eighteensixtyfive

Is Majewski worth it?

Following our lack of activity in the transfer market this January, a lot of people are wondering why the club haven’t sealed our most likely arrival – Radoslaw Majewski. The knee-jerk reaction seems to be that this is proof, if ever proof was needed, that the Acquisitions Committee is broken and needs to be dismantled immediately.

But there’s a lot that we do not know.

For example, a number of people are saying we have “first-refusal” on his transfer. If we have, then we’re safe to wait till summer (as I said during our Sheffield Wednesday match report, I didn’t see any evidence of Raddy’s head being in bits on Saturday). But I’ve hunted back through our archives and I can’t see a reference to this, so maybe we need to move quickly.

Another consideration is the deal itself. Blackburn offered 3m Euros for him a couple of years back. The Evening Post was saying that we can have for for £1.5m – but I also remember hearing the figure of 6m Euros being bandied about (can’t find the link unfortunately). No matter – if we go up then there’s no doubt in my mind that he’s worth 6m Euros (what’s that – about 4 or 5 million quid?).

But what if we don’t go up? What are his wage demands going to be (remember he’s probably got an agent whispering in his ear about how he is in the shop window)? I have no idea what our wage structure is nowadays but can we afford to offer him £20K or £30K a week, given we may well still be in the Championship next year? Remember, we would have taken a mid-table finish at the start of the season.

And that’s probably the most important point of all. What does he want to do?

He knows, like the rest of us, that he’s too good for the Championship. I’m sure he’s grateful to us for putting his career back on track (a source on Twitter said that his progress has been greeted with astonishment in Poland as he was going nowhere back in Warsaw) but given the choice between another season in the Championship with us or a season with a mid-level Premiership side; which would you take? If I were him, I’d be waiting till summer as well.

None of this is to say that I don’t want him. He’s by far and away my favourite player, our absolute star and our greatest talent. I would love to see him signed up permanently and terrorising Premiership defences. But, just because we haven’t got him yet, doesn’t mean that the blame necessarily lies with the Acquisitions Committee. At least as far as we know.

Tags: radoslaw majewski   Posted in Opinion

Nottingham Forest 3-2 Derby County: now the dust has settled a bit…

I am happy to admit that I got a couple of things wrong in the podcast: despite it being decidedly foolish of Garath McCleary to pile in on Robbie Savage, the ref did the right thing by producing a yellow card (the TV footage showed Savage falling down rather more easily than you might expect from someone of his height and build, and I am sure that the official took that into account). Amusingly, on the TV, it showed Tys doing his bit to wind up the Afghan Hound, who squared up to him then bottled it, leaving the Forest man laughing out loud! On the subject of Tys, despite it being foolish of him to hold the flag aloft in front of the Derby fans, I was wrong about Dean Leacock, who clearly went to Tys looking for a fight, rather than to try and alleviate the situation.

To concentrate upon the match, well done to the Reds who played really quite badly for most of the second half but Derby still barely managed a shot on goal; occasional commenter The Maradona of the Midlands pointed out to me that their first goal had nothing to do with Miles Addison’s attempt at an overhead kick, as Chrissy Cohen tried to head it out for a corner, except it hit Wes and dribbled in. Livermore was credited with their second goal, but it was clear to me that McKenna’s foot made the crucial intervention. As Rahoul mentioned in the podcast, MOTM goes to Billy Davies for stirring the fans up to get us over the finish line (Campo did his bit too).

Then there was what happened afterwards…

Just like Rahoul, having seen some more evidence and witness testimony from the Reds’ fans, it seems as though Tys was doing a lap of honour, starting at C Block. It was foolish to go in front of the Derby fans but he was not “waving” the flag as some meeja outlets have suggested, and he was beyond the six-yard line, so it is not as though he was just inches away from the Rams’ support.

