theBlackPrince Posted February 13, 2022 Author Share Posted February 13, 2022 3 hours ago, Blarney said: That is one of my favorite formations if you can pull it off. Have to have good defenders on the back and be absolutely solid in the middle with the 2 boys you have there otherwise you're easily countered and find yourself chasing the ball. This was the issue I had with County last season, but I was very weak in my defense unfortunately. If you have the players for it this is a very good attacking forward formation and very exciting for the fans. Here's to holding on though. It's a good formation as you say, the two in the middle are key and Yates and Osborn play well together there. I'm going old school 4-4-2 however moving forward but will keep 4-2-3-1 there trained in case it goes bad, which it probably will! Defense is still the weakest area here too. 5 minutes ago, Ronaldo Beckham said: My first intake was pretty good with some prospects. Nobody broke through into the first team as a regular but Lewis Barker played a few games after I sold McKenna and I was short on centre backs and he done well so he might get more game time. Ideally I want to play a whole team of youth prospects but I know I can't do that. I will hopefully bed in 2-3 prospects as first team regulars as the season goes on. Yup same first intake was great, and well the second one too but I just thought maybe they look so great as what is currently here is not great? Defense does seem to be slim pickings still so far! I think it will be 4 or 5 years before that is possible, maybe a year less in the championship but defiantly possible with a few good intakes. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ronaldo Beckham Posted February 13, 2022 Share Posted February 13, 2022 Just now, theBlackPrince said: It's a good formation as you say, the two in the middle are key and Yates and Osborn play well together there. I'm going old school 4-4-2 however moving forward but will keep 4-2-3-1 there trained in case it goes bad, which it probably will! Defense is still the weakest area here too. Yup same first intake was great, and well the second one too but I just thought maybe they look so great as what is currently here is not great? Defense does seem to be slim pickings still so far! I think it will be 4 or 5 years before that is possible, maybe a year less in the championship but defiantly possible with a few good intakes. Yeah I had to sign Spence from Middlesborough which aint against my tranfer policy but he is so good for me I would of regretted it. Other then that I have only signed former Forest players mostly on free's to boost the reserves and the youth team. 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
theBlackPrince Posted February 13, 2022 Author Share Posted February 13, 2022 Season 3 Preview - Pre-Season and 4-4-2 2000-1? pfft, let's see about that. Newly promoted Norwich City 25-1 and 7th ranked, maybe this season will actually be the tough one and last year just had a few teams that were off the pace? I guess we shall soon find out. Our pre-season started slow but ended with a big win against Club Brugge who have won the Belgian title for the last 4 seasons. The surprise of the pre-season was Dale Taylor, scoring 6 goals. His big test was Club Brugge and he came off the bench the score. The report says he is only a National League standard player but he is scoring goals, I almost have to give him a shot in the first team for some games as everyone else was struggling. And now onto the tactics. Live and die by the 4-4-2 as Clough did? Why not..... The plan is to use our wide players and keep them touching the sidelines. We will use the ability of Brennan Johnson to cut inside and look to create scoring opportunities for someone else or if not, shoot himself. On the other wing we are going more traditional but using the fullback to bring an added attacking option, but this does mean re-training Alex Mighten to the the position, but he will be fine come end of the season. Tyler Walker will be playing the pivotal role as the deep lying forward and will be key to linking everyone together. On the left we have the tactic/players to start the season (Joe Worrall out injured but will start) and on the right is the assistant report of the best in the positions. So let's have a look a bit deeper at the players and why I've decided to go a slightly different way than the predicted best 11. Attacking Full Back Left Last season Harvey Sayer (Aff) was back at Colchester on loan and this season he is set to start in the Premier League. Matthew Bondswell (For) and him are competing for the starting role. For me, his better technical ability is what swings this as he is much better dribbling and crossing. He has greater natural fitness which will be key if he he going to get up and down the wing and help in both attack and defense. The big concern, his tackling and marking are way behind Bondswell, which could lead to him coming in against bigger teams where we may need a more solid tackling fullback to counter the attacking ability of a Liverpool type team. Supporting Full Back Right They are both down as League One standard which means we are out-gunned whoever we pick. Fin Back is another player who trains extremely well and has the greater potential. His Technical ability going forward is behind Jordan Lawrence-Gabriel (For) and they are very similar with with defensive abilities. Both players are quite similar across most of the other aspects of their game and both will be needed to play the role this season, but youth is winning if we want to improve and improve quickly. Attacking Advanced Forward Dale Taylor has really forced this with his pre-season form. Oliver Burke (For) struggled to score last year but has won the fans player of the year two years running so the shouts from the stands will be to get him playing if the Dale Taylor Experiment does not work. Surprisngly their finishing is similar and Taylor has much better positioning than the Scottish international. The big plus for Burke is his pace and acceleration which Taylor just cannot match. If Taylor can score, he will start, if not Burke will get his chances. Key Man - Attacking Inverted Winger - Brennan Johnson For this to work we need Johnson to chip in with both goals and assists from that right wing. He has all the tools to be a success and his exposure in the Welsh National Team has helped prepare him for the big stage. If we can see 10 goals and 10 assists this will be a great season and we believe Johnson has the ability to delver and help Forest stay up again. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
theBlackPrince Posted February 13, 2022 Author Share Posted February 13, 2022 Season 3 - August to December Update Well we are not bottom and after losing the opening two games without scoring, the 4-4-2 looked to be wobbling before it started. Then we got the big win over our Rivals Leicester City which seemed to calm the team down in September to take 5 from 12 points to start strong. October saw a second win coming extremely late on from a late Tyler Walker (For) penalty and we were close to the top 10. Fulham pegged back with a late winner to stop 2 wins in a row before probably the game of the season, upsetting title favorites Manchester United 2-1. Arvin Appiah (For) would score early on before Brennan Johnson made the score 2-0. Manchester United had 17 shots but would only score in the 89th minute and Forest held on for an historic win in their journey. A very tough run of games in November was capped off with a brilliant 1-1 draw with Manchester City but that would be the only points and Forest finish November in 15th place, 4 points above the drop. In other news we managed to get signed off more upgrades for the youth and training facilities. The board were not sure at first but ultimately came around and decided to spend the money here when Manager Brian Trent put forward that there would be no more signings this year so the money could be used from there. Overall, a great start to the year with a couple of unlikely wins otherwise we would be in the bottom 3. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
