Transfer Rumour Madness Roundup

Well with a new manager, and with the apparent abundant signings about to pour in, and because the transfer window is about to reopen, it’s time to evaluate my usual crazy sources on the net of rumoured transfers, from the sensible and believable, to the outright ridiculous. Here we go.

Given

Shay Given

As much to do with the act he is out of favour at Villa, and McLeish last job was Villa comes the clever association that we are signing Shay Given. Rumours differ on whether its loan or permanent, but I’d be guessing Villa want people off their books so it’d be permanent. Now Given isn’t the force he was, and may well be looking for a last challenge in his career. Whether he sees that as competing with Lee Camp is unclear. Camp hasn’t been bad lately, but fans still seem to not forgive him seeking a move 18 months ago. This though is believable. Managers like to have a keeper they know and trust.

N'Zogbia

Charles N’Zogbia

Again a Villa connection, people seem to have decided that because he hasn’t been in the team he must be out of favour and we are going to look to sign. This completely overlooks his recent injury problems where he has missed around 2 months with a knee injury. Also N’Zogbia is fairly well regarded by many a manager, has high opinion of himself, he really isn’t going to drop to the Championship. Not happening

McKay

Billy McKay
Inverness striker who has been bang in form this season.  Whether this is needed with our relatively decent striker options it’s unsure but it would potentially be a good signing for a not so high fee.  Hal the Championship has been linked with the Northern Ireland striker, so why not Forest too. And why not link us because we have money. Believable, but  needed?

McLaughlin

 Stephen McLaughlin

Speaking of Northern Irish players, it’s still unclear what status this transfer got to before the managerial change. McLeish did say that he will discuss targets with the existing back room staff that have a list of players. McLaughlin may feature. He may not.

Burke

Chris Burke
The right winger has been linked before and there are quite a number of people citing this rumour. It may well be true and it would be a handy signing, as I’ve always thought he’s a handy winger. A number of people seem to be confusing who signed him for Birmingham, he signed for them in June 2011. This was exactly the time McLeish was leaving the club via email. He may have been the one who set the ball rolling on it though.

McFadden

 James McFadden

Was always going to be linked due to past McLeish connections. He also has a short term contract with Sunderland that’s going to expire shortly so that would also tie in with him coming to the club. He may be a little similar to Reid though for this to work. Would be a good signing though.

Scott Sinclair
Not going to happen. People saying because he is not in first team that he is looking at a loan. Yes maybe he is, but it would be a 6 month loan to another Premiership team.

Some mentions to for players who simply not going to happen but I saw people on Twitter mention Ryan Bertrand, Wilfred Zaha, Joleon Lescott, Joe Cole

Only A Draw But Plenty of Positives For McLeish

Well despite what many were claiming when we were behind on Twitter and Facebook, this side and performance had little to do with Alex McLeish, the new Forest manager. The team had been chosen by Rob Kelly and Jimmy Hasselbaink, and although McLeish had attended training he’d left it largely to his existing backroom staff to look after the team as he evaluated what he had.

Formation and team v Palace

The team itself was largely what we played against Leeds. There was an enforced changed with Hutton being out ill, so Harding came in at left back, and Halford back to right back. Losing the marauding runs Hutton had made would be a loss, but the team as a whole was the same side and structure that had played so well particularly in that second half against Leeds.

But like versus Leeds we went behind, to a goal that was very similar to the goal Leeds had scored. Turning out to be a simple finish in the area after poor defensive work left the striker free and players committed. 

If that seemed to mimic the Leeds game so did the timing of our equaliser. Reid netting a wonderful 20 or so yarder that flew in. A wonderful goal. And similarly to Leeds we went in at the break after dominating a period of the match and looked on top. Silencing vocal away support in the process.

The second half though wouldn’t see such a persistent period of domination and most importantly goals like the Leeds game did. It had chances; yes we went close with a few chances. Closest came Collins with a header which was turned over by Speroni turning in his annual wonder appearance against Forest. I don’t see Speroni every week, but he can’t be this good every time otherwise Palace would be the Champions of the Universe if he was. He also made a very good save from a deflected shot, completely having to alter his position mid dive and turn the ball round the post. 

And because this game had been so finely poised and with Forest doing perhaps the slightly harder knocking on the door of course Palace went up the other end and scored what looked like it could be a winner. It had more than an element of luck. It seemed more a hopeful jab at a ball in midair that saw the ball come to him, but with decent invention from this chance Murray headed it high over Camp and into the back of the net.