The pictorial evidence suggests that although the Derby fans were not happy, there wasn’t too much danger of there being any violence. If it hadn’t been for Dean Leacock’s intervention, then Tys would have made it to Victor’s Veranda within a few seconds and been on his way. Instead, Leacock and Teale pushed Tys towards the Derby fans, which meant that the stewards and police had to intervene to prevent fans and playing staff mingling; to Robbie Savage, this action by your own team mates is what would have caused a riot, and I didn’t see you breaking it up.

In fact, not content with that, Savage then proves his hypocrisy and (dare I say it) stupidity:

People might think I have got a big mouth … but I know what is right and wrong. What happened at the end is nothing short of a disgrace. The kid [Tyson] has never even played in the Premier League and he is giving it all that.

Firstly, Robbie, what difference does it make where Tys has played? I don’t remember Premier League status being a prerequisite for celebrating a victory over your team’s local rivals (especially when you have scored the winning goal). Secondly, I seem to remember reports of a certain R Savage inciting the A Block with his scarf waving (in fact, a certain Kristian Commons joined in too, but that wasn’t provocation, was it?); so, Robbie, was that right or was it wrong?

Derby’s Chief Executive has also joined in:

… There were no complaints made by Nottingham Forest about the conduct of any of our players or officials last season, so we find it puzzling that issues regarding those fixtures are being aired now in relation to the events of this weekend.

Well, Mr Glick, as Billy Davies clearly stated immediately after the match:

I remember the last time Derby were here and Robbie Savage was waving a Derby scarf around. There was very little made of that and we hope it will be the same for this. We never complained about it or made a fuss because we understood that Derby should enjoy the victory they had here.

Does that answer your question? We didn’t like it but never made a big fuss about it, our players and fans did not react to the provocation, unlike your players and coaches (and let’s not forget that your coach had already been sent off) who waded in and started a big fight. I would also reasonably point out that it wasn’t particularly clever for Savage to point at his Derby badge and make gestures towards the BC Stand and Trent End after the incident with the G-Man (and others have suggested that he was making gestures during the wam-up). In the meantime, Billy has rather sensibly decided to call for clarity on what is and isn’t acceptable.

Since I started writing this post, I thought I would take another look at the BBC highlights and although the actual match coverage doesn’t give much away, Steve Claridge’s awful, imbalanced and uninformed analysis not only suggests that Tys is doing some kind of corner flag pole dance wearing NFFC underwear in front of the Derby fans, but the pictorial evidence shows that he was not waving the flag, and was barely even glancing at the away end. Some of their other footage clearly shows the Derby players pushing the Reds’ men towards the away end, and also clearly shows Bywater and a mystery Derby player (don’t know who as he was wearing a training top) throwing punches at Dex, who did well not to fight back apart from deflecting the blows.

Just to conclude, it is clear in my mind that there would be little made of this if it wasn’t for the obviously organised violence by “fans” at Upton Park earlier this week – this had NOTHING to do with that sort of disgraceful behaviour. Our blogging colleague nffcblog has come up with his message to the FA on this matter, and is also encouraging Reds’ fans to write to the FA (although I have tried it and they don’t make it easy). In the meantime, I think we should also take a minute to praise the Derby fans, and this well-balanced post accepts the role of possible provocation from both Savage and a handful of Derby fans (I didn’t hear any of the chants to which he refers).

As far as I am concerned, Tys was silly, the Derby players overreacted, but it was a storm in a teacup. Let’s forget it and move on.

The Damned United [DVD] [2009]

Tags: billy davies, dean leacock, gary teale, nathan tyson, nigel clough, nottingham forest, paul mckenna, robbie savage   Posted in Match Reports, Opinion

Nottingham United?

So a one-all draw away at QPR, and from what I heard on the radio, it was a good performance. Not that that counts for much – a lot of people were saying we were unlucky against West Brom, whereas I thought we were disjointed and their game-plan worked when ours didn’t.