LowestLeagueHero Posted February 13, 2022 Share Posted February 13, 2022 (edited) 13 points after 12 games - you're on a damn fine race, it seems. Keeping it up like that until the end of the season would mean ... ... tadaaah! 41 points. (Especially great to see you won against United!) Oh and thank you for sharing those tactics - I wonder how everyone gets those defensive 4 4 2 setups working. I always get battered when using any 4 4 2 variants. But well, I'm on FM20 still where 4 2 3 1 or 4 1 4 1 Gegenpress apparently were the only ways to consistent success. Anyway - your story continues to be a damn fine read, keep it up please. Edited February 13, 2022 by LowestLeagueHero Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
theBlackPrince Posted February 13, 2022 Author Share Posted February 13, 2022 Season 3 - Youth Intake Preview and Loan Updates When Gary Brazil sends an email across, it is opened immediately. It is early days but once again, looks like he could be working wonders to bring in a 3rd successive great class to the Nigel Doughty Academy. With the current players we have and more advanced wingers decided to move back to the 4-2-3-1 (or 4-5-1 as it can be looked at) as it makes the most sense with the players we have. The 4-4-2 will be back, if we get the right players. Out on loan we have a huge amount of players but they are gaining positive game time at their loan clubs which is vital for their development. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
theBlackPrince Posted February 13, 2022 Author Share Posted February 13, 2022 1 hour ago, LowestLeagueHero said: 13 points after 12 games - you're on a damn fine race, it seems. Keeping it up like that until the end of the season would mean ... tadaaah! 41 points. (Especially great to see you won against United!) Oh and thank you for sharing those tactics - I wonder how everyone gets those defensive 4 4 2 setups working. I always get battered when using any 4 4 2 variants. But well, I'm on FM20 still where 4 2 3 1 or 4 1 4 1 Gegenpress apparently were the only ways to consistent success. Anyway - your story continues to be a damn fine read, keep it up please. The United game was a shocker, was just waiting for them to score and take the victory. The next 15 games have not been so kind, it's going to be a harder season that last year at this rate! Not sure 41 points is in my future at this point, we have slowed down! Tough month ahead also! Thanks for checking in as always Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
theBlackPrince Posted February 13, 2022 Author Share Posted February 13, 2022 It's going down to the wire, and March will hurt badly... December to February Update The fast start continued with another shock win over Everton at The City Ground but after that it has been tough, only 2 wins in 13 and only gaining any points off teams below us. March, is going to really hit us hard so fully expect to be heading into April with 7 games to go and in the bottom 3. We have been close in most games, but close does not get you points and now there are 4 teams on 26 points so at this stage, anyone of the bottom 8 are in a battle. Chelsea, Man Utd, Man City and Tottenham to come in March, we may need a further update to see how everyone has done and what is ahead in April for Forest. This season, as expected, is probably going to be harder than the previous one. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
theBlackPrince Posted February 13, 2022 Author Share Posted February 13, 2022 Season 3 - 2024 Nigel Doughty Academy Intake Last years intake looked fantastic and this one looks just as good. But, I did have the feeling that are the intakes this good on paper because the rest of the players we have are, not all up to standard? We have once again 7 elite talents as picked out by Gary Brazil and hopefully that will translate to several Premier League standard players in the future. We are yet to see our first player break into the first team but maybe we shall see that for the 2024/25 season? In this years intake we have to hope one of the strikers may be that missing link in a few seasons to become that 20+ goal a season striker. With a few more solid attacking midfield options, it looks like sticking to advanced wide midfielders may be the way for ward for many seasons. Emaunel Sanches 24a - Attacking Midfielder Right / Midfield Right - Mosteiros, Cape Verde Born in Mosteiros, Cape Verde. Also eligible for Portugal and England Fairly professional personality Passing 16, Bravery 15, Technique 14 187 cm and 73 kg Steven Lawrence 24b - Defender Left / M/AM Left - Fareham, England Favorite personnel - Aaron Cornwall and Gary Brazil Professional personality Bravery 17, Team Work 16, Determination 15 173 cm and 57 kg Louis Santwris 24c - Attacking Midfielder Left - Risca, Wales Favored personnel - Ieuan Lewis Spirited personality Teamwork 16, Determination 15, Acceleration 16 183 cm and 65 kg Ian Peterson-Lugsden 24d - Attcking Midfielder Right / Midfield Right - Arnold, Nottinghamshire Favored personnel - Callum Ramsey Spirited personality Team Work 17, Acceleration 15., Flair 14 175 cm and 60 kg Rafer Trimmingham 24e - Striker / Midfielder Centre - Barataria, Trinidad and Tobago Favorite personnel - Warren Joyce, Steve Stone, Ben Tempest Duel Nationality - England and Trinidad and Tobago Realist personality Determination 16, First Touch 15, Technique 15 179 cm and 68 kg Simon Turner 24f - Midfield Centre / DM/AM Centre - Devizes, England Favored personnel - Gary Brazil, Callum Ramsay Fairly Determined personality Team Work 18, Work Rate 18, Natural Fitness 16 180 cm and 66 kg Owen Radcliffe 24g - Striker / M L / AM RL - Chippenham. England Favorite personnel Steven Reid, Ieuan Lewis, Mark Sampson Touted as the next Michael Owen Balanced personality Technique 16, Determination 14, Flair 14 178 cm and 65 kg Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
DaneBramage Posted February 13, 2022 Share Posted February 13, 2022 I've enjoyed reading through this, good work so far. The youth academy-plus approach is a nice twist, can focus on the kids coming through but keeps the flexibility to plug any gaps where needed. 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
theBlackPrince Posted February 13, 2022 Author Share Posted February 13, 2022 February 2024 Update - 8 Games to go, all to play for We only got to play 3 games in February and we got a shock victory over Chelsea which may have cost them a shot at second. It was much needed as a tight loss to Manchester City was followed by a hammering from Man United, revenge for that loss to us earlier in the season I am sure! We stay 3 points ahead of the drop but drop a place to 16th. So, looking ahead at what we face to finish the season and see if we stay up! I really, really don't like the looks of this, Bournemouth could be a game for the ages to see who stays up in a winner takes all battle, wouldn't that be some story? I just cant see us getting any points until the West Ham / Norwich game and maybe 5 - 7 points at most from these 8 games. We need to find some goals and fast, scoring 2 in the last 6 games is relegation kind of scoring! Arsenal - 4th Everton - 6th Tottenham - 11th Liverpool - 1st West Ham - 12th Norwich - 13th Southampton - 7th Bournemouth - 17th Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
theBlackPrince Posted February 13, 2022 Author Share Posted February 13, 2022 33 minutes ago, DaneBramage said: I've enjoyed reading through this, good work so far. The youth academy-plus approach is a nice twist, can focus on the kids coming through but keeps the flexibility to plug any gaps where needed. Thank you for checking in! I like that, youth academy plus! Nottingham doesn't seem to get too many players so the choices are not huge but adding a few now and again adds something above normal just youth academy challenges! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
