MICKY ADAMS ON HOW CLUB FELL APART 23 YEARS AGO
NOTTINGHAM FOREST are looking to end a 23-year absence from the top flight of English football today – and will be hoping their next stay in the Premier League will be better than the last one.
It looked so promising when Dave Bassett engineered a promotion from the Championship, but then it all kicked off when star man Pierre Van Hooijdonk (left) went on strike. And then it descended into chaos after a 19-match winless streak. Bassett was canned for Ron Atkinson – who announced himself to the City Ground faithful by standing in the wrong dugout in his opening game against Arsenal. Assistant boss Micky Adams watched on from the sidelines with a mixture of confusion, anger and frustration as Forest dropped into the Championship with barely a whimper. He said: “I arrived at the club one month after the club had been promoted but it wasn’t a happy place.
“Van Hooijdonk was causing problems – he hadn’t completed any pre-season training – but we thought we may have turned a corner when we went to Finland for a camp.
“Dave Bassett didn’t travel back with the team so it was left to assistant boss Mick Kelly and myself to bring them home.
“We were at the back of the plane – the lads were at the front. It was in the summer, it was full and they were noisy but not rowdy.
“We were about an hour into the journey when, all of a sudden, the intercom went off something like this: ‘Bing bong – Brace, brace, we’re going to crash, brace, brace.’
“Everyone started screaming, kids were crying. It was bedlam. The plane was in uproar. But I looked up and saw our left-back, Alan Rogers, nipping into the toilet. Mick looked at me and said: ‘That was Rogers.’ “He’d been watching the stewardesses make their announcements and thought he’d have some fun. It wasn’t fun for those on board, let me tell you. “The cabin crew were livid. I don’t know how charges weren’t brought. They would have been these days. To make matters worse, the chairman was on board. “He gave us a monstrous dressing-down and the club was banned from flying with that company for years afterwards. And that little stunt cost Rogers two weeks’ wages.” However, while the losses piled up, the decision was taken later that season to lift spirits with a warmweather break in Portugal. And it seems someone hadn’t learnt their lesson. “We were having dinner at the hotel,” added Adams (above). “And I saw Rogers steal my colleague’s room key.
“I told Mick, who replied: ‘Just leave it a couple of minutes, son.’
“Clearly, some of the players planned to trash his room.
“But we caught them in the act. Rogers, Ian Woan and a few others had turned his bed upside down, tying together the arms of his tracksuits, unplugging the television – the usual stuff.
“He burst into the room and ordered them out, saying he’d see them in the morning.
“The culprits were bang to rights and Mick said: ‘Last night, you, you and you were in my room. Forget my gear, you’ve broken the bed and the hotel aren’t happy about it – they want £1,500 for it. Get me that cash by tonight. And you can all take two weeks’ wages as well.’
“Unbeknown to the players, there was nothing wrong with the bed. They suffered a double training session and Rogers sheepishly walked over at the end of it and handed over £1,500.
“They headed up to their rooms and well out of earshot. Mick turned to me and started counting out the money, ‘One for you, one for me, another for you, another for me…’
“It was years before Rogers found out about it.”
Despite a change of manager – to Atkinson – relegation was inevitable. The schisms had turned into cracks too big to bridge for even the ex-manchester United manager.
Adams said: “Even though it turned out to be such a disappointment, it’s difficult for me to look back on my time with Forest with anything but fondness.
“It’s got all the ingredients to be successful and if they can return to the Premier League it will be long overdue. I’m sure it will turn out better in 2022 than it did when I was there.”