basically the game was gone anyway, so we were on a hiding to nothing.

Last season a defeat I think was harder to take. Mainly because we weren’t used to it. Winning became easy and we got so accustomed to that feeling that the playoffs felt like a huge deflation. Whereas a win now is a crazy feeling. That Ipswich game was such a shock to the system that I was simply amazed.

To start winning again after this run would bring that back. But the games coming up are games that on paper are winnable. We need to win for a start. To be honest, it still doesn't feel like we will go down. The negative fans I moan and write about so often, they are the ones out in force suggesting we might as start programming Scunthorpe and the like into the Sat-Nav's.

West Ham are now top of the table, and with a number of top flight pedigree players, to be honest had we been the team we were under Davies I still think we may have lost this game. To be honest although not the same line ups we lost before to them in the FA Cup which shows that, regarding last season and this season and how we ran them close we have actually gone backwards.

We all know this for a fact, but this point merely underlines it for all to see. It is such a shame, which of course is also a huge understatement. But to be honest, the next few games now have so much riding on it. A break this week for the cup might do us good.

The Leicester Debacle and O'Driscolls Arrival

Strange week for the club. I say strange, we still lost, and embarrassingly, but it did mean the unforeseen arrival of ex Doncaster manager Sean O'Driscoll, numerous times linked with the main job as a First team Coach, which considering his track record you have to wonder if there’s not more to this role.

Anyway, I already digress. We are ignoring Tuesday night and all that it entailed. As much as I am sure we would love to forget that now infamous night in Leicester, where not only did we simply barely show up, but also conspired to produce one of the best misses you'll ever see that will haunt blooper rolls for years to come. Findley conspired to sky it from 2 yards out. I only ever saw Jason Lee do this before, but he made a talent of such misses.

Leicester crushed us. Right from the get go we were under the cosh. There aren’t enough words to describe the destruction and embarrassment wreaked on Forest by near neighbours Leicester. Twitter and Facebook were alive with chatter about how Cotterill ahs to go and almost wishing for Leicester to get more to force Cotterills hand to have to resign there and then if it got too bad.

That of course at the time seems funny but in hindsight wishing the team to do worse was faintly ridiculous, and leading to some outlandish Twitter comments from some people that were laughable and damn right stupid. I love how the knee jerk reactionaries always come out and declare such ridiculous statements as gospel. Hiding behind relative internet anonymity, and then not answering your comments when you point out to them their errors.

Of course Cotterill wasn’t going to be fired for reasons that are many fold. Mainly thought the lack of money, we can't afford to sack him, secondly he was bought in to wheel and deal, and finally Frank Clark is our chairman. Frank Clark who was always outspoken on manager dismissals as head of the LMA and who said any manager should a minimum of 6 months in a job to be judged on, Those 3 things alone would rule out Forest making a change.

But maybe this is the cheap option. Bring in the guy who has a good track record on a shoestring to assist the wheeler dealer. Create something interesting. O'Dricoll is a good manager who took Doncaster as far as they would go. Now he is helping us and surely that can't help.... or do too many cook spoil the broth? It will be interesting to see nonetheless.

And in further interesting news tonight the youth team tonked Wigan’s youth team 9-1, which surely sends a strong message out, with Bamford being a stand out player. Give youth a chance? Well they can’t be worse can they?

Cotterill Losing the Fans

I would say till today that most fans have stood by Cotterill and understand the very difficult job he is doing. Working with hands tied, and with players woefully underperforming, and injury list longer than most, those with any sense knew this was hard work.

However I think following today’s abject home performance to a Southampton who barely had to go up the gears to finish us off. Not helped by some strange refereeing, but to be fair, even had they been the most biased "homer" ref ever we wouldn’t have got anything out of this. We simply didn't deserve too.

A few might point to Chambers red card, which right now I haven’t seen. From where I sit, there is no way I can whether it was a right decision. The reaction of Southampton players suggest there may have been something bad, but it would be out of character. Additionally not one player rushed to check on their stricken player’s welfare, but all to surround the ref, so it suggests they knew he was fine.