theBlackPrince Posted February 13, 2022 Author Share Posted February 13, 2022 We go live for the last 5 games. Can we pull off the great escape? 5 losses in a row and we sit in 17th place with 5 games left. Fortunately, Fulham have also lost 5 in a row and them and Aston Villa are still 3 points behind Forest who are 3 points behind Bournemouth. I can't see anyone getting involved in the scrap to go down above them! I'm not making any game predictions but for Forest, we need a favor from Burnley when they face Fulham and the Fulham vs Aston Villa game to end a tie. If that happens they may struggle to get the points needed from the other games. The Liverpool game moving to when it did is not helpful and may means we won't be fully rested for Bournemouth on the final day of the season. But we go game by game now to end the season "live". Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
theBlackPrince Posted February 13, 2022 Author Share Posted February 13, 2022 Game 34 - West Ham United vs Nottingham Forest We headed into the game in the bottom 3 as Fulham would go and beat bottom of the league Burnley to give them 30 points to our 29 points. This made the game with West Ham a game we had to get something from. Bournemouth were still 3 points ahead and Aston Villa were now 2 points behind. We do have that Liverpool game in hand tho..... April 20th - Brighton 1 - 1 Aston Villa April 21st - Bournemouth 0 - 3 Manchester City April 21st - Fulham 1 - 1 Leicester City April 23rd - Newcastle 1 - 0 Burnley April 27th - Aston Villa 0 - 2 Newcastle April 27th - Arsenal 5 - 1 Bournemouth April 27th - Burnley 1 - 2 Fulham With 3 players suspended, we ended up on the wrong end of a beating and stay in the bottom 3. We still have goal difference on our side but not if we cannot score or gain points! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
theBlackPrince Posted February 13, 2022 Author Share Posted February 13, 2022 Game 35 - Nottingham Forest vs Norwich City Norwich in 15th was the best chance to put us back in the driving seat but they would want to make sure they were well clear of getting dragged into any final day relegation battles. This time we would be playing after the Fulham vs Aston Villa game so we would know what had happened. Is there really a good result from this game for us? 5th May - Fulham 3 - 0 Aston Villa And it would be more points for Fulham which means they are 4 points ahead of us now with Bournemouth 3 ahead. This is now a must win game, if we lose this it's going to be up to others for us to even have a chance. Double heart-break for Nottingham Forest. Lose the lead in the 96th minute to only gain a draw and then somehow Bournemouth beat 2nd in the League Liverpool. I just think it is all against us this season now, cannot believe that last minute Norwich goal! I fear we won't turn this around now. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
theBlackPrince Posted February 13, 2022 Author Share Posted February 13, 2022 Mission Difficult just turned to Mission Impossible When we needed a break, we get kicked again as star player Brennan Johnson will miss the last 3 games of the season due to injury. That might just be the last straw that helps to seal Nottingham Forest's relegation back to the Championship. With at least 1 win but probably 2 needed in the last 3 games, it is looking desperate now. And there she goes, Nottingham Forest are all but relegated back to the Championship after two season in the Premier League. We just didn't have the firepower and the youth prospects are still a couple of years off making the first team squad. We have managed to upgrade facilities and have money in the bank but can we come straight back up? What players will be lose? End of season review to come later as there is no way we can beat Liverpool and Bournemouth.... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
theBlackPrince Posted February 14, 2022 Author Share Posted February 14, 2022 Relegation Confirmed - Back to the Championship and mass exodus to follow? I felt we got lucky in the first season of the Premier League with bad teams below us, turned out we were the "bad" team this year. Looking back at the last 15 games, we should have been able to be safe but when you can't score, you can't win games. We have had some wonderful looking youth intakes and the Premier League money will certainly set the club up for the future, but with the Youth Academy+ challenge, we just didn't have enough players at their 4th or 5th year at the academy to break through into the first team and support. Effectively, half the squad was playing way above their level and this finally showed. I'm not sure much could have been done tactic wise to help, the players were just not strong enough to survive. The issues that follow now, We have Brennan Johnson and Anel Ahmedhodzic (For) both with relegation release clauses which were needed to get them to sign longer term deals. As the two best players at the club, and one's we wanted for the long term, this is going to hurt. I can easily see both players going for that money. Johnson was the key to the future but he had already started to request moves to bigger clubs, but no-one wanted to pay his £75,000,000 release clause. I have to think £40,000,000 is going to be affordable for a young British player who is still improving so life without him we are planning for. Anel was in the office the day after relegation was confirmed and was hurt when I said if someone pays your the money, we can't stop it. Think he wanted to go on the cheap but we want to get more than we paid for him back, seems he is the record signing.I'm sure the vultures will be in for more players, however that is all the clauses we have to contend with and the rest will be a business decision and how the players below them are. And now onto the team. Once again, for the 3rd year running Oliver Burke (For) won the fans player of the season, which is strange for someone who came off the bench more than he started. He did have 6 goals and 3 assists during that time. Tyler Walker (For) did lead all with 14 goals this season with Brennan Johnson chipping in with 8. Ben Osborn (For) lead all with 9 assists and a team high 5 player of the games. Mr Osborn did also lead the charge with 13 yellows and 1 red card. It was promising to see Academy player Fin Back playing 30 games at the fullback slot as he has the potential to improve to a Premier League standard player in the future. We saw our first affiliate signing also chip in with over 30 games in Harvey Sayer (Aff), who joined us from Colchester. Another who can improve and should be more at home next season in the Championship. Oh and the Dale Taylor experiment saw 0 goals in 3 starts and 8 sub appearances after his blistering pre-season form. We had over 20 players out on loan this year and most of the reports are extremely positive. Fernando Thicket 22e played 41 times for Morecambe in League Two and has shown a great improvement curve during this time, he may be one of the first to break into the first team next season. Richard Boateng (NC) was playing for Oxford United in League One and he lead the team with 19 goals to help them to 7th in the table, just one spot and 2 points shy of a play-off spot. He could see some game time next season for us. Rowan Armstrong 22g had the second highest average rating at 7.12 for his time at Aldershot, heading out on loan in January with 9 goals in 22 games. We also have plans ahead to look at building a new stadium after the council will not let us expand The City Ground. I'm sure this will be many years in the making so hopefully we will be back in the Premier League and will hold 40,000+ fans. It will be sad to leave our home and those European stories from there, but ultimately the decision was made for us to move. And now the dust settles, ready to prepare for another frantic season in the Championship, which is always a challenging league to get promoted from. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
