Guest Blog: What’s your favourite football chant? [Part 2]

This week the Cooler Editors have been bringing you their favourite football chants, and here is part 2, from Director of Blue Sky Thinking, Jack.  Today I’ve gone with my favourite chants from this season rather than my all time favourite!

Nottingham Forest:  “winning at home, winning at home, how s**t must you be, we’re winning at home”.

Nottingham Forest – 111 Days of Summer

On Sunday evening Steve McClaren walked away from Nottingham Forest, saying that “he could no longer risk ruining his reputation” and “I resigned – they don’t share the ambition that I came for”.  For many fans this ending was inevitable from the day he arrived “smelling the history” at Nottingham Forest, though some will point to the protests outside the ground before and after the match, including the atmosphere which turned when Forest started to concede against Birmingham, which will also have had an influence.

Head to Head: Nottingham Forest -Vs- West Ham United

So, with another weekend of football upon us, I hope you’re managing to take it all in, we’ve decided to focus our thoughts and words on a once clash of the titans. With two clubs steeped in history going head-to-head this weekend we turn our attention to Forest v West Ham. Taking part in our 11-a-side questionnaire this week is Water Cooler’s very own  Jack and also West Ham blogger and twitter fanatic James Jones.

With both teams appointing managers with Premier League experience in ex-England brolly owner Shteve McLaren and a man who claimed he could manage Real Madrid and now hammer’s gaffer Big Sam. Anyway,  here is our head-to-head…

BCC Football: Nottingham Forest – is there life in the old dog yet?

Nottingham Forest have been in the headlines this summer for their appointment of Steve McClaren, welcoming back the former wally with a brolly into English football. Forest fan Brian is happy with this move, but otherwise isn’t feeling too hopeful about this season and Forest’s Board-level (mis)management…

George: First off, and the obvious one – how are you feeling about the appointment of McClaren?

Brian: It’s quite hard to express how I felt when McClaren was appointed, as I had become very attached to Billy Davies. In Billy I had a manager who for the first time in probably a decade wasn’t afraid to speak out against the club’s mismanagement in the transfer market and lack of funding going into Forest, and I feared that Steve Mcclaren had been hired to become the new ‘yes man’. 

It’s no secret that Nigel Doughty (Owner/Chairman) and Mark Arthur (Chief Executive) didn’t get along with Billy Davies, and these troubled relationships have been blamed in the press for the lack of Nottingham Forest transfer activity.  McClaren has been at our club nearly four weeks now and is already discovering that Billy Davies wasn’t moaning for his own good, and indeed Steve is already saying the same things which Billy Davies agonised over during his reign. Mcclaren told the Nottingham Evening Post:

“We have Portugal next week and it would be great to see new faces there but at the moment, we don’t have a squad big enough to work with. That is frustrating. We have lost nine players and added Andy Reid. So we are eight short. The sooner they come in, the better for me, the team and for the fans in order to get us ready for the start of the season.”

These are exactly the same arguments which Billy Davies had just phrased, but in a more subtle form.  For me we could have any manager in charge and they would be hampered by the same board level incompetence which has hindered Forest’s progression over the last two years, if not longer.

I am fully behind Steve; he is an astute, professional person and top coach, as he proved in Holland. He has come out fighting against the lack of transfer activity and already has many Forest fans on his side after a very split opinion about the appointment initially. Time will tell as to how he is accepted by the fans, but one thing is for sure – his job is being made no easier by the farcical state of affairs behind the scenes at Nottingham Forest.

George: So do you care about the saga of McClaren’s England management? Or is this a clean slate for him as far as you’re concerned?

Brian: I’ve cared very little about the English national team for many years now, so this is something for which I can honestly say I hold no hostility against Steve.  Greater managers than Steve have failed to turn that bunch of prima donnas into a successful team and I can’t see an end to that in the near future.  To be honest, the plight of the England national team is very similar to Forest’s, a team who consider themselves to be one of the biggest, best supported and carry a fantastic history, yet always flatter to deceive whenever it really matters.   

George: Anyone you would have preferred?

Brian: That’s a tough question, as Steve McClaren is truly an appointment above our level at the present time.  He’s an ex-England manager, FA Cup winner and Dutch title winner with Twente, has a great coaching pedigree and extensive contact list in football, and I am more than happy with his appointment.

If I had to pick another manager though, it would probably have been Martin O’Neill who is a true Forest legend and would instantly have had the backing of every Forest fan, but as I have mentioned I think we have appointed above and beyond our current level.

George: Is this the consensus amongst Forest fans? What’s the general feeling on the blogs from fans towards him?

Brian: Very mixed. There seems to be two reasons for the more negative attitudes towards his appointment.  

