It’s all four one, and one for all! Time for Reds to show fight in battle to survive
FOREST FANS TELL OF THEIR FRUSTRATION AND FEARS IN WAKE OF THE PSR POINTS DEDUCTION PUNISHMENT, BUT AGREE A SEIGE MENTALITY IS NEEDED IF THEY ARE TO STAY UP
NOTTINGHAM Forest now know the task ahead of them after being docked four points for breaking financial rules.
The punishment meted out by an independent commission for the club’s breach of the Premier League’s Profitability and Sustainability Rules plunged the Reds into the relegation zone. When they return from the international break, Nuno Espirito Santo’s men will have nine games to claw their way out of trouble.
There was plenty to discuss on this week’s episode of Nottinghamshirelive’s Garibaldi Red podcast, with host Max Hayes joined by fans Callum Castel and Mark Turner.
We take a look at some of the key talking points.
■ ON THE POINTS DEDUCTION... Castel: “I think relief was the overwhelming feeling at the time. When it first came out, I was fearing the worst, with Everton getting 10 points. And then when Everton got some back and got six points, I thought, OK, six might be the base, so I’ve had it in my head recently it might be six points.
“If we could lose points by appealing, I’d like us not to, because I think we can make something of four points. If it was six points, I think that’s a really difficult amount to overcome. We’re still in touching distance of Luton now.
“We’re only just in the relegation zone and I think we can do something about it if we use the siege mentality and claw it back. You saw what Everton did after they got theirs taken off. We’ve got some good fixtures, especially at home.”
Turner: “My response is really one of frustration, period. This is smoke and mirrors, essentially. It is that opacity that makes this so frustrating.
“The structures just don’t seem evident to the public. It’s difficult to know what’s coming down the line and I don’t understand why it has to be like that.
“I don’t understand why the Premier League aren’t clear about what the punishments can be in terms of number of points. I know there’s some kind of a loose correspondence between how much you go outside of the requirements and how many points you’ll be docked, but that really seems to be finger in the wind stuff. I think that, more than anything, is kind of maddening. I don’t know that it would be in Forest’s best interest right now to appeal.”
■ ON TRANSFERS... Castel: “It’s frustrating because we had to sign a lot of players. I always kind of come back to that for every Murillo, there’s a Jonjo Shelvey. That’s the frustrating part, because I don’t blame us for having to sign so many players. It’s just that, like I say, for every Murillo, there’s a Jonjo Shelvey. If we could have nipped out a lot of those, like Hwang (Uijo), Josh Bowler... “Some players haven’t even played a minute. A lot of that’s frustrating. “There’s a lot of frustration around what we’ve been doing. And we have broken the rules. I don’t agree with the rules but they have been broken and ultimately that’s led us to where we are today. “It has to be managed better. We have to learn from it. If we stay up we have to learn from it massively.
“We are quite lucky that it’s four points, in my opinion. I would love it to have been less. I would like us to appeal and get it down. I don’t think the rules are fair, but they know the rules and we broke them.
“There’s a lot of frustration this season. It’s very different to last season. I thought if we’d stayed up, we’d be really careful in the summer and make smart moves.”
Turner: “We know Forest’s shortcomings and the kind of scattergun approach to recruitment; there didn’t seem to be a lot of joined-up thinking. That being said, this isn’t a club issue, this is a system issue - which is why this is being addressed in the summer, because what we have right now, it just isn’t fit for purpose.
“It’s a system that basically is a pullthe-ladder-up system. It’s just incredibly difficult to get a foothold.
“Looking system-wide and not just at one club, Newcastle are swimming in cash right now. I’m not suggesting they should be able to go out and buy whoever they want, but they can’t even close the ground on the top four, despite having as deep a pockets as they currently do. Why? Because the systems don’t allow for it. There just seems something inherently wrong with that. It does feel like it’s the haves
It’s a system that basically is a pull-theladder-up system. It’s just incredibly difficult to get a foothold Mark Turner
With the points deduction, now the cloud’s gone, I feel the best that I’ve felt in a while about it
Callum Castel
and the have nots.
“There’s the Premier League for you in a nutshell.”
■ On survival prospects...
Castel: “I’ve the strangest feeling that if we hadn’t had a points deduction we’d have gone down. But now we’ve got a points deduction we might stay up. I think it is just the fact they’ve now got to fight and know they’ve got to fight.
“We’ve just been plodding along recently and we’re lucky that Luton haven’t been picking up as many points. With the points deduction, now the cloud’s gone, I feel the best that I’ve felt in a while about it.
“I felt like we were sleepwalking into relegation. Now I feel like we have to win and we have to do something about it. I feel like there might be some fight.
“I feel a little bit better, strangely, from having the points deduction because I was pretty certain after Brighton we would go down.”
Turner: “We’re on 21 points. We need to amass at least 15 in the remaining nine games, I think, to give us a fighting chance of staying up. That means, realistically, we have to win at least three games at home. I’m struggling to see that.
“I think it’s absolutely imperative we secure at least nine points at home and then we’ve got to try and pick up six points somewhere else. It’s not going to be easy. But with games away at Burnley and Sheffield United, you see daylight, right? You see the opportunity. “But it comes back to, can Nuno pull this good squad of seemingly talented players together and get a tune out of them consistently? “And that’s what it’s going to take now.”