DaneBramage Posted February 14, 2022 Share Posted February 14, 2022 Tough season, that kind of end run where you can't buy a win is near impossible to break out of. At least you'll be in a decent state going into the Championship. I assume the job's not in any danger? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
theBlackPrince Posted February 14, 2022 Author Share Posted February 14, 2022 18 minutes ago, DaneBramage said: Tough season, that kind of end run where you can't buy a win is near impossible to break out of. At least you'll be in a decent state going into the Championship. I assume the job's not in any danger? Impossible to change a run like that with the team I had. And with the results going like they were, Bournemouth beating Liverpool and Fulham basically becoming unbeatable at the end, I was doomed! Still, I haven't been relegated much and adds to the rebuild! Job is absolutely fine, we were favorite for the drop and we put a good show on. Money in the bank from the 2 season's up will all help. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
ToMexico!! Posted February 14, 2022 Share Posted February 14, 2022 Disappointing end to the season with the relegation, sometimes you have to go backwards to forwards stronger. Although that can't be said for Norwich in real life. If you can minimise your outgoing players then I think you will be fine next season. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
theBlackPrince Posted February 14, 2022 Author Share Posted February 14, 2022 Season 4 Preview - We've been here before, back to the Championship We were never good enough to stay up the first season but we did, the second season was just too much for my rag-tag team of players who were good enough and those playing often well above the coaches view of what League they should be playing in. But, we had fun, mixed it with the big boys and managed a few great games including that 2-1 won over United! Money is in the bank, we reminded the people of Nottingham what it was like to be in the top flight and now they want it again. And we won't be letting them down, even if it takes a few years. I still feel we are 2-3 years away from having the squad to take on the Premier League and with 3 solid Youth classes, we need to give them time to develop to take on the next step. Several will be promoted to the first team this year whilst more will look for League One or at worst League Two loan opportunities. I'm a offended by the 15th place prediction mind you! Are we now selling club? So we became a selling club this summer. We were going to lose Brennan Johnson whatever the case and the decision to get his longer deal with the clause looks a bad one, but at the time we thought we would stay up. With the £40,000,000 release clause, Leeds United put a cheeky bid in for £26,000,000. I pushed and pushed, they must have hated me up to a package for £37,000,000 which included £25,000,000 up front and £3,330,000 per season for 3 years. This will help offset that loan of ours. I made sure to nail the 50% sell on straight away so we lost £3,000,000 to potentially make £40,000,000 down the line if he keeps improving. That sounds like great business. Thank You Brennan, we wanted you here in Nottingham but least we got a great return and future windfall from you to help the club for decades to come. Anel Ahmedhodsic (For) made his intentions clear as soon as we were relegated. He wanted to be gone and cried his way out of the office when I wouldn't let him go for less than his release clause. Well, we did slightly with Brentford paying £16,500,000 with some add on's and a 20% future sale. We paid less, broke our transfer record and gained a few million along the way but it does leave a big gap in the back. And then the gap got a little bigger... We were very shocked when a huge offer came in for sparingly used central defender James Clarridge. The 20 year old only made 15 starts for us in the Premier League but has potential, how much we just don't know! That is what Brentford have paid for as they fought off Brighton for his services. £8,750,000 plus 30% plus several more millions if he makes it internationally, which we don't think he will in the England squad and has no other nationality. It's not like we needed the money, but when a good offer comes in sometimes you have to cash in. Finally this one happened late on deadline day, after I had told the press we wouldn't be doing any deals and to head to bed. German side Koln, who had already spent £28,500,000 to take attacking midfielder João Pedro from Wolves then shocked us with a £12,000,000 bid for Arvin Appiah. I mean, we liked him a lot but we sold him once for £6,000,000, bought him back for £1,000,000 and re-sold him for £12,000,000, that is some business! We seem to have plenty of players coming through the ranks now that can play his position so it was another one of those we don't need the money, but an offer like that may not come again! Aston Villa had to do some major selling as they sold 6 players for £138,000,000.... wow! And their wage bill is still over 3 times what ours is. Back to Nottingham Forest - Manager Brian Trent signed a new 3 year deal despite going down. We have a bucket load of money in the bank but that may go a long way to paying for a new stadium and if we go back up, it may pay for a top signing like Patrick Bamford (For) or Matty Cash (For) who are the best former academy players out there. There are not many options from the affiliates or players from Nottinghamshire to tempt us. I've put a squad update below, but we will look at that in more detail in the next post when we look at some player development to go along with it now we are a few years into the save! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ronaldo Beckham Posted February 14, 2022 Share Posted February 14, 2022 9 minutes ago, theBlackPrince said: Season 4 Preview - We've been here before, back to the Championship We were never good enough to stay up the first season but we did, the second season was just too much for my rag-tag team of players who were good enough and those playing often well above the coaches view of what League they should be playing in. But, we had fun, mixed it with the big boys and managed a few great games including that 2-1 won over United! Money is in the bank, we reminded the people of Nottingham what it was like to be in the top flight and now they want it again. And we won't be letting them down, even if it takes a few years. I still feel we are 2-3 years away from having the squad to take on the Premier League and with 3 solid Youth classes, we need to give them time to develop to take on the next step. Several will be promoted to the first team this year whilst more will look for League One or at worst League Two loan opportunities. I'm a offended by the 15th place prediction mind you! Are we now selling club? So we became a selling club this summer. We were going to lose Brennan Johnson whatever the case and the decision to get his longer deal with the clause looks a bad one, but at the time we thought we would stay up. With the £40,000,000 release clause, Leeds United put a cheeky bid in for £26,000,000. I pushed and pushed, they must have hated me up to a package for £37,000,000 which included £25,000,000 up front and £3,330,000 per season for 3 years. This will help offset that loan of ours. I made sure to nail the 50% sell on straight away so we lost £3,000,000 to potentially make £40,000,000 down the line if he keeps improving. That sounds like great business. Thank You Brennan, we wanted you here in Nottingham but least we got a great return and future windfall from you to help the club for decades to come. Anel Ahmedhodsic (For) made his intentions clear as soon as we were relegated. He wanted to be gone and cried his way out of the office when I wouldn't let him go for less than his release clause. Well, we did slightly with Brentford paying £16,500,000 with some add on's and a 20% future sale. We paid less, broke our transfer record and gained a few million along the way but it does leave a big gap in the back. And then the gap got a little bigger... We were very shocked when a huge offer came in for sparingly used central defender