The kuWait is Almost Over for a New Chairman

I know, worst pun ever in a title, but the strong rumour is the Kuwaiti billionaire Fawaz Al-Hasawi is taking over Nottingham Forest. It’s not certain yet that it is us being bought by him. He has confirmed that he is in the process of buying a second tier English team with a rich heritage. Basically it is or Leeds. The vital part is that he is buying 100% of the club apparently, and from what I have seen from Look North, Leeds fans on forums, a bit from media, and the fact he is a megalomaniacal power monger, Ken Bates is not selling his entire stake. So in essence it potentially rules out Leeds, leaving err, us.

Many who read this page know that I am deeply sceptical about rich foreign owners. Their motivation, long term plans and vision always need to be questioned. Basically why the hell do they want to buy us? In this case there appears no clear motive other than he wants to own a club. Well Ok, fine, but I don’t want the club to be a rich man’s toy. For every Man City there is a Neuchâtel Xamax (we signed Thierry Bonalair from them), and if you don’t know what happened with that Swiss club, basically they got bought out by a rich chairman, who turned out to be a mental war criminal. The club imploded, in a way that Notts County nearly did, being declared bankrupt and excluded from the Swiss Super League.

The news has reported he wants an ex QPR coach as manager, most have assumed this means Warnock (once again pointing to us, as Leeds already have him) but it could mean Ian Holloway. Or Gerry Francis, where’s he these days? Either way it doesn’t look promising for Cotterill.

Now the next assumption everyone makes when being bought by rich Arab oil sheikhs is that they will splash the cash. Like at Man City, Paris Saint Germain etc. Remember Portsmouth has a rich sheikh. Who was actually broke and whose wealth stemmed from POTENTIAL earnings from property. I have no doubt this guy may be genuine, but just pointing out a few problems. There may not be vast swathes of cash spent. We do need some cash spending. The midfield and defence have been ravaged by contract expiries and departures. McCleary has gone, Anderson is on his way out the door, Chambers is probably off and Lynch, well that’s still unclear. But even if there isn’t that much, it’s still better than Frank Clark checking behind all the club sofa’s for discarded change, or mugging people under Trent Bridge.

People have cried foul about the fact we haven’t been feeding back to fans what’s happening. Well for one it’s not the club handling this potential sale. It’s Seymour Pierce. No doubt the club are up to date and what not but they aren’t controlling this, and neither should they. Get professionals to do it. Additionally keeping everyone informed is simply not how this is done. You don’t tell everyone all your business dealings, and yes people want to know before buying a season ticket, but sorry, this is just the way it goes. You have to retain an element of secrecy, basically because that’s business. In fact as I write this and have checked Twitter the club have indeed commented. This speaks volumes. They never did about the Irish supposed take over, or the Canadian one from the Maple Leafs group. Now they have. This does mean something afoot, but whether we are adding 2 +2 and coming up with 17 here is unapparent.

I have seen it said elsewhere that Mr Al-Hasawi puts a lot of stock in youth development, and that is certainly something that pleases me. It means he might not want to just buy a new starting XI. However a lot of top clubs claim to have top youth development, but in fact just sign other clubs youngsters and polish these diamonds rather than actually mining them, just look at Patrick Bamford.
There was a lot of contention about a comment suggesting he wanted to bring in Kuwaiti players. And people were unhappy about this. But wait, why? Are they assuming that these players who probably aren’t good enough would be forced into the team? Why would he buy the club and then enforce that, it would devalue the club. No it’s more likely he will use our facilities to help train them and develop. And if we do sign some, so be it, they might be good enough after all, and would certainly sell a few shirts in Kuwait. Remember we can only have 3 non EU nationals in the team, and they’d have to get work permits to transfer here.

As I said, rich foreign takeovers make me nervous. I have covered this extensively before, but right now we have little choice as we cannot continue in limbo, seeing players walk out the door for free. We need investment. Let’s hope that if this comes off, we don’t become one of these rich brash obnoxious clubs, claiming we’re going to win it all. He will be welcomed in regardless (even if one pillock tweeted to him last night get lost we don’t like Muslims, I hope this guy gets kicked off Twitter, he doesn’t speak for us.)