The first is that Billy Davies saved us from relegation and guided us to successive play-offs, the fans never really wanted him sacked and it was very clear the parting of Nottingham Forest and Billy Davies was due to differences in personality between Doughty, Arthur and Davies.

The second is that many do still see him as the failed England manager.  In my opinion these are short-sighted fans who have probably jumped on the tabloid press bandwagons after the disappointment of that rainy night at Wembley. Slowly I hope they will realise what a top coach he is, and provided he doesn’t have to start the season with 14 players he should take forest on another level.

George: So we’ve covered the manager, but how would you assess the general state of the club, financially, board members, backing?

Brian: I could write a dissertation around this area and it s one of the most frustrating things about being a Forest fan. The club financially is being supported by our wealthy owner Nigel Doughty and is in the region of £60m in debt, all of which is tied to loans from him with yearly delaying of repayment – meaning that in the grand scheme of events we are pretty stable. There are many opinions about the financial running of the club and the chief executive (Mark Arthur) constantly reminds the fans that the club runs a £13m+ debt per season, while the chairman claims we are one of the only clubs in the championship with money to spend. We never know the whole truth.

The set-up behind the scenes is one of the worst things about Forest and this includes the Transfer Acquisitions Panel (TAP).  Mark Arthur seems to constantly embarrass Nottingham Forest and its fans with his nonchalant attitude towards, seemingly, every deal that we try to finalise and constant failure to recruit the right playing staff, infamously stating on the radio last summer that “We know Darren Pratley wants to join us”, only to never conclude the deal.

The TAP is a committee made up of Nigel Doughty, Mark Arthur, John Pelling, Steve McClaren and David Pleat (who is rumoured to take home a six figure salary from Forest for “consultancy advice”) and in my opinion the TAP is everything that is wrong with Nottingham forest.  Steve McClaren will advise who he wants to sign but then the TAP discuss whether they want said player and then Mark Arthur negotiates a deal. The latest rumours of its failings are that a deal was agreed for Wayne Routledge with his wages agreed at £12k p/w, but Mark Arthur offered £8k at the last minute and the deal went south (only a rumour mind)!

The financial backing of our managers has been all but nonexistent over the last three transfer windows. Billy Davies saw January 2010 and the summer of 2010 come and go with no permanent signings and only Marcus Tudgay coming in January 2011 for £400k (even he was only deemed necessary as Dexter Blackstock got injured for the season), so overall the backing of managers in the transfer market leaves much to be desired.

George: So you don’t expect a busy transfer window this summer?

Brian: So it seems, but it should be.  I’m pulling my hair out about what is happening at the City ground this summer. With nine players being released on free transfers and only one arrival, in Steve Mcclarens own words “we are 8 players short” – it is all very concerning.

George: So which are the absolute priority signings you need?

Brian: We NEED a left-back as we do not have a professional out-and-out left back on our books at Forest, we actually haven’t for over 2 years now as we have made do with loans in the previous two seasons. With the departure of Robert Earnshaw to Cardiff we are becoming desperate for that 20 goal a season striker.  In the eyes of many fans David McGoldrick, Marcus Tudgay and Joe Garner are not going to cut it (although I personally rate Joe Garner very highly) and Dexter Blackstock is still injured until December time.

We have released McKenna, our club captain and defensive midfield back-up, and it looks increasingly likely we are losing Guy Moussi, our starting defensive midfielder, so realistically we will need some central midfield options too. We only have two centre backs, although we have two very promising young players in Jamaal Lascelles and Karlton Watson who will probably have to step up this year due to lack of other options for Steve.

We have been linked to some exciting talent this summer but I can’t see Forest managing to persuade many of them to pull on the Garibaldi next year. However that doesn’t mean I wouldn’t love to sign any of the players who are seemingly slipping away. Of these, my top priorities would be:

Nicky Shorey
Nicky Maynard
Wayne Routledge
Siphiwe Tshabalala

Wesley Verhoek
Ashley Westwood or other central midfield option.

We really have such a small squad that 5 or 6 quality transfers are a must.

George: Which are the most realistic targets? 

Brian: We are currently linked with Daryl Murphy, Bolo Zenden, George Boateng and Jonathan Greening, which for me is one of the most uninspiring lists in football. Steve is so concerned with the lack of signings that he has been unable to join the team at pre-season boot camp in Portugal and has deemed it necessary to stay behind and “help Mark Arthur bring in players” – how this man is still our chief executive is beyond me.

Indeed I’m barely able to work with the constant refreshing of the official site so desperate am I for news!

George: Obviously you’ve remarked on your small squad, but is there anyone who needs to go?