James Clarridge. The 20 year old only made 15 starts for us in the Premier League but has potential, how much we just don't know! That is what Brentford have paid for as they fought off Brighton for his services. £8,750,000 plus 30% plus several more millions if he makes it internationally, which we don't think he will in the England squad and has no other nationality. It's not like we needed the money, but when a good offer comes in sometimes you have to cash in. Finally this one happened late on deadline day, after I had told the press we wouldn't be doing any deals and to head to bed. German side Koln, who had already spent £28,500,000 to take attacking midfielder João Pedro from Wolves then shocked us with a £12,000,000 bid for Arvin Appiah. I mean, we liked him a lot but we sold him once for £6,000,000, bought him back for £1,000,000 and re-sold him for £12,000,000, that is some business! We seem to have plenty of players coming through the ranks now that can play his position so it was another one of those we don't need the money, but an offer like that may not come again! Aston Villa had to do some major selling as they sold 6 players for £138,000,000.... wow! And their wage bill is still over 3 times what ours is. Back to Nottingham Forest - Manager Brian Trent signed a new 3 year deal despite going down. We have a bucket load of money in the bank but that may go a long way to paying for a new stadium and if we go back up, it may pay for a top signing like Patrick Bamford (For) or Matty Cash (For) who are the best former academy players out there. There are not many options from the affiliates or players from Nottinghamshire to tempt us. I've put a squad update below, but we will look at that in more detail in the next post when we look at some player development to go along with it now we are a few years into the save! Gutted for you to lose some of your talented youngsters but hopefully your youth academy players can step up and you can build a new team to get back in the Prem. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
theBlackPrince Posted February 14, 2022 Author Share Posted February 14, 2022 2024/25 - Season 4 Squad Overview and Player Development As Arvin Appiah was such a late sell, I noticed he was still listed in the team sheet, I'll sack the media guy in the morning! Karl Darlow was the subject of a £1,500,000 bid from Swansea but we want him here. He has a big wage but we have a lot of young keepers in the squad and we need to have that seasoned Keeper to help stabilise the back and to bring the young ones on. We may also see which of the younger keepers is developing fastest and try and give a few games where we can along the way. Joe Worrall will be key at the back and a player who has shown no signs of wanting to leave. Who he is partnering with his still open at the minute, but we did bring back Leo Fuhr Hjelde (Not) back on loan from Leeds just to bolster that position and give us options (As long as we play him in the centre or Leeds will cry again). Fin Back we are developing as a starter and his progress is down below but we are most excited by It's a little more settled in midfield as Ryan Yates and Ben Osborn (For) are you number 1 partnership in the middle, but we hope to bring Eddie Craig 22c on as he looked like he can contribute this season. Another versatile player that gives us cover but we see as a central midfielder. Ben Woodburn (Not) is one of only a handful of Nottingham born players we missed out on and is playing for Wales so has the quality to shine at this level for us. The ex-Liverpool Academy player will play all over the park until we really find where his position is. Alex Mighten we cover below but a threat down both wings with his pace and ability to cut inside and make a play will be dangerous. Up top Richard Boateng (NC) will get a chance to step up a League after his loan at Oxford last year, let's see if that translate's with the experience to goals here. Tyler Walker (For) is the top option up front and it is his position to lose, but with more talent here we may look to go back to 4-4-2 to take advantage of the players we have coming through. Dominic Diggin 23b and recent intake Rafer Trimmingham 24e are not just there to make up the numbers, both have a genuine shot to contribute this season as we know how many games there are in a long Championship season. They ,ay still be a season away and will see under 23 time also to keep their development up. Youth Improvement - Predicted First Team Players Now we have a solid base of players coming through, think it is important to highlight some and their progress as we go through the seasons. These 4 below are a mixture of how they have come through the Academy, which is great to see multiple streams having an effect. Richard Boateng (NC) - Notts County prospect, Nottingham born - £66,000 Really pleased with Richard and his development, that £66,000 is looking like a bargain with a current valuation of around £7,500,000. Notts County will be saddened that they didn't add a future sale fee on. Physically he has developed really well, all area's show an improvment with pace and acceleration helping him become that goal threat. He still struggles with finding his team-mates and is not going to give 10 assists a year, but he knows where the goals is and is working towards becoming a solid Championship Striker. Fin Back - At Academy at the start Finley has worked had with the strength and conditioning coaches to improve his physical skill-set impressively in the last 3 years. He has improved his defensive skills, namely tackling and positioning to where he is a solid first choice at full-back. His attacking performance is not his strong suit so we play to his strengths and allow him to sit back more and be that defensive minded full-back as we allow the left side to be more aggressive. Alex Mighten - At Academy at the start Alex might have been under the shadow of Brennan Johnson the past few years and this is his season to really breakout. With 77 games in the Premier League for us, he should be entering his prime years now. He may not have developed as quickly as some other players but had a solid skill-set to start with. His pace and his dribbling are the key aspects we need to utilise down the wing and a swap to the right hand side, where he will back Fin Back not looking to go forward as much might be the best option as his defensive skills are not the greatest. Fernando Thicket 22e - 2022 Youth Intake Fernando had multiple choices for which country to play for and has gone Dutch! The first of our true "Academy Players" to make the list after a year on load at Morecambe last season. The talented full-back will most likely sit on the left for us and is a beast in the gym, always pushing to get faster and stronger as his endurance scores show. A true duel-threat as he can defend but loves to get forward and has the skill-set to do both well. A key player for the longer term future of the club we just had to get him into the first team and gain his first start. 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
LowestLeagueHero Posted February 14, 2022 Share Posted February 14, 2022 Hells, what a heartbreaking end to your 2nd PL season. Didn't expect that at all... Even more frustrating to see so many crucial (and soon-to-be-crucial) players being bought. It must feel like a kick to the nuts. But there's alway light - in your case it's the fact you're not some irrelevant "franchise" like MK Dons or something. You are FOREST. And you will be back. Fingers crossed! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