I know that at the end of the day it makes little difference but I do hate to see players surrounding the ref, and causing a melee. For instance, their goalkeeper sprinted up to get involved. Why did he need to be there? Frankly that was ridiculous. However I do accept that if he deserved to go, then they got their job done.

We were already of course one down, and not looking to great anyway before going down to 10 men, which just left huge gaps in the midfield anyway. The midfield today was not good enough, it left huge holes, there was a lot of sloppy passing and overall it had no cutting edge. McGugan stranded out on the left with little or no interest in getting into the game. McCleary was ineffectual. Never really getting round the full back or getting by him. He's only really effective against slow or tired fullbacks, or when they are inexperienced. Hs other problem is positionally he is quite poor.

The game was lost in the midfield for me. Ours simply never retained possession; the defence wasn’t too great either. Cunningham seems to be unable to pass 12 feet. One more than one occasion simple passes were missed. Chambers error leads to the first goal. Chambers is a man bereft of confidence or indeed ability right now. It seems last year was a flash in the pan.



And at the centre of this, is Cotterill. I am not sure what training regimes we are doing, or what the instructions are on field, but it didn’t work today. At All. There have been a few grumbles before today, and only the few knee jerk reactionaries in front of me who want any manager sacked after 2 games without winning usually were the only ones calling for his head. But now there was a lot more cat calling. Animosity between fans, those booing and berating and those trying to encourage the team. Ok you pay your money, you can choose to be negative, boo and berate and get on players back, but you really aren’t helping the cause.

Cotterill sounded clueless after the game. Clueless as to how to solve this, clueless about various injuries. Clueless about in general. I will always support the manager and the team, whilst they are with the club. Those who read this regularly will know I didn’t like Davies the man, but his record couldn’t be argued with. I do wonder if he'd have walked anyway, I think the new this team was limited and had gone so far and that it really couldn't progress.

There are basic problems. These are out of Cotterills control. Players on big salaries not doing anything, players on smaller salaries whose contracts are expiring and therefore with one eye on the exit door. Those lesser contracts create a feeling of inferiority. They aren’t as valued. New players came in on bigger money. And haven’t worked. I don't blame Chambers, Morgan and Lynch for being distracted, but then, and then, they need to know they need to prove their focus. Ignore however much the new guys are on, and get on with it.

Transfer Gossip Update

I'd like to make it clear once and for all on this, these are not news report, but mainly taken from gossip columns whereby I cherry pick the likely, and the ridiculous. The rest I between I ignore


Ins


Billy Kee
Burton Striker Kee, an ex Leicester youngster has been linked. He has been scoring a lot of goals in league Two and is the sort of striker that wouldn’t cost much and potentially do a job. Kee is described as stocky on one site, which basically means a big unit who is strong, like a Grant Holt. It is potentially the type of player we could go after, what Burton would want fee wise is unclear, and therefore may be a stumbling block. On the other hand someone might just be plucking a young striker doing well in League Twos name out of a bag. Kee is a Northern Ireland u-21 international


George Elokobi
The Wolves Left back has been linked via Sky Sports, so for once it has as more reputable source. That said, we currently have Cunningham there for the rest of the season so why would we spend on wages of a Premier League player in the same positions? Plus he has a season on his contract so would potentially command a fee. The guy is a big strong player who’d take no crap, that said I simply don’t see this happening.



Stephen Quinn
The Sheffield United midfielder has been linked, again on Sky Sports. Seems potentially possible as Cotterill hasn’t really settled on a midfield he likes yet. Quinn could be just the type of player we need, not afraid to get stack in, can get wide and has good delivery. Basically Cohen, but with more hustle.


OUTS


Matt Derbyshire
Again. Being linked with Coventry and Sheffield Wednesday but I’d guess any deal would be a loan till end of season as no-one would want to commit long term. I liked him before he arrived, but it just seems we are the wrong club at the wrong time for him.


