January 2014 Transfer Window Roundup

It’s been a glorious transfer window for Forest, used to maybe one insipid free transfer or a loan; we have strengthened with 5 new players coming in.

This is more than what we had targeted and coupled with keeping the existing squad together it has to be deemed a success. The only departure saw Miller return to Yeovil but he was peripheral at best anyway.

So what do we know about the new recruits and what will they bring? Here’s a round up

Hobbs

Jack Hobbs
In what was on-going on off saga we finally at the death got our man in Jack Hobbs. The central defender had been an ever present before he got injured, and was then recalled by Hull in an obvious attempt to force our hand to dip into the pockets and sign him. Under pressure from Reading, Wigan and Leicester Hobbs always said he was our favoured choice of destination.
We know of course that Hobbs is a strong central defender and this was somewhat illustrated versus Watford on Thursday night. We know exactly what we got with Jack, and that’s a quality central defender.

David Vaughan
We also know what we are getting with Vaughan, who completely changed our midfield for the better when he arrived. The interplay and balance provided by the 3 of him, Lansbury and Reid started a lot of what has been good lately. He made the deep lying midfielder role his own and shone for his initial loan period with the club. His signing will be vital for the promotion bid.

Danny Fox
Considering we have been after him at left back for a while signals our intent here. With Cohen injured and Harding form intermittent getting in a quality recognised left back with top level experience at Celtic is a major coup and will be help us no end defensively, and hopefully attacking wise too, with interchange down the left.

Djebbour

Rafik Djebbour
An interesting signing and rare one for a club to buying in relatively older players from abroad. Djebbour has come in for a cut price from what we were going to pay in the summer. He offers another option up front and must be an upgrade at least from the likes of Tudgay, Derbyshire and Henderson are aren’t players to push you to the Premier League. Apart from that I don’t want to base opinions on YouTube videos as I could make vids that make me look good. Be interesting to see how quickly he adapts

Gomis

Kevin Gomis
Being a loan it feels relatively pressure free. If he succeeds we can hopefully make it permanent like with Hobbs, if he fails, then it’s not financially cost us much (though what it could cost on a pitch is only one the future can answer) Gomis has top level experience in Ligue 1. Apart rom that I know nothing.

Fawaz - Damned if he Tweets, Damned if he Doesn't

It is commonly agreed by a range of fans that to have your chairman as a visible presence eon the internet has been a nice bonus. We have talked before about the fact the difference between Forest under the al-Hasawi regime is a different animal to that of under the Doughty days.

Fawaz though has almost created a rod for his back by trying to keep fans included in the various stages of the transfer process. Now there is confusion with some people between what agreeing a deal and concluding a transfer is. Just because we agreed a deal with a club doesn’t mean the signing is completed. There are myriad things to go wrong. How the deal is be paid, what instalments are paid at what tie, the deal with the player and of course the agent.

So when Fawaz said we had agreed a deal for Hobbs there was all that yet to thrashed out. Now it seems as mentioned the other day it was personal terms with the player that was the stumbling block.  So when Fawaz gets accused of lying by some people about this deal, that person is basically showing a complete lack of basic understanding of how things go down.

Now Fawaz has tweeted that we agreed personal terms with Djebbour and mentioned we just need to thrash out deals with his parent club Olympiakos a lot of fans went into a frenzy about how we are announcing deals before the deal is done. Now maybe Fawaz is being a little premature, but it is a sign that we are trying to do business and are out there agreeing deals. The nature of such a deal was that Olympiakos clearly want to sell, as they nearly reached a deal in the summer, so now we agreed a deal with the player and as said before have to sort out the minute details of the transfer insofar as how much we will be paying and when.

This is where the second part of the article comes in. The fact that people seem angry that we are announcing deals before they are done and could collapse and saying it’s unprofessional. The same people up in arms are often the very same moaning about the lack of news or lack of business in the market. It’s because of these types of tweets about the lack of business and those people who think the moment Jan 1^st arrives there should be a revolving door of players coming into the club that moves Fawaz announces these things to keep fans happy, appeased, and buying tickets. It’s an on-going cycle.

But the same pressures can these same problems we experienced, that we announce something about to be done before the ink is dry and everything goes wrong. This then cause fan to accuse the club of a lack of professionalism, and that we need extra help, but if those people weren’t constantly in Fawaz ear he wouldn’t feel this need. Additionally I dread to think of what direct messages on Twitter Fawaz receives from all sorts suggesting deals.

If only fans just let the club get on with doing what they do. There is also an element of everyone believing their opinion has to be heard. And there’s nothing wrong with that, but there’s a lot of who think if they shout loudest their opinion matters most.

Deals will go through when they do. What we don’t need is over the top zealous fans getting on the high horses and creating a bad atmosphere. Fawaz tweets because he genuinely wants to try and keep us informed and appease fan who might be agitated. Don’t them use this as a rope to hang him from when it doesn’t happen.

The Jack Hobbs Debacle

For the whole of January I have restrained from having my say on whats been happening with Hobbs. Following the too and fro about where his future is lying and what or wasn't the deal we had in place for the central defender was.