theBlackPrince Posted February 14, 2022 Author Share Posted February 14, 2022 35 minutes ago, LowestLeagueHero said: Hells, what a heartbreaking end to your 2nd PL season. Didn't expect that at all... Even more frustrating to see so many crucial (and soon-to-be-crucial) players being bought. It must feel like a kick to the nuts. But there's alway light - in your case it's the fact you're not some irrelevant "franchise" like MK Dons or something. You are FOREST. And you will be back. Fingers crossed! I didn't think it would happen to be fair, we started strong with some nice wins and then it was just an icy slope with no climbing after that! Just a frustrating experience but probably one that will help next time around! Oh I would love to have kept Johnson at the very least but it will be hard to see him playing for Leeds of all teams..... We are still a few seasons away from where I would like to be to go up again but the future is very, very bright with the work at the Academy going on! 1 hour ago, Ronaldo Beckham said: Gutted for you to lose some of your talented youngsters but hopefully your youth academy players can step up and you can build a new team to get back in the Prem. Tough year, knew Johnson was going to be hard to keep at the club but least he didn't go for pennies in the end. Really hope he progresses and get's a big time move in a few seasons! We are starting to get the youth academy players filtering into positions where some can start to get some game time which is positive, be a few more years before the pipeline is starters coming through every year which has to be the aim. Hopefully the money we gain now means we won't have to be an Ajax and sell every few seasons. Thanks both for checking in as always!! Time to get Forest back to the Premier League but Europe feels several years away still. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ronaldo Beckham Posted February 14, 2022 Share Posted February 14, 2022 1 minute ago, theBlackPrince said: I didn't think it would happen to be fair, we started strong with some nice wins and then it was just an icy slope with no climbing after that! Just a frustrating experience but probably one that will help next time around! Oh I would love to have kept Johnson at the very least but it will be hard to see him playing for Leeds of all teams..... We are still a few seasons away from where I would like to be to go up again but the future is very, very bright with the work at the Academy going on! Tough year, knew Johnson was going to be hard to keep at the club but least he didn't go for pennies in the end. Really hope he progresses and get's a big time move in a few seasons! We are starting to get the youth academy players filtering into positions where some can start to get some game time which is positive, be a few more years before the pipeline is starters coming through every year which has to be the aim. Hopefully the money we gain now means we won't have to be an Ajax and sell every few seasons. Thanks both for checking in as always!! Time to get Forest back to the Premier League but Europe feels several years away still. I am hoping to turn Forest into the new Ajax or old school Southampton and just keep producing World Class youth prospects to sell on. My aim is to have the best Youth Academy in England and produce the most International players. 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
theBlackPrince Posted February 14, 2022 Author Share Posted February 14, 2022 Season 4 - August to November Update - Trust the 4-4-2 Forest returned to the Championship after two season and lost their best two players. How would the players respond, by going on a 5 game un-beaten run and beating Derby twice already this season with a victory in the League Cup 2nd Round. We have moved back to the 4-4-2 and we are enjoying a great start to the season and scoring goals for fun. Sticking with the counter attacking style that we have had from the start, moving from cautious to attacking has worked wonders and really proving to be great at this level. We sit at the top of the league by 8 points but everyone below has a game in hand. Surprises in the league, Luton Town in 4th and Derby County back in a play-off position after falling to League One for a season but stuck with Wayne Rooney! What might be the most nail biting penalty shoot-out, Forest would beat Manchester City in the League Cup 3rd Round on the 11th penalty when it Karl Darlow scored but City's keeper missed to send Forest to the next round. A small revenge on Bournemouth for last season set up the all relegated Championship match up as two European Cup Winners face off in Forest and Aston Villa. Villa have won the League Cup 5 times to Forest's 4, neither team will probably be lifting the trophy but a semi-final appearance for one awaits! A quick delve into the stats, which I haven't done so much to date but will probably start to add moving forward more. We are way above the average on goals, shots and expected goals. We are down on passing percentage but that is about it for the season so far. I would like to be low the curve on conceded per game but if not, will just have to keep scoring more. One of the bright sparks has been Dominic Diggen 23b who is showcasing alongside Tyler Walker that he can start at this level, currently one of the best in highest scoring/high quality shooting category. Our midfield is showing great consistency that 4 from the 5 are all creating high levels of key passes per 90 minutes but Oliver Burke (For) is leading the way with more turning into assists. In not shown graphs, Karl Darlow and Clive Nurse 23a are virtually identical on save made, which is highly promising for the young keepers development. 2 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
theBlackPrince Posted February 14, 2022 Author Share Posted February 14, 2022 League Cup - You know what, I like our chances 0-2 down within 12 minutes and things were looking bad for Forest to progress in the League Cup. to get back into the game before the half. Tyler Walker would continue his fine scoring form this season to get a goal back just before the half to make the half time talk much easier. It would then be Oliver Burke (For) who would get the second goal and there was only one winner after that as it was all one way pressure from forest. Oliver Burke (For), who may have played one of the last games for the club after Celtic came in for a bid for him and he wants to leave. His contract runs out at the end of the season so left with little choice, take the money or risk losing for free. He might stay if we went up, but that a £7,500,000 gamble. Anyways, it was him who won the penalty that Tyler Walker (For) slotted home in the 82nd minute and take the first lead of the game. In the other matches, the two biggest teams would crash out as Arsenal was beaten by Southampton and Newcastle would win 10-9 on penalties over Liverpool. Forest's own Brennan Johnson would open the scoring for Leeds United but that was not enough as Leicester came back to win 2-1. Call me crazy, but I really, really like the teams that are left and think we have an outside chance of making the final and causing an upset!? We would draw Southampton who sit in 15th in the Premier League just one point above safety. They have only beaten Fulham, Bournemouth, Brighton and Brentford, who are all below them in the table. They could be low on confidence and in a relegation battle and we can afford to rest players to play a full strength team. Maybe, just maybe..... Bring on the power of 1979!! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
theBlackPrince Posted February 14, 2022 Author Share Posted February 14, 2022 Basford United - Affiliated Slightly different post as this time we have partnered with local team, Basford United. They made it by themselves into the Vanarama National North but I did not see it and at the half-way point in the season, they are struggling near the bottom. I will send a couple of loan players over and see if we can help turn their fortunes around! If I want more Nottingham based players, we need more Nottingham based clubs at higher levels. Their Manager, Steve Chettle was a Forest player from 1986 to 1999 making 527 appearances in all competitions after coming through the Forest Youth System. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
