Steve Cotterill will be hoping the takeover gives him scope in the transfer market.
by Daniel Widdowson
After last year’s pre-season mayhem I was hoping for this year to be altogether more relaxed and organised. The ‘bog standard’ summer: a couple of players leave, a handful of signings, a few pre-season friendlies and lots of club PR boasting about how hard the players are working towards the new season.
Alas, Forest no longer seems to possess a ‘standard’ situation nowadays. If there isn’t turmoil, controversy, tension or uncertainty then it wouldn’t be the modern day Forest. Plans to avoid ranting, or writing Forest related articles until friendlies were over and the new season starting have been dashed, hence I may as well have a good old hearty ramble about various topics.
Starting with areas that see little change…
The stadium – it’s still the City Ground, it’s still a nice size, still got its history and the main stand is still in need of rebuilding. I wasn’t expecting any changes here. The coaching staff… very little change; Cotterill’s still in charge and I never really expected any kind of significant change. Let’s see how things go in the new season.
A noticeable negative change… at the time of writing there is a significant lack of transfers coming into the club. This is coupled with players leaving the club, such as Luke Chambers. Hopefully the imbalances will be rectified and the squad strengthened over the remainder of summer.
The BIG change… okay, onto the main development at Forest this summer. After the shocking death of Nigel Doughty a new owner has finally been found. The Al-Hasawi family have taken control of the club, and depending on which source you believe they are either worth a lot of money, or A LOT of money. Between them they hold significant assets and potentially could provide key investment into Forest that could be major. Whilst one could easily be caught up in all the hype and glamour of this deal I am choosing to err on the side of caution. Following the chaos that was the ‘Munto finance’ era at Notts County across the river one hopes that all the necessary checks and planning have been implemented before this deal was reached.
Nonetheless, considering the potential value of the deal, the hope that it must surely bring to Forest fans in regards to transfers that may occur, and the possibility of rebuilding the successes that were beginning to occur under the Billy Davies and Nigel Doughty era are mouth-watering. Who knows if the new ownership and management structure will be a success, but as football fans we can all hope and live on the edge of a dream world… right?