It looked like it might beat us, and as fans started to trickle out the ground it looked like being one of those days. A lot of toil for no result, but lo and behold up stepped the new King Billy. After a looping ball up was flicked on by Blackstock, Sharp got in, and put his first effort against the post, but was able to score at the second attempt and give Forest what they deserved for their efforts.

I think a win for either team may have been harsh. So to claim the share of the spoils was certainly as I say fair. Palace have said they could and should have won according to Holloway, but I think that’s overlooking the evenness of the game with most of it perched on a knife edge.

All in all though there was a lot to please. For one we didn’t roll over accept a late defeat, we kept going to the end and got the goal. Furthermore we created a wide variety of chances with efforts coming from all over the team. The usual defensive lapses were there but there was some quality blocking at the back as well. We are definitely one or two key signings from a complete unit. And if McLeish can get those signings then we will be in an extremely good position. 

A word for the much maligned Dan Harding as well who I also think marshalled Wilfried Zaha very well, and eventually saw the highly rated winger off and replaced.

Keep Calm and Carry On Supporting Forest

Many of you from Twitter and Facebook and the forums have been like myself, angry and can’t understand the reasons for O’Driscolls dismissal, but then even more angry about appointing a manager that many including myself perceive as negative. Had we replaced O’Driscoll with a big named manager, or someone with excellent pedigree we may have understood.


With an extra day to think about this, and I needed to get down my feelings yesterday as they were raw and fresh, I am not as angry as what I was.

For two main reasons. Firstly the realisation that this has happened and nothing can be done about it by me directly. So essentially it becomes a case of get on with it, accept it. Make the best. I may not be happy, and feel the shabby way Sean was treated makes me feel less happy about my club. But there is nothing I can do to change this. Hence the Carry on supporting Forest section of the headline. What will be key for the players at this stage will be the support of the fans.

In terms of keep clam, well that’s just what I mean. Getting irate and tweeting at Fawaz about this appointment isn’t going to help. On Boxing Day night, me like many replied to Fawaz’s tweet about sacking O’Driscoll unhappily. It is the first time I have ever done such a thing, as usually I cringe at those tweeting Fawaz, but I was moved to make my opinion known.

McLeish is our manager now whether you like it or not, and so we have to move on and get behind them. Carrying on some campaign to undermine him and the team will not help whatsoever. It will hinder the progress of the team.

It is also a clear marker that the goalposts have been moved on expectation. Promotion is wanted this year. Clearly the al-Hasawi family believe O’Driscoll wasn’t going to deliver. I am certain the remit given to McLeish is getting us up. And so they have employed a man who has done exactly that before. So in that essence it’s easy to see why he was chosen.

Other managers who have gotten teams promoted are either employed elsewhere or fell back off the popular bandwagon long ago. Names like Phil Brown, Paul Jewell, and Owen Coyle have all had their stars dimmed by subsequent performance.

And to be honest would we rather be Stoke, or would we rather be a well regarded by perennial also rans in the Championships. Ok they don’t play pretty football, but they are being successful.

What does irk me is that one critique of O’Driscoll was his tendency to be conservative with team set ups, and this is something McLeish has done before. As others has said if it gets results so what? Well true in part, but when we just scored 4 goals at home and looked unstoppable in an attacking context and you bring in a man known for defensive rigidity, its nice going from the sublime to the ridiculous.

Maybe McLeish will temper his usual style. Maybe his time off has changed his mind set. Let’s be honest the defence does need work, so good in that regard. But what it may well reign in is our midfield flowing play.

A lot of people worry it may change Billy Sharps mind about his time here. That might well be, but it’s a lot of the rapport with fans that Billy has as much as anything.

I have probably merely echoed a lot of what I said last night, but I think some of those points need reiterating. We may well be angry and up in arms. But we also need to move on with this sorry debacle, and see if there can be good that comes from it. Money may well be spent in January, and maybe McLeish will build on the foundations laid. There’s a lot of expectation going to come now. We made this change to get promotion. If we don’t go up, then and only then can we really openly question this decision. If it gets us up, then it might have been a right decision.

I called Huddersfield into question when they sacked Clark last year, but Huddersfield gets promoted. They made a right call that too many looked like it was questionable. Sometimes hard and unpopular decisions need to be taken. Perhaps this was one.