But much more worrying was the post-match interview. Unlike my brother, I think I’m coming around to Billy Davies. He comes across as thorough, organised and seems to know his stuff.

But this hints at deep, deep trouble ahead.

Davies stressed Pleat’s presence did not cast doubt over his future, saying: “Don’t misunderstand me. I have known David a long time and never had a cross word with him. I will not be walking over this.”

But he added: “I’ve identified clearly three defenders and got none of them. Now I cannot identify to you why we didn’t get them.

“We have defensive frailties and I cannot tell you why we are having to play with an outside-right at right-back.”

For the record I can see both sides. Nigel Doughty wants a structure where decisions are spread across the club, so when the manager (inevitably) leaves, there isn’t a massive void to fill (see Charlton following Curbishley’s departure, or us throughout the nineties). Billy Davies wants the power to do what he needs to do, make decisions quickly, get things done and get those players signed.

It seems that one of the two will have to back down. But which will it be?

New shoes?

Tags: billy davies, david pleat, nigel doughty   Posted in Opinion

What’s in a number?

It’s been a while – thanks to Rahoul for holding the fort so ably (his detailed analysis of Lee Camp’s transfer was especially memorable). As usual, he deals with the facts and I am going to write a frothy piece about nothing in particular.

You see, the trouble with being a football fan is that you spend the summer waiting. Little things take on huge importance – take, for example, the revelation that the replica Forest shirts will not now be able to display the sponsor’s logo on child sizes, and it will be optional even on adult shirts. This is apparently because the display of Victor Chandler’s logo can be seen to encourage gambling, which is illegal for minors and immoral for various religious and ethical persuasions (I have shamelessly culled this information from the comments on NFFCBlog).

We also spend the summer looking for clues – this morning the official site continued to describe Perchio as the “Forest skipper“, which I for one was not expecting – well, to tell the truth I was expecting Rob Jones to be the new captain, but his move to Scunny has put paid to that. 

Then we get spoon-fed little titbits by the meeja, notably the esteemed Nottingham Evening Post, who proudly informed us of the numbers on the squad’s training kit – McGoldrick wearing 17 (which was his shirt number for Saints), but controversially Dele Adebola with a big number 9 (well not that controversial, as he is a big number 9!), and Smudge wearing 21 (before the signing of Lee Campo). Cue cries from people bored/sad/obsessive speculating whether this meant the end for Tys as a Forest player, and whether this meant a new keeper would be arriving (which duly happened about two days later).

Ignoring (for the moment) the fact that squad numbers probably won’t be officially announced until the team return from Portugal, you can see how this sets a certain type of fan’s mind racing (guilty as charged -not that I get obsessed with trivial details or anything). As it turns out, Tys seems to be wearing number 11, with Ando sporting number 7; Casual Kelv had a number 6 on his chest (does this mean that there won’t be a new centre half?), and I presume Campo would wear number 1. However, where does this leave Captain Perchio? His current number has gone to the young recruit from Liverpool, his previous number has gone to the new recruit from Southampton. There is no number 2 that I could see, so if Perchio is going to fill in at right-back then he might wear that, although I should imagine that the potential signing of Chris Gunter may influence that. If Perchio is to remain skipper then I am sure he would want a number in the first XI!

The most interesting one is that Joe Garner is wearing number 14 – does that mean that Billy is saving number 16 for Preston skipper Paul McKenna?

As I said above, it really isn’t that important unless you are someone like me who attaches unnecessary weight to this kind of thing (and of course the fact that I am a bit bored today doesn’t hurt). However, I find one aspect particularly fascinating: would there have been so much speculation about Tys moving on if Adebola hadn’t worn number 9? It is increasingly apparent that the lazier hacks often fish messageboards for some juicy gossip, regardless if this can be substantiated in fact.