Until today.

Today it has all reached a head. Hobbs was recalled by Hull, as we all know by now. We also all know that last week Fawaz tweeted he had reached a deal with Hull for the defender. So something in that time has changed or gone wrong.

Here is where the conjecture starts in earnest.

On the one hand there are those who have seen this for what it potentially is. Hull have a defensive cover crisis with the James Chester injury. They have a defender very much in form who they had a right to recall from his loan as there was no permanent deal in place. They have done as much today. They are within their rights, he is their property.

Then there are those who believe there are more sinister forces at work in all of this. That Hull are forcing our hand to go for a deal now instead of all the wrangling that has been going off up till now. They want us to fork out that fee now, rather than the potential arrangements (believed to a be a fee payable once h completes his loan to avoid paying a percentage to Leicester in sell on fees.) Again they are within their rights to do so, but the waters of how morale this get a little murky.

There is also an argument to say that Hobbs stock has risen and when he negotiated with Forest on the deal it wasn't the same terms he had agreed in the summer on the longevity of the deal. Reading were willing to pay more. Hobbs therefore wanted to be paid more (and again rightly so, but then reneging on a gentleman's agreement it seems) And therefore we were not able to finalise a deal meaning he returns to Hull.

All of which must be of interest to Reading. Surely they will make a new move.,

Unless of course this was all a legit move to bring back cover for injuries, in which case it's all academic.

Whats apparent is we should have stopped wrangling and just got a deal in place, but then there's new arguments on trying to get value or just stumping large pots of cash for deals which might not be best value.

Confused? I am. It all makes sense but thinking off all the various permutations and consequences of this just addles to brain.

What is apparent is Hobbs is now no longer at present a Forest player.

Derby Day Delight

After 2 seasons of, well, I admit it, failure against Derby, Forest have turned it round to result in a victory in a game that always feels like it comes at vital moments in a season.

For instance this game came on the back of a run of games where we had toiled to get draws. Losing in the Capital One Cup, although no exactly painful still sits on the mind. Had we lost this game, form would start to look questionable. And with the prospect of two long away trips before the international break, it had all the possibility to turn the season the wrong way. Last season’s defeat felt like a big setback and 2 years under McClaren, well it took the wind from the sails of what might have been another kind of season.

So for me, this game felt higher stakes.

We all know the result, all know the scorer, I’m not going to break ground there, but hat surprised me, is that although Derby often looked dangerous on the attack, the seemed to almost go out of this game with a whimper. I’ve only ever seen Hughes against Forest and each time he has flattered to deceive.

We made changes, enforced changes. Moussi in the midfield, Chalobah out through injury. This both worried me and gave a new sense of what would happen as Moussi does have awful distribution and is prone to terrible errors of judgement. That said, with him in place the midfield had shape. The dynamic down the left with Reid, Majewski and Cohen was in place. With Moussi out and Cohen into midfield, and Harding on the left, it was still there at times, but just not quite firing in the same way. Collins was in for Wilson (and ultimately for Halford)

What was apparent is at set pieces Derby had clearly set their stall out defend against Henderson as the aerial threat. That’s the only way I can begin to describe the way that they completely ignored Hobbs, who despite his large frame went through the area unmarked and headed home with what would be the only goal of the game. It was absolutely criminal defending, and had they not being so obsessed with pulling Henderson’s shirt all over and stop him jumping they may have remembered other aerial threats exist.

The penalty was an interesting incident as from my seat I have near the back of the Trent End, anything that happens like that at the other end is hard to pick out and I haven’t seen the goals back. But Derby going down to 10 men is not always the best plan. I of course refer to 2 years ago and the whole “we only had 10 men” game. The resulting penalty was saved, and at this point I was worried. We should have buried the game there and then, instead there was this outside chance of hope, buoyed by the penalty save.

Indeed Derby had chances. Hughes with a free kick, and Sammon as their human battering ram. But their main worry all game for me, and always is when we play them was Jamie Ward, he’s just that hateful little figure of a player who antagonises and I could see him doing something. So I was delighted when they withdrew him.

Reid had a glorious one on one right at the death, and 2-0 would have been probably the right result, but it was saved. Henderson had earlier missed a glorious headed opportunity to finish, but his header went way off target.

A word on a number of players. Collins was superb, and it’s that kind of showing we bought him for. Henderson toiled as the target man, and for much was an aerial target after we shifted dynamic with Moussi out. Although he missed a gilt edge header and the penalty he worried Derby. Harding did his job when he came on, but Abdoun didn’t seem as confident when he came into action. Lansbury in the deeper role had a quieter game.

The win of course has since seen Nigel Clough dismissed and hilarious McClaren bought in. Maybe it will work out, but evidence from his last Championship job suggests otherwise. With Middlesbrough where he had success he had cash to spend. We know what he did with us, failed at Wolfsburg, Twente (in his second spell) and of curse England. This could be his last chance of a vestige of saving face in England.