Interesting times ahead at the City Ground if this is all true. We need this situation resolving as soon as possible, What has been entertaining is how little people commenting on the net about this understand business. And if this goes through I will miss laughing at peoples misguided attempts

A Comparison: David Platt and Steve McClaren

I feel these characters almost pull Forest full circle over a 10-12 period of time. Both coming to the club with reputations before them that include England although with mixed experiences, and both with a lot to prove. And both given substantial wage funds.

Platt of course was charged with getting us promoted after relegation. No tall order, but in those days almost expected. Clubs yo-yoed frequently, and it wasn’t rare to see the same three clubs up or down doing the same the next season. Platt was given a hefty war chest, even by today’s standards, and splashed out on players which didn’t succeed. This included a veteran in the guise of Moreno Mannini, ho on paper looked to be a rock to hold it all together. Throw in Petrachi and Matrecano, and the three worst signings in clubs history perhaps are complete. There were also large sums spent on Scimeca, and later the likes of Jim Brennan.

McClaren was charged with taking us the extra step to promotion that Billy Davis had failed to achieve, and in a highly competitive division where anyone could beat anyone and in times where clubs from the Premier League were not always expected go up, that differs to Platt. He did however bring in a veteran, in the guise of Boateng who never got going and a duo of expensive players in Miller and Greening, as well as Matt Derbyshire, and Andy Reid (although that was apparently set up before McClaren came in) There was also the Wesley Verhoek saga, and in what now looks like the greatest foresight of anyone, Verhoek opted to turn us down. At the time it was the club said he was unsure about leaving Den Haag. You can’t help wonder if he had some kind of vision.

The comparisons are already there. And take into account that both of them never really inspired confidence during their times with the club. Throw in that both are bookends essentially to Nigel Doughty’s time with the club, and that’s how we come full circle. Platt’s errors bought Doughty to the fore as chairman, and McClaren's ended his reign.
For a long term legacy Platt has to be
argued to be worse. His bad signings and wasting of vast swathes of our cash and parachute payments led us to being in a financial mess. However out of the ashes rose the phoenix of many top young players, and a campaign where we nearly went up. Had it not been for having to shed so many players, perhaps, Jenas, Dawson, Reid and Prutton may not have broken through? Well they probably would, Platt wasn’t afraid to blood youth, he gave Prutton his début (which for me checking Forest results at uni and seeing an unknown name to me played was odd) Some players like Keith Foy were blooded, and although ultimately failing its further than many of have got for a while. That financial element is key though. It meant ultimately we had to sell Jenas before getting any benefit.

Platt also signed David Johnson for a large sum and very large for the time wages. Johnson had a past of succeed in the second tier but never quite the top flight. He flattered to deceive and after being attempted to be moved on, after a loan spell at Sheffield Wednesday, Johnno came good and started banging them in.
Ishmael Miller was an expensive signing on large wages who has done it at this level before. He has also largely flopped in his first season. Now I am not trying to see parallels everywhere, but there are quite striking ones here. He also too had Marlon Harewood to play alongside.

The long term legacy of McClaren is of course similar to Platt. No more money and having to move on players. Top earners HAVE to go, and like the Italians, Derbyshire and Greening look to have simply have failed here. Perhaps Greening could do a Scimeca and ultimately come good.

The long term effects are that again a new chairman will have to come on board and settle the club. The main difference is McClaren walked early. Knowing he was on a hiding to nothing. Platt kept hanging around like a bad smell, until Sven Goran Eriksson insisted he was to be his right hand man, groomed as his heir apparent, only to continue to prove to be inept at England U-21 level.

For the reasons that it appears to be a full chapter beginning and closing in similar ways that I feel a new stage for the club is on the horizon. Steve Cotterill has had the thankless task of mopping up, and despite there still being many boo boys he has ultimately won me over. The guy is genuine, and does, from his signings, seem to know a good player from bad. McClaren and Platt just seemed to sign anyone who came along.

Whether both had tried to create a new cabal of players in the dressing room that were his and knew he could turn to, as well as the obvious restructuring required. We lost a number of players before both players tenures, and in that vital strikers (van Hooijdonk and Earnshaw) needed to be replaced. McClaren also lost a talismanic midfielder in Cohen to injury, although we were already struggling by then.

