MAJEWSKI’S SO RADDY EXCITING
FOREST may be flinging money around but the key to their success this season is a fella who’s been there for years.
The first time I saw Raddy Majewski in a red shirt, he scored with 30yard bullet in the first minute of a match against bitter rivals Derby.
That was in August 2009, and it’s fair to say the little Pole hasn’t always lived up to that explosion of early promise.
There have been plenty more spectacular goals, a couple of hat-tricks and a handful of virtuoso performances. But there has also been a tendency to lose concentration, to drift out of matches when the going gets tough.
Perhaps that is why Steve McClaren and Steve Cotterill never quite trusted him with any regularity. Why he has been shunted from one side of midfield to the other, and frequently dumped on the bench.
He isn’t your hardy seven-out-of-tenner. He’s either a nine or a five. But in Billy Davies, Majewski has a manager who doesn’t care about the odd duff game.
“Raddy does have his off days, just like the rest of the world,” said the Scot.“But we allow him to have a bad day because he’s a tremendous professional – a tremendous creator and potentially a great goalscorer.”
Against Bolton last week, Majewski ran the show, finding gaps, spotting passes, pulling defenders all over the place. In the free role he has craved, he looked a class apart.
The challenge now is to sustain that brilliance for more than a few games. If he does, Forest have a potential player of the year on their hands.