In the last 18 years, Nottingham Forest have had 18 managers. In just the time I have been at NTU they have had Sabri Lamouchi, Chris Hughton and whoever the Forest board in their infinite wisdom choose to replace him.
The Reds are a team searching for a return to glory days – a boat a lot of clubs find themselves in – but unlike some less fortunate sides, Forest’s glory days really were glory days.
Under Brian Clough, they won the Second Division, the First Division, the League Cup on four occasions, the European Cup twice and the European Super Cup.
A child born in Nottingham on the day Clough was appointed, January 3 1975, could have legally drunk a pint on the concourse at the City Ground in 1993 and Clough was still the manager. He lasted 18 years and 4 months. That’s stability.
His statue takes pride of place in the city centre, he has a stand named after him and even the road between Nottingham and near neighbours Derby is called ‘The Brian Clough Way’.
Clough and his success hangs over the City Ground, his shadow is felt in the dugout. It makes the bad runs of form feel that bit worse. The endless comparisons between the current occupant and the glory days haven’t done any of the managers since Clough left any favours.
When I was in my first year at NTU, Lamouchi was in charge of the Reds and success – at least in comparison to recent years – looked near. They looked a certainty to finish in the play-offs for the first time in 10 years and hopes of a return to the promised land of the Premier League were real. But a post-lockdown capitulation including a seven-goal swing on the final evening of the season saw Forest drop out of the play-offs.
In reflection, they were probably just a mid-table team over-achieving.
Since then they have failed to recover from that shocking run of form that left players, supporters and the manager shell shocked.
A decent portion of the team that featured in that final day catastrophe ply their trade away from the City Ground these days, so does Lamouchi, but the supporters are still there.
Early on in my second year – after a poor start – Lamouchi got the axe, Chris Hughton replaced him and after success at Brighton, and Newcastle before that, there was hope. In the behind-closed-doors games, Forest lacked any real sparkle and finished a safe, but nothing to write home about 17th.
This season they’ve managed to get sack their manager before I even moved back to Nottingham.
The case for stability is a valid one, but one point from seven games and bottom of the Championship tends to mean a change.
The one constant of a football club is the fans who will be there through thick and, in the case of Forest, very thin.
They are an agitated bunch the Forest fans, they believe that they deserve a lot better than what they have endured over the last 18 years and they would be quite right they do.
One of Nottingham’s favourite sons Stuart Broad, who is big supporter of the Reds himself, took to Instagram today to try and convince them to adopt a more supportive and less combative stance with the team.
Broad said: “As fans, we’re accountable for the atmosphere in and around the stadium for the players to feel like the City Ground is a fortress. Like we are right behind them, like we back them in every scenario.” Broad went on to say, “let’s be honest, it can’t carry on like this.”
The sacking of Hughton was justified, nobody can deny that, but this next appointment really feels like a turning point for them. Get it right and they’ve still got hope of a decent finish this season, get it wrong and … League One football could find its way to the City Ground.
As Broad says “it can’t carry on like this”.