Brian: We’ve released 9 which includes Bennett, Adebola, Tyson, Earnshaw, McKenna, Rodney, Wilson, Boyd (loan), Konchesky (loan) and probably Moussi to follow, so in my opinion that is most of our ‘dead wood’, Earnshaw and Moussi withstanding as I would have liked to keep those two. I had no problem with losing the majority of these players as at one point it seemed we were going to replace them, but now that this looks unlikely, I would be loathe to lose anyone else. However, weak links in the team are McGoldrick, McCleary and maybe Tudgay – and we will see if they can come good.

George: With all this doom and gloom around investment in the squad, where do you see Forest finishing next season?

Brian: At this point I would bite your hand off if you offered me top half of the league although I can see us 15^th-18^th as our squad stands. 3^rd favourites, as some bookies have us, is simply laughable. If we had got any of the early rumoured players I mentioned… Top half would be doable!

George: Where you would be happy with?

Brian: Play-offs right now, but it really is a distant dream with the current size of the squad!

Sign one player:  Shorey or Maynard… probably Shorey

Sell one player:   McGoldrick for £1m+

Happy with your manager:  Yep, nothing Steve can do about lack of investment

If your second kit could be one colour what would it be:  Purple and turquoise like our 1993/94 away kit

Favourite player ever:  Stan Collymore

Worst player ever: Silenzi – for me this signing signals the start of our once great club’s demise

Guest Blog: Who says close season is boring?

Close season a bad time to start a football blog? Never. Although the summer hasn’t yet brought the signings that I, as a Gooner, am desperately hoping for, the close season’s managerial comings and goings have delivered more than a little excitement for football-starved fans – and it’s only mid-June.  

The season hadn’t even come to an end when West Ham decided enough was enough, and bid farewell to Avram Grant, who had led the club to relegation after a torrid season of bleak underperformance. Carlo Ancelloti, whose second place finish with Chelsea was deemed simply not good enough by impatient Roman Abramovich, was next to go, not long after the dust had settled on the final day of the season.  West Ham acted quickly, appointing Sam Allardyce a couple of weeks after Grant’s departure, and with the signing of Kevin Nolan revealed yesterday, things seem to be looking up for the Hammers – although it’s hard to see how they could have got much worse. The manager’s berth at Chelsea remains empty, although the smart money is on Guus Hiddink to fill the role, with Chelsea fans clamouring for his arrival and the Turkey national team resigned to his departure.

But things hadn’t even got interesting yet. On 1^st June, Gerard Houllier announced that his ongoing health problems meant he was stepping down from his role as Aston Villa manager. And the very next day, Mark Hughes left Fulham. To join Villa, surely? The Football Water Cooler’s George certainly hoped so. And yet, whilst Fulham quickly replaced Hughes with Martin Jol, securing the man whose services they had wanted a year ago, the Villa job remains open. Steve McClaren was ruled out of the role, with Villa owner Randy Lerner nervous about his club being the first to bring McClaren back to English football. No such compunction for Nottingham Forest, who, after Billy Davies’ departure a few days ago, swooped to secure the services of the man who just might be getting close to shedding the ‘wally with the brolly’ tag that has haunted him since his days with the national team. On the same day that Davies left Forest, McLeish was out the door at Birmingham, whose future, with the Championship looming amid an uncertain financial backdrop, is looking somewhat bleak.

All eyes now then, are on the manager’s role at Villa. With Roberto Martinez having decided against the job in favour of staying at Wigan, who he kept in the Premiership on the last day of the season, it looks today that a deal is going to be done to bring McLeish to Villa Park. Fans yesterday held protests against the appointment of the former Blues boss, and yet it looks today that the move is going to happen. Not only are at least a vocal minority of the fans deeply unhappy at the idea of appointing the former boss of their most deadly rivals, who just got them relegated to boot, but the fallout from a potential deal looks set to be severe, with Birmingham accusing Villa of “tapping up” McLeish.

So, whilst my initial idea for this blog post was to list the clubs with managerial vacancies, and assess who they wanted and who I thought they’d get, things have moved so quickly that Birmingham is the only high-profile club around whose managerial vacancy there is a little bit of uncertainty, with a host of young managers such as Chris Hughton, Billy Davies, Roberto Di Matteo and Gianfranco Zola all possibilities. In fairness though, Chelsea haven’t yet appointed Hiddink, and I’m sure that any breakdown in talks between the two parties will generate a frenzy of speculation, with Hughes’ name back in the frame no doubt and names such as Redknapp touted about. Could Redknapp follow Modric to Chelsea? Yes Chelsea’s apparent bid for the Croatian playmaker hasn’t been accepted, and indeed Hiddink remains the bookies’ firm favourite for Chelsea manager. And yet spurious gossip is the name of the game over the long summer, and there has been more than enough material to fuel this so far. And that’s just the managers – with several big name players leaving clubs this summer, and with many teams looking to strengthen in key areas (a tall and strong centre half for us, thank you very much), who ever said close season was boring?

Jess – Head of Content – Gooner – @jessicaenoch