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.

Forest Villains.... David Platt

Aha, yes maybe one of the most obvious candidates for one of these pieces, but yes, he truly left an indelible mark on this club for being vilified. His name came up on a pub quiz machine the other day, I couldn't bring myself to answer the question and had someone else select his name.

David Platt was installed as manger of Nottingham Forest following our relegation from the Premier League in 1999. At the time it seemed brave move. Platt after retiring had toured Europe trying to learn from many others the art of good managing and coaching, his playing career had been illustrious, England captain, successful in Italy and with Arsenal. He must succeed!

He had been in charge at Sampdoria for a brief period but technically couldn't manage as he didn't have the requisite badges. This tenure was rather short lived due to this problem, but he DID have experience at a top level club of managing.

And he was backed. Backed like no other manager probably has been at Forest. We had quite a bit of money to burn following the sales of a few of the las Premier League team. Stone had left for a big fee before the end of the season and very notably Pierre van Hooijdonk.

He went about making signings. Riccardo Scimeca being the first high profile one, bringing the former England Under21 defender from Aston Villa for a princely £2.5million. He followed this u with Gianluca Petrachi, Salvatore Matrecano and Moreno Mannini from the Italian Leagues he knew so well. These 3 names live long in Forest fans memories as being unmitigated disasters. Each one barely lasting out 3 months before being consigned to the scrap heap. They had cost us around £5million for this hapless trio. None of these players would ever amount to much else in their career, which illustrates how crap they were.

Given a remit to get us promotion we managed to finished 14th in his first season. I at the time missed much of this season as I was at university, I did make it to quite a few games, especially away games, one such one was a horrendous 3-0 defeat away at Tranmere in what is possibly the worst performance I have ever seen a Forest side putout. It also felt like every time I came home from Uni we had more players I never recognised such was the passion of Platt for chopping and changing. A roll call of the average and the never could be's.

I had particular dislike of our signing of Mikkel Beck, coming a week after I had derided him to friends whilst watching Derby in some match on Sky. Telling everyone that he was without doubt the worst player I had ever seen (anyone else remember him being subbed back off 10 mins after coming for Boro at Forest for being THAT bad?)I couldn't believe it when informed we had signed him, thinking it to be a joke, but no we did,albeit a brief period, he even scored.

We had also spent big on a number of other names, Stern John and Jim Brennan in particular chasing promotion, with spiralling wages. This in turn led to the fact we were in trouble financially, culminating in us pulling out of spending a paltry £300k on Robbie Blake as we couldn't afford it.

Money was drying up, and we didn't seem closer to the Premier League. Platt increasingly seemed clueless but received board backing. My refection on it is that I don't think there was the same clamour to see him ousted as there was with the likes of Megson and a largely successful Calderwood.

However he started the rot by spending extremely badly. Our second season was one of improvement, we did finish higher, but there was not much hope of continuing this as due to the parlous condition of the finances, made worse by the collapse of ITV digital, and the money to have come from that deal disappearing, we were consigned to shipping out people.

We had to let John go on the cheap later as it turned out a deal was in place to pay a £250k fee if he scored more than 15 goals in a season. What kind of deal was that??!!A star striker signed but with add ons for what is an average number of goals for a striker? Ridiculous. More so was the signing of Gary Jones. I still think he might be one of the most pointless signings we ever made. He was useless.



We then despite all this signed David Johnson, which although he turned out to be a good acquisition in later years, was at the time a risk, and at first he took time to settle.

One highpoint was the brief loan of Ben Olsen before his injury,which was a real shame.

But by and large his reign was truly a dark day for the club,leading it to the stage where we were on our knees. Fans had started to turn and when Sven Goran Eriksson, Platts mentor at Sampdoria came calling anting him as the U-21 boss I think every Forest fan was relieved that we had gotten rid of the walking disaster zone. His subsequent results with England confirmed he was clueless. And it speaks volumes that has never managed another club.

OK, shortly after we bounced back and made the playoffs but the legacy of his spending meant that young players had to be sold off. Jenas in particular being sold to basically let the club survive. Dawson and Reid was money we couldn't turn down,and unable to spent to replace we dropped down to League One.

OK,he never made the wonderful faux pas like Kinnear had by calling fans idiots and moaning about the clubs history, or like Megson talking about sinister forces at work (what the hell was that all about?) But his consistently bad record puts him ahead of managers who over saw relegation to the clubs lowest ebb in in terms of hatred from Forest fans.

Platt is still vilified Trentside. His record for Forest suggests why. The final nail in this coffin I will offer is this. The stats don't lie
Platt's managerial record
Played: 103,
Won: 34,
Drawn: 25,
Lost: 44