Heck of a boss
PAUL HETHERINGTON NOTTINGHAM FOREST want Barnsley’s Paul Heckingbottom to be their new manager.
Forest owner Fawaz Al-Hasawi sacked French boss Philippe Montanier last weekend and is impressed with the job Heckingbottom (below) has done at Oakwell.
Al-Hasawi had been trying to sell the former European Cup winners to an American consortium.
If that deal had gone through the new owners would have appointed ex-Birmingham boss Gary Rowett on £1million a year.
But that buyout collapsed and Rowett, 42, is now unlikely to move to the City Ground, putting Heckingbottom, 39, firmly at the top of the list.
Also, Barnsley defenders James Bree, 19, and Marc Roberts, 26, are in demand.
Bree is a target for Southampton, Sunderland, West Brom and Aston Villa while Burnley want Roberts.
He also sees the return of striker Danny Welbeck being an important factor in his drive for success.
Arsenal face Burnley today with Wenger praising the popular star and admiring his determination to resume his career after almost two years of injury hell.
Welbeck still has to be held back in training to protect the inflammation around his knee but his return adds more weight to Wenger’s belief they can still catch Chelsea.
He said: “We are tougher this season. We are certainly more relentless.
“We are the team who has scored more goals than anyone else in the last five minutes and the team who has scored 14 goals with people coming off the bench.
“So we have more offensive weapons. When I look around on the bench I always think, ‘If he comes on, he can give you something’.
“We have Welbeck back and we have Lucas Perez. But before I had Olivier Giroud on the bench, Theo Walcott was playing. You think it can give you something coming on.
“We are winning the tough games, the so-called less glamorous games, which were our Achilles heel.
“Last year we dropped points