FOREST AREN’T OUT OF THE WOODS AT ALL
Owner Marinakis’ boast of top-half football looks hollow now, and the club has only itself to blame
IT WAS just six months ago that Evangelos Marinakis was dreaming big for the future of Nottingham Forest.
“We are on a path to re-establish Nottingham Forest as a dominant force in English football,” wrote the Reds owner in an open letter to fans.
Quite a statement of intent, you could argue, for a club that had only narrowly survived in their first Premier League campaign for 23 years.
But Forest had just climbed into the top half under Steve Cooper with what Marinakis branded a “statement away win” at Chelsea.
The Greek businessman also declared himself delighted with a “well calculated” transfer window.
Brennan Johnson had been sold on deadline day to Tottenham for £47.5million – the timing of his sale was to prove a central issue in the Premier League PSR charge Forest would soon face – with 13 new faces coming in.
“The players we have brought in are fighters and winners,” reflected Marinakis.
Fast forward to the present, though, and that prophecy has failed to live up to its big billing.
Yesterday’s four-point deduction for breaching PSR rules now leaves Forest in the bottom three. The threat of relegation is even more dire now. While Forest are “extremely disappointed” by the sanction, their critics will argue they only have themselves to blame.
And many of their problems on the pitch have been self-inflicted, too. Yes, they have had just cause for anger with some of the refereeing decisions which have gone against them this season.
But Luton’s late equaliser on Saturday meant Forest have now dropped a staggering 21 points from winning positions this season – the second-highest number in the division. It will heap further frustration on the supporters that had they seen out a win on Saturday they would still find themselves outside the bottom three.
Many of those summer recruits – including £30m midfielder Ibrahim Sangare and £17m goalkeeping duo Matt Turner and Odysseas Vlachodimos – have struggled to make an impact.
The attacking instincts which served Cooper’s successor, Nuno Espirito Santo (circled, above) so well early on in his reign after arriving in December – achieving back-to-back wins over Newcastle and Manchester United – have been traded for a more cautious
approach of late. It backfired when Forest conceded to Luton after trying to shut up shop.
And, while injuries – last season’s leading goalscorer Taiwo Awoniyi is sidelined again – and AFCON have not helped, the feeling persists that Nuno is still to figure out his best team.
Major decisions now loom, ahead of a crunch run of fixtures which will likely define his tenure. Three of Forest’s next four matches are at home to Crystal Palace, Fulham and Wolves – the other being a trip to Spurs – and Nuno and his team need to invoke the spirit of last season and turn the City Ground back into the fortress it was under the charismatic and popular Cooper.
During that same period, Luton face Spurs, Arsenal and Manchester City – as well as Bournemouth. It is an opportunity for Forest.
Brentford and Everton – themselves still facing a possible further points deduction – are very much in this survival scrap.
And Forest will feel the fixtures remain for them to escape – but it is time for those “winners and fighters” heralded by Marinakis to step up and deliver.