NFFCBlog has, in his usual eloquent way, spoken of the malaise and negativity that goes with being a Forest supporter; just after things started looking up, they are now looking right back down, through the trapdoor into League One. Although we have now dropped back into the relegation zone, I remain confident that we are not one of the worst three teams in the division, and that this will be proven come the end of the season. I will confess, however, that I am erring more towards hope than expectation these days.
I was lucky enough to not be at Turf Moor (not that I would ever go back there having visited a few years ago, watched an unjust defeat and got bullied by both aggressive Burnley fans and the Lancashire Constabulary), nor was I within radio range. Every time I checked the score, I got more and more annoyed. Not just because we were getting thumped, not just because the post-match reports said that the performance was thoroughly inept, and not just because of Billy Davies’ decision to have a highly inappropriate (in my humble opinion) public rant pointing the finger at individuals. It is because, as Rahoul as commented a number of times, because we seem to have gone backwards; at least under Calderwood you could see the effort and the style of football was pleasing (if largely ineffective). Now the players have the fear and Davies doesn’t seem to recognise that Forest only score when they stroke it about a bit (you know, the way that a certain dearly departed ex-manager used to say that football should be played).
In my job, I work with a number of staff who are about the same age as many of the Forest players (19-23ish). If you use a stick to beat them with, they lose interest and become stubborn, because it is human nature at that age. If I were to publicly criticise them, then some of them would walk away and not come back. I would speculate that if you take that kind of attitude with a well-paid and apparently big-headed young footballer, the response would be to sulk, rather than knuckle down in training (and it also knocks a zero off from Lewis’ transfer value). Although Paul Smith is a “grown-up”, he is clearly lacking in confidence, partly in my opinion due to the City Ground crowd knocking his every mistake but not giving him credit for the parts of his game that have improved – ironic cheers every time he catches a cross won’t help; yet Billy bawling him out in public won’t do anything to improve his confidence. We saw Smudge look big and strong and yelling at his defence when he came back in following some healthy competition from Campo, and he is a shadow of that man at the moment…
I don’t think Billy Davies likes working with young players; in his time here, it seems as though he has only played the likes of Moloney, Heath, McCleary and Garner if it is the only option left to him, and while one could argue that none of them are ready for regular first team action, the two young full-backs have proven to be largely capable and frequently better than their senior counterparts. To be fair, Chris Cohen, Paul Anderson and Lewis have all enjoyed spells in the team (although if Billy’s rant is to be believed, he doesn’t actually want to play Lewis at all).
Referring back to Rahoul’s point about Andy Reid and Keith Foy, I am going to repeat a comment that I made – as I understood it at the time, Paul Hart sacked Foy in order to protect the career of his drinking buddy. If you read the messageboards (and indeed interviews with the players), it seems apparent that Lewis and Luke Chambers are partners in crime and drinking buddies; yet Luke Chambers continues to play, out of position and out of his depth at right-back, while Perchio plays anywhere but right-back and young Brendan kicks his heels in the reserves. Until Lynch is fit again, I imagine that young Chris Gunter will continue on the left, and yet it has been obvious all season that Chambers cannot play at right-back!!! Could Billy will think laterally and drop Chambers for Lewis’ benefit?
Just as many questioned Colin Calderwood’s tactical nous, so I question Davies’; Colin had finally unlocked the secret of pretty football that created lots of chances (although the vast majority were spannered off target and we have been leaky at the back). Under Davies, the good football has largely disappeared, as has the team spirit that was evident early on, but crucially, the results are not improving, and our league position now is worse than when Davies took over as boss.
This is not a defence of Calderwood (although heaven knows I played Devil’s Advocate to defend him at the time), but merely a statement of my concerns that Forest have not progressed under Billy Davies. Of course some of this is clearly down to the perennial lack of activity in the January transfer window, and some of it is down to inheriting a thin squad; but both Derby and Preston fans warned us that when things go well, it is down to Billy Davies, but when things go wrong, it is everyone else’s fault.
Oh, and by the way, to everyone ringing up the idiotic Radio Nottingham matchline, we cannot sign Lee Camp on loan anymore – he has done his 93 days for this season – the only way we would have got him was on a permanent deal in the transfer window, and QPR were clearly not keen to release their only fit keeper (at the time) from a long contract. Slightly tangential, but a point that I wanted to make – if we want another keeper we will have to look elsewhere…
