al-Rashidi Leaving in January

It’s been barely reported save for a few tweets from Middle Eastern based fans, but it looks like the Kuwaiti player experiment is over, putting to bed once and for all the insane garble from the likes of the Daily Mail.

Based on his tweets, and a few dodgy translates it looks roughly like he can’t finalise anything yet or formally announce but other tweeters have, that the Kuwaiti keeper will be going to Al Salmiya for around £500k.

Al-Rashidi hasn’t played for Forest and t be honest never looked like he would. More of a token signing for the Reds, he has always been down the pecking order, and when de Vries arrived in the summer to take the back up spot, he looked even more unlikely to figure.

It looks like he will remain with the club till the January window and then depart. As I say there is formal announcement by the club as yet. The supposed £500k will be nice though.

I’d say it’s a shame but I’d have no idea if it is or not...

Forest Crap for Sale #1 - Kingsley Black Trading Card

Yours for £1.25

In what we hope to be a barnstorming new series, and because we need stuff to fill the international break, we are looking at the generic Forest stuff you can buy on the internet, that surely only the most ardent fan would want.

I know some people who are pretty hardcore fans, but I’m not sure any of them would stretch the £1.25 it costs to buy the Subbuteo trading card of KINGSLEY BLACK. The left winger signed from Luton Town was never exactly the most popular of players. But I suppose we could all commemorate his career by buying this lovely card with him on it.

There are other better players you could get, Bart Williams, Kev Campbell, Colin Cooper, even Des Lyttle, but no. It’s Kingsley Black all the way for me.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/SUBBUTEO-Squads-Nottingham-KINGSLEY-football/dp/B00E5APZ42/ref=sr_1_10?ie=UTF8&qid=1384248081&sr=8-10&keywords=subbuteo+forest

“Issued in 1996 by Hasbro International as part of the Subbuteo Squads game. There were just over 300 player cards in the series, each card featured a colour picture of the player in question and an attacking/defending score. The back of the card was a generic design. The card is approx 90mm x 60mm. We have shown the front and back of the card you will receive (ONE CARD ONLY)”

Back To Winning Ways

Glorious. Quietly and insularly I had high hopes here. I had a feeling. I didn’t want to articulate it in case I cursed it but there we go. I made suggestions on Friday that this is the right type of game for Billy. He gets the best out of an underdog. The team which isn’t fancied to win, and after struggling against what some deemed lesser opposition we returned to winning ways away at not only a high flying team, but also a local (bit of a ) rival.


Goalscorer Jamie Mackie



Tweaks to the starting XI saw Jamie Paterson come in for a start any fans have been calling for online. Jara maintained his spot in the side following good displays.

David Nugent is partly to thank for his profligacy in front of goal. Missed gilt edged chances and a penalty brilliantly blazed onto the top of the bar (which in my book Drinkwater went down very easily for)

An icing on this cake was the goals for strikers. Cox netting is nice to see, he always scores v Leicester, but also Mackie weighing in with a goal too.

All very good news. But it does overlook we relied on bad finishing, but that’s football. 2-3 weeks ago we drew with Bournemouth despite battering their down with chances. These things will average out, so yeah there are days we have periods under the cosh that we go up the other end and take advantage of.

It does entertain me that that very unpredictable nature of the Championship sees us struggle against teams in the lower reaches of the division, only to then beat the high flyers. I alluded to the fact as I say this could happen the other day, and I feel justified, though I doubt I’d have felt confident enough to back it with actual real hard cash. To be fair I forgot to look up the odds on the internet.

And so we creep back up a spot, into 5th. I haven’t seen anyone suggest Billy should go in the meantime, though these views will be shelved for a while (the international break looms again)

What effect will the break have this time? It has often been a hindrance. I suggested it late last season, and recently Forest Boffin on his blog pointed it out too. However after a poor run, followed by a big win, we go into it with heads held high. The visit at Burnley could be perfect timing. For one we do well against the better teams.

So pride restored Forest fans, and both our nearest and dearest in the East Midlands have now been beaten. Bragging rights are ours, and further more the knee jerk stupid reactions of those who laughably said we’d go down have been shut up.

Forest Hunt for Return to Form Against Foxes

A lot of people have been expressing their fears about this upcoming away fixture against Leicester. Following up with a home game against Burnley means we rally straight up against it this month, with our poor form. The immediate thought is following our bad performances against poor teams, we surely must therefore get battered against teams playing well.

This could be perfectly true of course.

That said, there were similar discussions about whether we went into this games complacent, especially against Bournemouth. Had we held on there and against Blackpool things would look a lot different.

Additionally there is the aspect of now that we are the underdog in these fixtures it is up to us to be the Bournemouth or Yeovil. Remember the of repeated mantra of the Championship is anyone can beat anyone on the day, and to so thoroughly write off our chances before he teams are announced is odd. It is also the Forest fans way. No doubt the usual harbingers of doom will be deciding we will lose (good old reliable Hannah keeps suggesting we will go down which perfectly illustrates just how much we listen to that particular loon) We could just as easily beat Leicester or draw as lose. Its how football is.