theBlackPrince Posted February 15, 2022 Author Share Posted February 15, 2022 We couldn't re-create 1979 in the League Cup If the League Cup Semi-Final was just one leg, we would be in the final as we took a 1-0 lead from the home leg, but would go down 0-2 at St Mary's to lose the tie 1-2. A shame, as it felt like a great year to be in the final. Never-mind, we will add another League Cup in the next 5 years I am sure. In the League we are still performing gloriously with the 4-4-2 and scoring goals for fun. We are mixing the younger players in to the starting line-up and one bright spark has been Dominic Diggin 23b who scored 2 goals on his debut against Middlesbrough. He has scored 8 goals in 11 starts and is the forth highest scorer on the team with Tyler Walker (For) leading the way with 23. We would lose Oliver Burke (For) to Celtic for £7,250,000 which is a small blow, but we have several players coming through at that position. We would also sell Dale Taylor to Hull for £500,000. We would take Basford United's youth prospect Aiden Melbourne (BU) for £750,000 and loaned him back for the season. We may have over-paid a little for him but he does have enough potential for it not to be looked into. They could only take two players on loan from us which is a shame or we would have them jumping up the League. Gary Brazil looks to have done it again with another solid looking intake preview. Will that translate into another great class? I guess we shall soon find out. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
theBlackPrince Posted February 15, 2022 Author Share Posted February 15, 2022 Season 4 - 2025 Nigel Doughty Academy Intake After several fantastic intakes, this one may come across as a little, underwhelming. Maybe, it is a good sign that the talent at the club over the past few years has improved to the level it should have been and this is more the standard level of intakes. We will have some fantastic looking players and maybe 3 or 4 will make the first team rather than 6 or 7. We have some great looking prospects and we seem to be turning into a GK factory with another highly rated youth keeper in Brenno 25a for the 3rd year running to be a goalkeeper as the "A" player. The Nottingham Forest reach seems to have grown, Simon Lancaster 25b grew up in Antigua & Barbuda but grew up a supporter and was only one team he wanted to play for. Extremely pleased that we had two central defenders come through the ranks with Scottish Greg Morrison 25c and Germany born Seidu Osei 25d, escpecally after selling James Clarridge this year. If we can get at least one of these into the first team in the next 5 years it will put us in a great position. At 190cm, Morrison had fantastic heading and tackling skills but will have to work on his pace if he wants to play at the highest level. Brenno 25a - Goalkeeper - Carregal do Sal - Portugal Born in Portugal, holds Brazilian and English Nationality Favoured Personnel - Christos Kelpekis Fairly Loyal personality Rushing Out 16, Agility 14, Kicking 14 181 cm and 67 kg Simon Lancaster 25b - Attacking Midfield Left / M (LC) - Cedar Grove, Antigua & Barbuda - Nottingham Forest Supporter Born in Antigua & Barbuda, has English Nationality Favorite Personnel - Aaron Cornwall and Gary Brazil Professional personality Technique 15, Flair 14, Work Rate 14 182 cm and 67 kg Greg Morrison 25c - Defender Centre - Portgordon, Scotland Favored personnel - Steven Reid, Oliver Bartlett, Cameron Ross, Gary Brazil Spirited personality Determination 16, Jumping Reach 15, Tackling 14 190 cm and 78 kg Seidu Osei 25d - Defencer Centre / DM - Schackendorf, Germany - Born in Germany has English and Ghanaian Nationality Favored personnel - Martyn Olorenshaw, Rob Gillman, Darren O'Dea, Garzy Brazil Fairly Sporting Personality Bravery 18, Aggression 15, Tackling 14 180 cm and 66 kg Rob Venables 25e - DM / Defender Centre - Nottingham, England - Nottingham Forest Supporter Has Irish 2nd Nationality. Favorite personnel - Brian Trent, Christos Kelpekis, Rob Gillman, Gary Brazil Unambitious personality Bravery 19, Work Rate 16, Natural Fitness 15 193 cm and 76 kg Dominic Carbon 25f - Midfield Centre / DM - Lutterworth, England Has Irish 2nd Nationality. Favored personnel - Ieuan Lewis, Tom King, Cameron Ross, Garry Brazil Balanced personality Bravery 16, Team Work 14, Determination 14 183 cm and 74 kg Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
theBlackPrince Posted February 15, 2022 Author Share Posted February 15, 2022 (edited) Them dirty rotten scoundrels!!! Guess I had better check this guy out in a few years time to see how he turns out. First one we have lost! And then a week later we lose our second one. Looking at the money on this one, Lewis Thompson might be the better prospect! Edited February 15, 2022 by theBlackPrince Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
theBlackPrince Posted February 16, 2022 Author Share Posted February 16, 2022 Season 4 - End of Season Review - Like a Yo-Yo we rise back up to the Premier League - Part 1 Well that was a season and a half, over 100 points and a record points haul for us. We were scoring goals for fun and all from the 4-4-2. Maybe if we had stuck with it last year... Probably wouldn't have made any difference. Going straight back up is hindered by losing the two best players at the club, the big question will be if the young players we have are ready for the next step of their career or are they still too "green" to compete with the big boys?? I guess in the first 10 games we shall find out. It might be a long update as a lot of things happened it seemed so going to break it up into smaller visual chunks this time rather than one large one. The Brian Clough Stadium - 2028 Season After what seems like an eternity, we finally have news of our new stadium and there was no other choice for the naming of it. It will be fitting if we could be back in Europe for 2028 to begin the return to a European Power, maybe that is what is our destiny? With the healthy bank balance and sponsorship (15 seasons at £3.67M until 2040), this actually won't hurt too much our finances which is great, not that we need a big transfer pot with limited players to sign. 40,720 is around 10,000 more than at present and I would have liked a bigger stadium, but I'm sure we have upgrades available. Would be great to eventually head over the 50,000 marker but for now, the wait for the new stadium will be a long one. When you're winning, everyone get's an award It's that age old saying, when you're winning everyone wants you, when you're not, soon forgotten and labelled as no good. Well we swept the board's with the awards as Tyler Walker (For) won goalscorer of the season with 27 goals in just 32 appearances, how many would he have had with a full season. It would be Joe Worrall who would win Sky Bet Championship Player of the season with a massive 7.46 average rating, and to think teams have been trying to sign him all season for £700,000 or less, jokers. This also set a new Championship record high, beating Oliver Burke (For) 7.39 average rating from 2021/22. Oh, Joe would also win the fans player of the season award. Ryan Yates would have the most man of the match performances with 6 and it was a surprise young player of the season award for on-loan defender Leo Fuhr Hjelde (Not). Has the 21 years old done enough to secure a permanent move or will Leeds price him out of it? Not shown, Brian Trent would also win manager of the year which was not really in doubt with the huge Title win and putting 9 of the 11 players into the Sky Bet Championship team of the season. We only missed out in goal as we rotated that position heavily and our young player of the season missed out also! The Forest Best XI Team of the Season only had 1 youth prospect in, the highly rated left back Fernando Thicket 22e. The rest is broken down by the below, which really just shows that currently the avenues the players have come from are wide and it is nice to see all have played a roll so far in players for Forest. Players at the club from the Academy - 4 Former Players from the Academy bought back - 2 Players from Youth Academy since starting - 1 Players from Nottingham - 2 Players from Affiliate - 1 Players from Nottinghamshire Clubs - 2 The overall best XI has had a few new faces added and the starting line-up is dominated by players who were brought back to Forest after starting their career here and players from the Academy who were already at the club, which is to be expected. I'm sure we will start to see our new crop of youth academy players coming though over the next few season's to take some of these slots. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