The basic thing to consider is that both will never be remembered fondly. Both will be remembered as flops, again at least McClaren had the grace to walk away (although this was less for the club, but more to retain his reputation and not taint it with a failure) That is certainly one thing they share, to be even more maligned than perhaps Kinnear and Megson takes something. I think Platt is more hated, and that’s a lot or retrospect too. Platt’s record was never great, but we weren’t in the clear and present danger we were post McClaren. Don’t get me wrong; Platt led us to the brink of relegation, needing late results to be safe, just in case. It’s more the long term legacy; McClaren was just always bad (even if I did miss two games of his brief tenure.) The simple comparison is both failed, and when you look into it, although the timelines were different it was a very similar story.

Where Do We Go From Here?

Forest stand on the edge of a precipice right now. If nothing were to happen it’s quite logical we could end up plunging into economic meltdown. Rather like Portsmouth, and rather like ourselves before after Platt, having to jettison high earning players.

On the counter hand should the rumoured takeover that has rumbled on for a while, and will continue to do so for the foreseeable future as these things aren’t concluded over night. The last rumour of the Canadian billionaire seems to have calmed down again, not meaning it’s not on, but its lighting up Twitter and Facebook as before.

Regardless of any rich sugar daddy coming in, we need to be sure of keeping the wage bill down. For instance Miller, Derbyshire and Greening combined take around £2.2 mill out of the budget. This is for players who come end of last season weren’t first team. They have largely failed. Now I still think Miller and Greening for instance with the right direction might start playing well, Greenings played at the top for a long time, and Miller is a powerful striker. However, simply because of their wages they need to move on. You can’t have people on those fees. For one I believe it breeds indifference.

If we remain in our state of flux, that’s money we could desperately do with. If we get taken over, well remember takeovers aren’t always as they seem. Even if we tried to retain those wages it’s still a drain on resources that if we did a Cardiff and continued to fail to go up, any chairman might become disillusioned and your left with large wages again like Portsmouth. It’s this legacy of paying too high wages left many clubs to plummet. Bradford case in point, all those funds made from the Premier League wasted on over paid indifferent players.

Yes, we could get this Canadian billionaire or any other from the great host of countries billionaires we were connected with (last count, 7. American, Chinese, Kuwaiti, Norwegian, Irish, Canadian) and that not be an issue as they will cover it, and at the end of the day as long as they are in place we can forget the long term planning, and just spend now. But this also goes against all Doughty tried to create of a self sustaining club with an academy rolling out fresh batch of top players. I am almost excited at the thought of with the new age of austerity that we will HAVE to produce our own players. Kieron Freeman, David Morgan and Jamaal Lascelles hopefully stepping up this summer. On the other hand, they do need to be good enough. Those 3 years in League One left us in a position where we were quite far down the pecking order for getting top youngsters to sign, and the legacy of that is only really clearing now.

So yeah, it is a vital time in the long happy history of Nottingham Forest. I say happy, it has been mostly. I feel this take over more than others before will define where we spend the next period of history. We need to avoid a quick cheap take over designed around selling off once we are up. There is no long term planning in this model. Cardiff and Leicester are examples I have cited many times before. Cardiff’s Malaysian regime wants to dispatch with the clubs history, and colours to sell the club to a Malay market. Are people there going to want to cheer on a mid range team. I have been to Malaysia and they all supported the at the time top teams of Man Utd and Liverpool, that’s probably been supplanted by Chelsea now. Why would they all now support Cardiff City just because they play in Red. Seems like the guy just wants his team to play in Red so is moulded the club as his play thing. A dangerous game. People get bored of toys. Clubs basing success on cash injections form sugar daddies rarely maintain success. They need to be a big club with a history of success to churn over the revenue, the shirt sales, and the gate receipts. Blackburn won the title but has never approached level of success with investment. New owners flashing the cash initially and then it drying up are more common then you’d want to know. That initial interest and excitement followed by a few years later austerity. Birmingham, Aston Villa, Sunderland, Middlesbrough, Leeds, Sheffield Wednesday, Blackburn, Portsmouth, West Ham, are all top level examples of false promises, or short term successes and long term losses.

