by Anon (a disgruntled Forest fan)
One year ago, 4th February 2012, the death of Nottingham Forest’s owner Nigel Doughty shook the footballing world. A lifelong fan, a dedicated owner and a sound businessman he provided the club with safety, security and the potential to develop. Many fans dispute decisions he made, but I think the vast majority of Forest supporters would agree that the work he did for the club was wholeheartedly dedicated and positive. So one year on… where’s Forest now?
Obviously, new owners took over the club. This was always on the cards before Doughty’s death; however it was obviously a forced change following it. In the period between his death and the takeover those in charge of Doughty’s estate continued to fund the club. Since the takeover there has been much speculation about the financial significance of Fawaz Al-Hasawi, who shares links with the businessmen at the top of Manchester City. With finance to pump into the club there has been some key spending, however some fans would argue that amongst numerous other problems it has been ineffective. More recently, the new owners chose to replace much of the backroom staff, including dedicated staff members such as Frank Clark and Mark Arthur. Whilst there are those happy to see the back of ‘Marthur’ I reserve opinions until we are able to see what impact these changes actually have.
In the latest transfer window disaster struck for Forest. Over the last few years fans have got used to a few signings, a handful of loan players and potentially the odd bit of tidy business. It’s the way the club worked, and it did work although not to the taste of all supporters. Although the recent window has been labelled the “Deadline Day Of Shame”. George Boyd made the trip to Forest, completed medicals and terms were agreed with both the club and the player. At the final minute a decision was made that his eyesight was not up to the standard that the club wanted and the move fell through. Peterborough was disgraced by the decision, and their manager was deeply critical of Forest. Suddenly, the well regarded, sensible, policy Forest deployed in past transfer windows was blown out of the water.
In a final significant change, we’re now hopeless. We’ve gone through numerous managers and seem to struggle at the basics. Fans are becoming more and more disgruntled, the performances aren’t looking great and we seem to have lost hope of a promotion push this year.
RIP Nigel Doughty, 1 year on.
