Saga is affecting players – Nuno
HEAD coach Nuno Espirito Santo admits the points deduction uncertainty affecting Nottingham Forest and relegation rivals Everton is a “distraction” for his team.
Forest’s appeal hearing over their four-point deduction is scheduled for next week. The Toffees have lodged an appeal against their two-point deduction for a second PSR breach, having already had a 10-point deduction reduced to six on appeal.
Nuno says not knowing how many points the Reds have and how many might be required for survival makes his job harder. And with the saga dragging on, there is the potential for the table to still be up in the air after the final round of fixtures on May 19 – with the Premier League’s backstop date for sorting out both cases being May 24.
Asked if the uncertainty is affecting his players, Nuno said: “Of course. We cannot get away from that. We cannot hide ourselves. These things that we say about let’s ignore the noise – the noise is there every day.
“When someone takes something from you, you are disappointed and upset, for sure. It is so hard to earn points in the Premier League, and when they take them away from you, you feel it. You have to react. I think we are doing that.
“It’s a point of distraction. It doesn’t just happen one day, it’s continuous because every day there is something out about what can change – maybe we get the points back, maybe they take some.
“All these things are what causes the problem.
“We will speak again next week (in his press conference). You look back at how long we have been speaking about this.”
Nuno has already called the PSR situation a “mess”. However, he is confident there will not be a repeat next term as he hopes lessons will be learned.
“I’m sure it’s not going to happen because I think it’s been enough mess,” he said. “They have to solve it.
“What I can tell you is that when you are playing in the season and you get this issue things become much harder because of the uncertainty and how it disturbs the whole harmony of the squad.”