O'Driscoll Out, McLeish Comes In

So around this time yesterday I found out the news about O'Driscoll being removed from the manager’s role. I was in the pub, at the time and to be honest most people, who I was with, fans of different clubs, simply couldn't understand why we had made this decision.

But we had. We really had just sacked our manager after a glorious win over Leeds. Ok now in the previous games things hadn’t gone right, but it looked to me at the time they had someone clearly lined up. And the speed we have got to this point suggests to me this was all in place.

It is a great shame,I had a lot of time for O'Driscoll and what he was trying to do. The football was good, the players seemed to like him and everything seemed to be moving in the right direction. Now that direction has changed

So Alex McLeish, Big Eck, is our manager.

Let’s look at the positives. He has succeeded at this level with Birmingham before. He won many trophies with Rangers, and has top flight, European and International managing pedigree.

That said he does play extremely agricultural football, took Birmingham down twice and narrowly missed relegation whilst at Villa. There are some extremely bad signings he has made in the past, but then every manager has that.

It's the quality of football for some that will be the issue. He plays a more pragmatic game rather than O'Driscoll's fluid football approach. The more direct approach of course as we all know is not what we ideally like to see at City Ground, more so because of the blessed Brian Clough years. When we have tried to play a direct game in the past we don’t succeed. Whether this is because we never take to the manager or whether it’s simply we haven’t had a decent manager for that game isn't even for debate. Cotterill & Kinnear will not be on any City Ground hall of fame.

McLeish sets teams up to not lose, which is a critique some had of SoD in his few games we played 1 up front. McLeish sides don’t score many goals. Both his Birmingham and Villa teams were fairly goal shy in the last few seasons, so this doesn’t' exist excite me.

Couple the lack of goals, and the direct football it doesn't bode well for an instant rapport with fans. There have been people already bemoaning the appointment and even some on Twitter trying to start a virtual lynch mob with the aim of forcing him out as soon as possible. Now that is just silly and being very anti the club. I don’t approve of the last 24 hours or so at our club, but I will get behind them as I do every Saturday. In 2 or 3 weeks when this has all blown over I guess not too many will be fussed if we start with wins. Furthermore at the end of the day none of us really have a say. the al-Hasawi's for whatever reasons have decided this is what needed to happen and that they hopefully know what they are doing., 

That said this move worries me that we may have owners who are too trigger happy. It speaks volumes that most fans have been in complete surprise and even anger at this.

But I think what we really do is dust ourselves off and move on for the good of the team. Dwelling on the dismissal and bringing a negative force to the ground won’t do anyone any good. 

SOD Leaves

In the past few minutes, Forest have announced Sean O'Driscoll has left his post as manager of the club.

The Fawaz Al-Hasawi has released the following statement:

"We cannot speak highly enough of Sean as a man. He was appointed at an extremely difficult time for the Club and can count himself unlucky to have lost his job with the team just one point away from the top six.

“But we have a responsibility to look to the future for this great Club because we have huge ambitions for it.

“We knew when we bought the Club in the summer that it would take time for the players we bought in to settle but that process has taken longer than we anticipated.

“We feel we have developed a really strong squad of players but are still searching for consistency in terms of team performance, underlined by the fact that we have not won more than two games in succession in the Championship this season.

“And with the January transfer window approaching, we feel it’s the right time to make a change.

“We are looking to bring in an ambitious manager with Premier League experience.”

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An Odd Weekend of News

So I was busy for most of Sunday or all of yester not giving me a chance to contribute to the debate and gossip about the chairmanship. And now that all seems to have settled down I don’t really have much new to add to the equation.

The al-Hasawi's

But with Fawaz becoming the main man after the recent financial scandals, it does make you wonder what the actual reasons behind the moves were. There is mixed debate on this subject. Fawaz was embarrassed by the mishandling of accounts and bills being paid and wants to take direct control.

Or the other that this move was always planned for the New Year, with Omar having more expertise in the British world of business, and therefore business law etc, it would be better for a bedding in period before Fawaz took full control of what is essentially his baby.

I have no qualms with either reasoning. It isn’t to have the club splashed across the papers for being stranded without a working club credit card. Or for that matter the rumours of unpaid wages and agent fee’s, which on the surface looks appalling, but is actually quite common practice in most business for a lot of bills to have gone unpaid for a while (well everyone I’ve ever worked for anyway) But it makes good copy, especially for owners we still know relatively little about. We still aren’t sure just how wealthy they are after all.