David McGoldrick
Word is the club are basically desperate to get rid of him. Get him off the wage bill and potentially get a fee back, but accept it would be nowhere near the fee we paid. McGoldrick would simply be no loss. Notts County have been linked, but how can they afford him?


Lewis McGugan
Linked with just about anyone below 8thin the Premier League seemingly. You name them; they’ve been linked with essentially a cut price £1mill deal for the mercurial midfielder. Simply isn’t nearly consistent enough in a relegation battle, in some eyes. Still would be a shame to lose one of our most exciting players, but if needs must.

Cup Run Ahoy

Well if we beat Leicester it will be.

I say that of course all we have to do is beat Leicester away and then beat Giant Killers Swindon, who I am sure Wigan thought would be easy enough.

To be fair I am torn on what a cup run could mean. One hand it’s a chance to build form. It's a chance to earn vital money. And it's a chance for a bit of success and joy in a season seriously lacking that.

The 0-0 draw with Leicester, which if am honest, I missed due to work commitments, well it wasn’t a surprise. I thought we might draw. I couldn't see us winning, but we have been doing better of late, so to nearly get something doesn’t surprise.

To be fair, it was almost pressure free with Leicester bringing so many fans. It was obvious that Forest fans didn't prioritise this game, whereas Leicester did, so for them it was more important seeing as their fans seem to give a shit.

The area around the station was awash with Leicester fans according to one colleague who made the mistake of going near the canal side during lunch time. Quite why Leicester brought 8,000 to a third round games against a non glamour team somewhat puzzles me. I think they think we care about them.

All in all I am not disappointed to at least get a replay, but the potential legacy of if we get injuries would annoy me. It is a distraction which could be costly, but for some team’s cup runs invigorate their season, it drives them up the league. In that regard I am completely torn.

Not that I'll ever say no to a win though.

New Year, New Start

So a fresh year and everything changes. A win and goals with it to boot. 2012 is already a revolution.

Considering that we had just lot, although perhaps unfairly to Cardiff, morale must have been down. So to come out and hit Ipswich early and take a two goal lead with two very well taken goals.

Tudgays first was as good a goal as I have seen him score. McCleary when he scored, well we have seen him building up to it. A few times lately he has put the ball on his inside and strikes the ball. A couple have been tipped around the post, so he finally got his shot that went in past the keeper. A great goal and we know he has it in his locker from last season against Leeds.

I am pleased for G-Mac in that regard that he is getting his chances he's always been a player I have liked. Admittedly frail in the defensive part of his game, his attacking exploits are usually explosive and exciting. And he is putting in a good shout for himself to be first team ahead of Anderson, who has been the exact opposite.

Of course we couldn’t keep a clean sheet, that would be too much to ask, and the penalty looked perhaps predictable but also that he went down easily. We had of course been riding our luck. Thomas especially with wonderful long range effort bouncing off the bar onto the line and back out. Literally a margin of error of an inch between wonder goal and something forgotten by next month.

At that point I was worried. It sounded ominous especially with our form, but lo and behold Marcus Tudgay saved the day with a good looping header past the keeper from a Reid cross and the 3 points at that stage were never in doubt.



2 days previously it had been different. We again played well but just couldn’t finish. Whether in those intervening days someone recalibrated the strikers to be able to find the target I don't know, but something changed for the better. Against Cardiff we huffed and we puffed but we were never going blow the house down.

Cardiff for their part didn’t have as many chances either, but when they did they were clearer cut and they looked more dangerous. That said Miller had a great chance before he did score somehow missing from right in front of goal close in, his shot was shanked wide.

So all in all frustrating in hindsight that we clearly can score, but that it all came rather late. Had we got a few goals in that run of games and got some confidence back we might have had a lot more points and been a lot higher up the league. But that’s football. If's and Buts.