And Billy gets the best out of teams when the chips are down. Remember in his first spell when he first arrived he said he genuinely couldn’t see us getting much points in a run of fixtures that we went on to do exceptionally well in. Our seasons always fell apart just when we looked like confidence was high. Billy works best at getting players to believe, and that is key at the moment.
I don’t know, obviously, the inner machinations of the dressing room. How Billy deals with various situations throughout the season, but he definitely knows how to get under performing players performing, so with a team in a bad form, just as some people decided he’s not the man for the job is the perfect time for Billy to produce his magic.

What did make me laugh with my previous story is how many people commented on it without obviously reading it. The title was “Calls for the Managers Head.” Nowhere did I say in that we had to sack Billy. Yet people went off one demanding to know why I’d be as stupid as to demand he goes, and not read the article where I pretty much said the same thing. That said it was all from Facebook and you can’t even rely on people to react sanely and rationally on there.

We are a top 6 side facing two other top 6 sides. These should be big exciting fixtures. Yet many fans have already written off our chances. Pessimists yes? Realists? I say no. We all know this game, you win some, and you lose some. The odds are so often upset. We can do this. The season is not going badly. It’s time for some perspective to be taken from a lot of fans.

For me, the lack of media presence is now costing us. There’s no essence of positivity because it’s been mostly bad news lately, and with the lockdown there’s no chances for players to speak out, or the management to say we can do this. This is where the media lockdown fails us. Retaining people’s excitement and enthusiasm through bad patches.

So let’s keep our heads up. The season isn’t over, not by any stretch. We had good form before we can have good form again.


Here is an infographic that was produced by the good folk at Epiphany; it’s quite an interesting piece. Enjoy.

Provided by Sky Bet, Title Sponsor of the Football League.

Strikers Strikers Everywhere, But Who Will Score Us Goals?

What we need right now.

The usual frenzy of transfer activity is of course focussing right now on strikers. It’s this year’s very in thing. Gone are the days of left backs being wanted, that’s so 2011 fashion.

But yes, this fabled 20+ goals a season striker which we need, and must have is top of everyone’s virtual shopping list. Sylvain Ebanks-Blake has had his name added to that veritable list. Of course what hasn’t helped this clamour is that Sheffield Wednesday just renewed one striker and got another in, and went and scored a bloody good but very overdue win.

With the summer demand for Billy Sharp to be signed (despite only having a 1 in 3 goal scoring ratio) and with him going to Reading, it’s been hard to judge if he’d have been the right man, he’s spent his entire Reading loan career injured just about, so whether he went there and banged them in, it hasn’t happened, but not that it might.

So now we cast that net around for a striker, and the talk was a week or so ago that we are looking wider and further, on the continent for that guy to put the goal in the net. It almost speaks not of desperation but exasperation to me. That we thought there’d be the quality in this country to get, but it’s just not there. Whether through availability or just not having the requisite quality around, or because there’s more value for money there.

A few people chucked around Patrick Bamford's name, after his impressive displays for MK Dons, and the fact to increase his development, Chelsea might see us as a good place for him to go from January. This negates some vital aspects. There is a rumour, and I stress rumour, that Bamford’s departure from Forest was somewhat acrimonious. The club angry that their talent they had nurtured was advised to move away, apparently by family. There is also the fact Chelsea might not be our best friends with the whole Chalobah thing. This forgets that Bamford fell out with the old regime, things have changed.

Of course previously we have seen plenty of other names in the past few months since Raffik Djebbours snub or whatever it was. Some of the names are hilarious (I saw someone suggest Adebayor), but others would seem good targets. Hooper and Austen always looked farfetched. And it seems any time any striker gets a brace now some fans scream he should and could be in our team.

And what I haven’t yet done is mention our current strikers. I have done in other blogs. I do think admittedly Cox is out of form, though the unfair fickle abuse many hand out is wrong. People who don’t understand form just saying we need to get rid when this guy has proved himself at higher stages than us. Tudgay and Henderson are Championship cloggers. Blackstock, well he’s not around now. Derbyshire remains on the fringes and you wonder what it’d take to just give him a bit more of a go, and Ishmael Miller is Ishmael Miller. It does certainly seem like it needs a little reinvigorating.

And it needs to happen soon. The longer the drought goes on the more it rests in the mind. The more it will affect form. Wanted; someone to score goals. When we went up in the past it was always with a bona fide goalscorer. We need one again. Maybe not in Collymore or van Hooijdonk’s class. But someone who knows where the back of the net is.

Calls for the Managers Head

Billy and Fawaz Happy Together

From the outset here let me get my position straight. I don’t agree that the manager should be removed. Not by any stretch of the imagination. We are in the top 6, we are having a mere blip, and we are still in a strong position.
I may not like Billy Davies the man, and when previously here I always thought he’d end up leaving, potentially for a bigger job. But lots changed in that time. He never got that big job, and I think Billy realises there’s a good match at Forest.