Indeed look at the lower leagues and non leagues for teams who got investment, started spending, and when the money which seemed plentiful dried up, shrank away again. Non league for instance is scattered with these (usually a money laundering operation though) and the lower couple of leagues of the league structure. Scotland has its examples, in Livingstone for instance, but also the likes of Hearts. Clubs with money but no infrastructure to back it up are not going to succeed. You create a bubble that will burst. And the larger you let the bubble grow, the worst the explosion.

Don’t get me wrong, we need a takeover, we need new owners. What I am saying is we need to be careful what we get. Someone who is willing to carry on the good groundwork of Doughty, we need that money in to keep the players we have. But then we also need investment on new players. Not a vast sum. Some clever buying would see us right. We chased names last summer and that got us nowhere. Do as many of the clubs going up have done; buy League One or Two players, who are young and hungry. Have a couple of old heads to steady the ship, and go from there. If we need several loans, then so be it. It only ever seems to be a market we play in desperation, not as an actual tool for bringing in talent. We’ve proved its worth, with Guedioura, what we need is something like this over the whole season, maybe someone like Henri Lansbury. Young players at top clubs not getting a look in, wanting to prove themselves. We seemed to have been burned and chastened by when we tried this with Michael Stewart, but that need not be our whole reference point.

We still have good players. Talented individuals in McGugan and Majewksi, A solid keeper in camp. The defence is going to be unrecognisable and will need work, a chance for Lascelles to shine, and we have Blackstock up front. The wings also are ravaged by contracts expiring this year. What we need is people to fill the other spots. We need cover for Reidy who cannot do it week in and week out. Moussi is still solid enough despite having a mare at least 1 game in 4. He just needs a Guedioura alongside him. To keep him in check. Up front, it depends on what we do with Miller and Derbyshire, Harewood I assume is off.

This is football though. It’s never just as simple as this. Is it?

Joel Lynch is Welsh Now

Joel Lynch has been called up for the Welsh squad to play Mexico on 27 May.

Lynch joins Blackstock in becoming an international via parental links. His father is from Barry making him eligible.

Fair play to Lynch who has had a good season, and is potentially looking at moving on from Forest now his contract is expiring. This merely adds to his growing reputation.

I for one wish him well joining Chris Gunter in the Welsh squad, and Gunter is currently the subject of a bid from Swansea apparently

In News We Already Knew... G-Mac Joins Reading

I think we all knew this was happening last week, so this is barely a shock, but hey its official now.

Good luck to you G-Mac. You perhaps didn't always get the chance here before this year, and you got a contract with a big club on the strength of half a season.

McCleary is a Thames Valley lad so he's returning to his neck of the woods he's from.

O Canada

If you believe the hype. Might even become a Maple Leafs fan. Though it might annoy my my Canadian buddies.

Incidentally none of said Canadian buddies have heard a single shred of evidence to support the supposed imminent take over by Maple Leafs owner Larry Tanenbaum. In other news I mildly enjoyed the Royal Tenenbaums.... Weak tie in

It Seems G-Mac is Off

Well it's hardly a surprise being bang in form and out of contract that he attracted attention. He is also relatively cheap for some clubs I would assume as he is young and untried at higher levels. It also appears to be Reading leading this chase.

I have always been a fan, and yeah it'll be a loss, but remember he didn’t cost us much and as recently as November he was regarded as a squad player with little or no future. So in that regard the loss is somewhat lessened.

That said he was a top player last season and losing any top players is bad news. Especially as he will be hard to replace.

If he does go I wish the lad well. Some have accused him of greed on Twitter and I always laugh at this, as if someone offered you the same job closer to where your home was for more money every one of us would jump at that chance. To call them greedy is ridiculous, it’s short career to maximise earnings. So I hope it's not true, but I think it will be. Reading would be a good move too.

2011/12 Review Video

Ok took longer than expected to put together.... But here it is

Forest Look-a-likes 5

Been quite sometime since we did one, so maybe this is a little rushed, but here we go again.

Henry Ian Cusick (Desmond from Lost) and Jonathan Greening



Seth Gabel (actor) and Paul Anderson



Andy Balderstone (physio) and Ronald Koeman



Billie Jackson (Eastenders) and Des Walker