The new season is now less than a month away – in the meantime, according to Marthur, we should hopefully see more new arrivals (Danny Fox?), we will see a new kit (actually it would seem as though they are changing the home and away kits at the same time and possibly going for a more 1980s theme – urgh!), and I am sure that there will be more twists and turns on the way, before a ball is even kicked.

Tags: billy davies, david mcgoldrick, dele adebola, james perchio, joe garner, Lee Camp, nathan tyson, nottingham forest, Paul Anderson, paul mckenna, rob jones, victor chandler   Posted in General, Opinion

Safe

In case you hadn’t noticed, Reading did us a bit of a favour last night.

Norwich now cannot catch us, making the final relegation spot a battle between them and Barnsley. Also meaning that Sunday’s game is now stress-free!

So congratulations to Billy and the players, congratulations to everyone associated with the club. I said at the start of the season that I would take 21st place and it looks like we will do one better. OK, it was a bit of a roller-coaster but we’ve seen some beautiful football, some absolute dire football and I actually started to like Colin Calderwood (and then he was gone).

And now we have big-mouth Billy Davies, who, if nothing else, has a big job on his hands over the summer. More on that over the next few days …

Tags: barnsley, billy davies, colin calderwood, norwich city, reading   Posted in Opinion

Southampton facing a points deduction

On paper this looks like really good news for us (I also think that it is fair that clubs are deducted points for administration, even though it is a nightmare for us fans – but that’s for another day).

Southampton have had ten points deducted after their parent company went into administration. Surely this helps us, no?

Well not quite.

I calculated that we need four points to reach guaranteed safety. The best that Norwich, in the last relegation place, can manage is 52. We are on 49, with a much worse goal difference to the Canaries. So either we beat one of Blackpool or Southampton by nine goals more than Norwich score in their next two games (putting us on 52 with a better goal difference) – or we go for a win and a draw (putting us on 53, just out of their reach).

However, Southampton’s punishment is variable. If they “stay up” (which they can do by getting six points from two games and one of Norwich, Barnsley or us not getting above 49 points) then they will have the points deduction applied straight away. Putting them on 40 points and leaving Norwich, Barnsley or us in the third relegation place.

But, if they go down this season “naturally” (ie they fail to get six points or two of Norwich, Barnsley or us get more than 50 points) then their ten point penalty is applied next season.

Read that again.

If they go down the penalty is held over till next season.

Which is something they will be desperate to avoid. And puts a whole new complexion on the final game of the season.

Hopefully, we will only need a point on the 3rd (or even better, Norwich will have done us a favour and slipped up).

But to Southampton, it’s no longer a six pointer – it’s a sixteen pointer – and they will be fighting that much harder to prevent next season being ruined as well.

Tags: administration, southampton   Posted in News, Opinion

Scapegoats, misfits and disgrace (or The Trouble with Billy Davies, part 2)

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…

Tags: billy davies, brendan moloney, chris gunter, colin calderwood, Lee Camp, lewis mcugan, luke chambers, nottingham forest, radio nottingham   Posted in Opinion

A new low?

There are a number of people saying that today’s result (5-0 defeat at Burnley if you had your eyes shut, your fingers in your ears while singing la-la-la-la-la) is a new low in the history of our illustrious football club.

I was visiting friends this afternoon, so I didn’t listen to the commentary – just a quick check on the scores on my phone, prompting a simple response (has swearing, if that sort of thing offends you), shortly followed by one of these. At this point, I’ve not even heard Billy’s post-match interview and/or excuses.

