Where Does de Vries Signing Leave Darlow?

I guess we should firstly welcome Dorus de Vries to Nottingham Forest. He has a rich pedigree in getting teams promoted what with his period at Swansea (let's just leave that Wolves period alone) and welcome the Dutchman to the club. De Vries joins a successful band of Dutch forest players, from Pierre van Hooijdonk, Bryan Roy and Johnny Metgod through to previous Dutch keepers Hans van Breukelen (who after leaving us had huge success at PSV and with Holland) and Hans Segers (who was involved in match fixing scandals at Wimbledon).


This adds an experienced keeper to our trio of relatively inexperienced keepers. Darlow has a half a season at best, al-Rashidi has never played in a top league and Evtimov is still completely untried. Therefore for no fee it’s not a bad signing.

Where the debate and contention comes in is what will his role will be. There was a Twitter rumour from a relatively obscure source who claimed de Vries was demanding to be the no. 1. This would relegate the very popular Darlow to the bench you’d suspect. But as I said in the rumour round up, Darlow is a young keeper, young keepers often go through a dodgy spell, and do we really want to try al-Rashidi in a potential keeping crisis? All well and good trialling in the Carling Cup, but blooding him potentially in a tough run of fixtures? Very risky.

Now if Darlow does remain number 1, we have a very capable stand in who we know can be trusted. And vice versa if de Vries is number 1, we know Darlow can be trusted, but its where this put Darlow. What will he personally feel? Hurt? Betrayed? Unloved? Maybe all three, but I’m sure Billy if this is the case will have told him he sees him as the long term heir apparent, and to learn from de Vries in the mean time.

Because for a young keeper advice and education will be key, he has had half a season in the first team, which will stand him in good stead, but maybe a short while watching and learning again might be good. There is no better education though than practice and experience, and at 22 it’s the age he should be establishing himself. That’s where my next point comes in.

Darlow has settled in the first team, he made the no. 1 jersey his own. And there was little real competition. Maybe he needs someone to push him on, to make sure he keeps improving and retains that shirt. We all saw what complacency did with Camp, and anyone in football needs to know his place is not assured so that they don’t get lazy, and stay driven. This could be a clever way from Davies of making sure Darlow remains driven, and pushes him harder.

Davies is usually quite clever with youngsters breaking through, that he keeps them believing they haven’t made it. He got the best of McGugan, it was him that ironed out most of Wes Morgan’s creases in his game (remember how mistake prone he was under Megson etc) and how he took faltering Premiership youngsters Gunter and Anderson and got them firing in our first team.

So all in all however this works out it could be good for Darlow, either as something to keep him on his toes, or a challenge to up his game further. I hope he doesn’t take the Kieron freeman approach of simply seeing a challenge for his position as insult and turning on his heels and running to a smaller club for regular football. If Darlow see’s this like that, then it won’t be good for all parties, but I’m sure Forest will have assured him this will be good for his ongoing development.

Latest Transfer Gossip - July 2nd

Ok following on from the first actual cash purchase of the season, following the freebie signings of Lichaj and Jara, there are numerous other rumours floating around out there.




Charlie Austin
The rumour that won’t die would involve us breaking the transfer record. This would do 2 things. Surely this prove once and for all we do have money. Secondly it would also surely break FFP. Furthermore with his scoring record and the fee’s mentioned you’d expect lower Premiership clubs to taking a look at the Burnley striker. For all these reasons I remain a sceptic on this happening. As I said it’d be a message to everyone we mean business, akin to Blackburns signing of Jordan Rhodes last season, BUT I just can’t see it. It’d be a wonderful signing though.


Gary Hooper
This is just fantasy land but some wags yesterday kept saying he was having a medical. His fee would be excessive, he plays Champions League Football with Celtic, and would more suit someone like Norwich or Hull in the Premier League, but people still think it’s a possibility. It isn’t. I’ll eat any of my large array of hats if it happens.


Wes Morgan
In what would be a popular move the club reportedly want Wes. Leicester don’t want to sell. There’s an inpass before you begin, and that’s even if Wes wants to move. It’s not like he’s going to be homesick playing for a team in the next town over, and he’s their club captain. People seem to think that once Red, then they will always walk back home, but the truth is Wes is an integral part of what Leicester are doing, can you see them sacrificing that to a rival? No. It’d be nice, and I can see it, but for what we’d pay there are better options, than paying a premium to prove a point.


Dorus de Vries
This one has popped up today that we want to increase our keeping options with the Dutchman, now released from Wolves after their relegation. It would ease pressure on the youngster Evtimov should he need to step up, but where it would leave al-Rashidi and Darlow, I am unsure. He was deputy to Hennessey at Wolves, and I’d think we seem him as experienced cover for Darlow, whereas al-Rashidi is purely a back up option. It’d provide increased competition too. Darlow is a young keeper, he will go through a bad patch at some stage and will need an old head in that period to help him psychologically and perhaps as a means for a break.