Anyway, in the midst of all this, Fawaz announced when 24-7 had already speculated about the new big screens coming to the ground. It was a badly kept secret that these would be in for Boxing Day, all but confirmed anyway when the seats were missing in the Bridgford End last week, and pictures of cabling reading to be connected up.

This and the unconfirmed gossip about the fact we are now aiming for promotion not next season or the year after but immediately this campaign. Not sure why the change of focus. It could be they see the division as wide open and this is a good chance as any. Or it could be the much worse fact that yes, they aren’t as wealthy as we thought and it’s do or die now. If we don’t get up, we’re doomed. Which the doom merchants on Twitter love as a theory. Which is true? I don’t know. Good old conjecture though, never stops the Forest Twitter timeline churning; I don’t know the answer, let's make something up and treat it as gospel.

Stephen McLaughlin - apparently about to sign

And after all this comes the news of a signing near enough tied up. Derry City winger Stephen McLaughlin has all but been agreed it seems. The 20 year old was James McClean at Sunderland’s replacement, and he was at times a revelation last year. If this guy can do anywhere near that we may be laughing (even if McCleans form has dropped considerably) we need natural width, and if he comes it may well spell the end of Coppinger. He could, and I stress could, be our new McCleary. And by that I also mean he might take a while to bed in and get up to speed.

On that note, Coppinger, after his comments (I wanted to put outburst but it really wasn’t) that he is not enjoying his stay as he has always played 40 games a season. Well newsflash James, you just made a step up, and in terms of that you have to expect to maybe not always play. If you want to lack ambition and play every week at a lesser club then go on. Go back to Donny.

Matt Derbyshire has also said he wants to leave, which isn’t a shock in the slightest. The proof in the pudding will be if he does, where he goes. As surely it would mean a hefty drop in wages. Those trips to the Cinema don’t pay for themselves. Neither does his wife’s endless shopping trips.

There is a bit of talk around David McGoldrick too, seeing as McGoaldrought has found his scoring boots again, and is firing them in for Coventry. Another 2 this weekend, and in perfect time foe the transfer window. Surely a player isn’t improving in time for the shop window? How very cynical. If he does go, we can probably sneak a fee now as before I assumed he’d leave on a free this January. Again taking a pay cut maybe an issue, but goal shy Championship clubs might now be sniffing around. Barnsley love our ex players, why not them?

Oh and actual news where it matters, on the pitch, we drew 0-0 with Brighton. Good result on the face of it. Although apparently he performance was lacking somewhat

Jermaine Jenas - To Sign or Not to Sign

So as January starts looming into view on the horizon I think it’s time to start looking at what business we may or may not be doing. I shall be concentrating on the loan signings we currently have and whether we could look at longer deals, or permanent deals.

Jenas back at Forest

Starting with Jermaine Jenas is as good a place as any seeing as he is fairly high profile in terms of our signings.

Initially on a month and then extended his return to the Reds has been blighted by injuries. Or “injuries” if some are to be believed with their conspiracy theories.

The main problem with Jenas and questioning a permanent deal is the very fact we were amazed to get him. He is a Premiership player, and whether he would take a big step in making his stay at this level a permanent one instead of a brief fitness & form seeking trip.

Another huge stumbling block would be the wage issue. Believed to be on £45k a week at Spurs, of which we are (again rumoured) paying £15k a week, this would be too much for a club on a Championship budget. Ok, we still aren’t sure how deep the al-Hasawi pockets go, but it would be as big a statement of intent if we did make it a new signing. However, imagine the dismay in the dressing room this would cause whereby we’d have a player, who’s prone to be injured and potentially not playing on a great deal more than those playing week in week out.

But personally I feel it was a nice little piece of nostalgia. But we need to look forward to long term fixes. Jenas although a good player will no doubt have an eye on trying to keep his Premier Career going maybe at least another 2-3 years. To look at a long term deal might not be best. With the potential signing of these Irish wingers from Derry City, it would mean less scope for strength in depth in the middle of midfield. Therefore less chances.

Also does Jenas want to come back permanently? I mean he’s said he’s happy to be back and enjoying his time, BUT, he is saying that knowing its short term. His mindset might be entirely different in a long term deal. He might begrudge having to drop down a division.

All in all, i wouldn’t rule it our nor would I say no, but neither would I want the club to particularly chase this signing.