Forest owner reads riot act

NOTTINGHAM Forest owner evangelos marinakis has flown in from athens and addressed the club’s players after becoming frustrated by an inconsistent season. marinakis wants to reach the Premier League after backing manager aitor Karanka in the summer and is unhappy that they lie in ninth place. the greek shipowner took the unusual step of travelling from his home country to deliver the personal message in Nottingham that standards must improve. marinakis funded a summer spend of £25million on a raft of new players, including club record signing Joao Carvalho from Benfica, and believes Forest should be contenders for automatic promotion. the club insist the trip was scheduled and allowed marinakis to tour the academy and the City ground, and speak to all staff members. the club say talks were ‘positive’. Forest were in the play-off positions over the international break but were outplayed in the home defeat by Norwich on saturday and are now six points behind leaders middlesbrough. although it was Forest’s first defeat in seven games, the performance went gone down badly with marinakis, who has enjoyed success as owner of greek side olympiacos. Karanka is aware of the high expectations and knows he will face scrutiny if he does not get the most from the squad, beginning with tonight’s game at Bolton. Forest have enjoyed good results, including a 2-0 win at middlesbrough on october 6, but there are concerns over Karanka’s tactics and manmanagement style following a high turnover of players since his appointment in January. marinakis has made 12 managerial changes in eight years of owning olympiacos. Leeds defender Pontus Jansson has been banned for one match and fined £1,000 by the Fa for swearing and accusing the referee of robbery in a tV interview after his side drew with Brentford this month.