Maybe that lack of connection with the events mean that I’m looking at things differently. But this doesn’t feel like a real low in our history. From my point of view, the real lows (in no particular order) are:

• Losing 5-1 to Bryan Munich – not the match itself, where I thought we were their equals (but couldn’t put away the chances) – but getting home later that night, to have all my friends say “oh that was awful”. My response was “didn’t you see the game? we were fantastic, it’s just that they scored more than us”. No-one understood. Watching the video of the game a few years later proved my point
• Pierre van Hoijdonk going on strike. We truly were a laughing stock
• Harry Bassett being sacked. And finding out by reading the newspaper. I was ashamed to be a Forest fan that day.
• In fact, every day when the club was owned by Scholar, Markham and Wray. We may owe Nigel Doughty a fortune but you could never claim that he is bleeding the clubs coffers dry.
• Losing 8-1 to Manchester United – not the defeat, but the fact that Ole Gunnar Solskjaer only came on with five minutes to go and then scored 4, making us look like proper chumps
• Fat Ron Atkinson going into the wrong dug-out at the City Ground. And then signing Carlton Palmer. And being a twat.
• David Twat and his italians. Contrary to popular opinion, there were some good things during Platt’s reign – Bartman’s captaincy, John Terry and Tony Vaughn saving us from relegation, Robbie Blake, Ben Olsen. But, most of the time it was pretty dire.
• Paul Hart having a massive sulk after being refused permission to speak to Leeds United. His one word post-match interviews were embarrassing and our form suffered greatly.
• Gary Megson inviting the fans into the dressing room. For an authoritarian, disciplinarian sergeant major, this just made him, and us, look like fools.
• Capitulating to Yeovil. Nuff said

I’m sure that there’s stuff I’ve missed, I’m also sure that my brother’s list will be different to mine. But does today’s defeat come close to any of those mentioned above? And what would be in your list?

Tags: bayern munich, ben olsen, chris bart-williams, dave bassett, david platt, gary megson, irving scholar, john terry, nigel doughty, nigel wray, ole gunnar solskjaer, paul hart, pierre van hoijdonk, robbie blake, tony vaughn, yeovil   Posted in Opinion

Watford 2 – 1 Nottingham Forest: match summary

We didn’t make it to the Watford game but Kevin Sinclair has kindly provided us with a summary of the evening’s events.

It wasn’t good: Moussi looked so slow and ponderous, like a grandfather with arthiritis, and with Lewis disappearing again we had no central midfield. Hence the heart of the defence was continually caught out by their midfielders bursting forwards, and we couldn’t get any passes going. Moussi was replaced by Osborne, but he didn’t really do much. Mcsheffery was awful; no touch.

They played two big strong proper strikers up front in an old-fashioned partnership, and they gave our defence the run-around all night.

Bright spots: great goal by Thornhill. I like him, actually; his quick feet and intelligence remind me of previous Forest teams of the late 90s. Wilson did well once he was moved out to full-back (we ended up with Mclearly at right-back after both Lynch and his replacement Breckin went off).

Also it clearly wasn’t working at half-time, and Billy made an aggressive attacking substitution by bringing on Earnie. This didn’t work either, obviously, since with no midfield we had no choice but to lump the ball up to him, and he didn’t get a touch all night. But at least Billy saw the problem and tried something.

I’m glad we’re at home on the last day.

So there you have it. Billy’s already said it wasn’t good enough – but the most worrying thing are the injuries; especially as Joel Lynch has started playing football.

Hold tight kids, it’s going to be a bumpy ride.

Tags: billy davies, gary mcsheffrey, Guy Moussi, ian breckin, isiah osbourne, joel lynch, kelvin wilson garath mcleary, kevin sinclair, matt thornhill, nottingham forest, rob earnshaw, watford   Posted in Match Reports, Opinion

Reading 0-1 Nottingham Forest: Result!

Great result today – I managed to listen to a few minutes of the post-match reaction on Radio Nottingham, and I was very pleased to hear that the confidence grew, and the style of football was better. We said after the Derby match that this team look far more effective when they keep the ball on the ground.

Billy Davies’ first month went like a dream, his second was a bit of a nightmare (admittedly not all his fault), let’s hope that the worst is over. Come on Billy, prove the doubters (and that includes me) wrong.

Tags: billy davies, lewis mcgugan, nottingham forest, reading   Posted in News, Opinion