I don’t agree with the media management going off, and Billy’s ongoing shenanigans in avoiding actually answering questions and having a smug air of aloofness about him. I do agree with the fact he is by far our most successful manager of the past few years and has done better than a host of other names.

So to see people on the internet discussing the removal of Davies and discussing potential replacements to me is utterly ridiculous.

The culture these days of manager sackings gets a ridiculous degree now where managers get given little time as it is, without the increased supporter pressure. I always want a manager to be given time and patience to achieve their aim. For one, it takes time to turn a team around and yes now the team and squad is nearly virtually Billy to the core and he’s had ample opportunities to mould the squad to where he wanted it.

But it gets tiring every time a club make a signing that then subsequently does well that fans immediately cry why didn’t we sign them. Yes I hark to last weeks article about everyone being an expert but it’s true. There’s one man who this is ultimately up to, and it’s not you. Unless you happen to be Billy Davies, and if so thank you for reading my ramblings.

I digress; we are not in a bad position. Hell if we were here at Easter I’d be pleased with the promise of the playoffs. Too many seemed to put all their eggs in the automatic promotion basket, but in a division with some other big spenders and with an FA Cup winner in there, you have to admit that maybe we aren’t one of the best two teams.

Now again some will suggest that this is down to the managers purchases. The funds were there. But remember we were in for big names like Charlie Austin, just competing with QPR will always be hard to match. Yes we can afford to spend cash but does mean that we should therefore just over spend for the sake of it? Of course not.

There's been a suggestion that when actually given what he wants and when he has the board on side that Billy actually just can’t do it. He relies on creating an us v them attitude, we’re against but we can succeed. Which when he has what he wants doesn’t work.

When he before Billy wanted Shorey to be signed, but we refused to stump up the cash. Now with a chairman seemingly willing to do pay what might be the cost (think what we are possibly spending on Chalobah) he can’t coax the best out of players. Maybe he used potential signings as carrots to dangle in front of what he did have to play better. Prove they didn’t need Shorey. Now he can get those guys.

But all this said. We are in the top 6. It’s not even December. To call for the managers head right now just seems ridiculous. Stability breeds success. Not chopping and changing.

Dip Becomes Wobble

I always enjoy the different naming conventions with football on when things are a wobble, crisis, disaster etc. What was looking like a dip in form can officially it seems be upgraded to a wobble. These of course happen. Most teams will go through something similar. When and how it happens seems to alter the terminology.

The lack of form against Bournemouth and Yeovil has now stretched out to the game versus Blackpool. What is especially galling is that Blackpool had clearly come for a point and we still conspired to lose the game in injury time.

Ignoring the fact that the goal looks like it shouldn’t have stood. Ignoring the fact we feel we should have had a penalty (is that really such a bonus with our similar form with those) we still managed to let Blackpool score when they hadn’t really been pushing. Yes they missed an extremely poorly taken penalty (not very well struck, decent height and fairly central) but it’s not like they really pushed us.

It’s November now, and it really strikes me that even at this stage that Billy Davies isn’t sure what the best team is. That’s because we’ve never really had a fully fit squad for him to choose from. Never mind the best team but which best system to play. The 4-3-2-1 was favoured early on at times last season, whilst occasionally reverted to the 4-1-2-1-2 diamond formation we implement quite often.
So it was a frustrating game, but there is more then immediately meets the eye. My opinion, different from one or two other blogs is that we were unlucky to end up losing. It’s easy to look at things in terms of goal scoring opportunities, and Blackpool did have clearer ones, but they also looked less likely to score for periods of the game.

What was annoying was the way the striker’s role ended up being. You’d think with a big man up front he’d act more as a target man, especially with the set up of two wide men. The initial view would be that the Henderson would be the huge aerial threat from crosses from Abdoun and Mackie. In reality he was an increasingly deserted figure up front. Lansbury not getting forward as much as Majewski in the free role to play more behind the front line. Instead you see your target man often dropping deep to look for the ball. This isn’t what he was therefore. Unless his role was somehow to act as a role to gets the ball in to wide men cutting inside, but with Mackie on the right that is not likely. He’d need to be on his wrong wing to be cutting in side.

Is it the midfield the battle is being lost? Well some times. The strikers though and the midfield have a disconnect. The ball goes u the pitch and comes back when it is lost. Possession not being retained and the defence come under attack again. Chalobah was meant to seal that plug but he’s not working. Whether he prefers a different role, or as many say, he just isn’t bothered and knows what ever happens ultimately his success doesn’t rely on Forest succeeding.

But it’s more the manner against Bournemouth and Blackpool in consecutive home games we have conceded late goals to cost points. Is this complacency, or a lack of concentration, or just luck? Well that’s for Billy Davies to look into.