theBlackPrince Posted February 16, 2022 Author Share Posted February 16, 2022 Season 4 - End of Season Review - Like a Yo-Yo we rise back up to the Premier League - Part 2 We were in such a strong position we were able to afford more rotation of younger players into first team opportunities and still win games. This certainly had some huge impacts in current ability for those in the first team squad and their development for the Premier League. But, without the solid leadership of players like Joe Worrall and Ryan Yates, the young squad would not have performed to this level and may have seen a much different result if we just tried to play the kids. Goalkeepers This was a pretty decent split for Clive Nurse 23a who played in 38% of the games this season and had the higher average rating. Karl Darlow (For) is still the #1 but he is now 34 so will slowly be handing over the duties. He is still a great player to have to teach and guide the younger players, as we have lots of young keepers at the club, but these are the two that we will look to keep us in the Premier League next season. Expect to see similar next year with Clive Nurse 23a likely to see more playing time % than this year if development continues. Defenders What more can you say about our captain, Joe Worrall. Never asked or wanted to leave and every offer that we had for him, he was not interested in a move. He lead the line with interceptions and pass percentage all whilst playing with a different back 4 each week. Leo Fuhr Hjelde (Not) played his part on loan from Leeds and is developing into a player who may just be able to play in the Premier League. We will be putting an offer in for him for the next season as we need his position filled. Mete Ankan 23d managed to start 17 games at centre back and struggled at times, but has come on for that game time. He is still not close to Premier League level but may have to fill in next season. Fin Back has made the right back slot his own this season and we asked him to be more defensive in our attacking system, which he is happy to do. The real star performer from the youth academy was Fernando Thicket 22e as the young dutch player had 37 starts and looks set to be the left back starter for many seasons to come. Matthew Bondswell (For) played all over the back 4 all season and may struggle at the next level but is a great player to have on the bench. Midfield The change to 4 in the middle seemed to work wonders for vice-captain Ryan Yates who banged in 15 goals and 8 assists in what was a stunning season from him. He bossed the midfield all season and was the first name in that midfield 4 each game. On the left we often saw different players but one who keeps impressing is Harvey Sayer (Aff) who just puts a shift in each week and is happy to play any spot down the left. Not always a starter but always ready to be that versatile player who gets us out of trouble in a game. Alex Mighten played on the left, he played on the right and he also played for the USA team as he scored on his debut when he came off the bench. Playing down the right seems to suit with defensive cover from Fin Back to allow him the freedom to make things happen. Eddie Craig 22c made 19 starts and his improvement was there for all to see as the season went on, he has the potential to be a Premier League starter in the near future. He would also make his senior debut for Ireland at just 19 years old. Ben Osborn (For) turned 30 and saw his playing time drop due to injury and giving youngsters a game, he still chipped in with 10 assists on the season. Strikers Tyler Walker (For) may have found his level as a leading Championship player as he banged in nearly a goal every 90 minutes played, which is superb. With a better supporting cast can he go on and score 20+ in the Premier League? Richard Boateng (NC) would step up from his League One season at Oxford to prove he could score at the next level with 15 goals and he still looks to have some improvement to go, which bodes well for next season. He was also joined by a surprise Dominic Diggin 23b. The Nottingham Forest fan could not hide the emotions when he scored his first goals for his boy-hood club and he put 10 away with 7 assists, scoring a goal at more than once every 2 games. Who will step up to be the main threat next season as we have found out, scoring goals in the Premier League is not easy and you need plenty of them to try and stay up?! International Caps Ben Woodburn (Not) - Wales - 35 Caps, 3 Goals Leo Fuhr Hjedle (Not) - Norway - 2 Caps Alex Mighten - USA - 1 Cap, 1 Goal Eddie Craig 22c - Ireland - 1 Cap In other news, the under 23 team delivered the title in the Under 23 Premier Division 2 League 2 by a huge 12 points. It was also a great turn-around from our new Nottingham bases affiliate Basford United as they put a great 2nd half of the season performance together to climb out of the bottom 4 and secure their Vanarama North position for another season. With some transfer money in the kitty and loan options from Forest, can they start to challenge for promotion?? 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
theBlackPrince Posted February 16, 2022 Author Share Posted February 16, 2022 Going Dutch - Season 5 Pre-Season Affiliate Update A move back up to the Premier League and after putting my point of view to the board, aka this will happen, they gave me a list of teams that would be interested in becoming an affiliation of us that would give us greater access to youth prospects in Europe. Now, Sweden would have been nice and there are some great prospects in like the likes of Belgium, Slovenia and Romania, but with the Dutch league already loaded, we went Dutch! And we had our choice of several clubs, PEC Zwolle, Go Ahead Eages, Fortuna Sittard but we opted for ADO Den Haag. Firstly, they are based in The Hague, the royal capital of The Netherlands. Secondly, look at who their fierce rival is, Ajax!! Any chance we can get to steal some top Dutch talent for the Nigel Doughty Academy and stop Ajax getting them the better. The were relegated from the Eredivisie this season so will need to bounce back up, but that may mean we can secure some youth prospects on the cheap. I think this is a great addition to Nottingham Forest affiliates and the one with the most potential so far. We did have a few South American clubs in Uruguay and Chile open to the idea, but I think we wait to see what bigger clubs come up in a few years time. For now, another string to recruit players to the academy and one I'm excited to see how it progresses. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
LowestLeagueHero Posted February 16, 2022 Share Posted February 16, 2022 Congrats! Great to see you quickly got back to the top flight. Fingers crossed that the "yo-yo" days are over now and you can establish Forest in the PL. (The NAME of the new stadium is great by the way - but 110 million for just that small of a capacity increase? That's not fair. :/ ) 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
theBlackPrince Posted February 16, 2022 Author Share Posted February 16, 2022 Season 5 - Back to the Premier League once more - Pre-Season Back up we go like that yo-yo, but do we get to stay up this time or are we coming back down? The good news, we are only 1000-1 this time for the title! The pressure is up a little higher this time from the board, attempt to avoid relegation is different to fight bravely against it so even they think we have a chance. On the Transfer front we brought in Leo Fuhr Hjelde (Not) for £7,775,000 from Leeds United. He was on loan last year and is some much needed depth at centre back. He will most likely now act as cover as we spent another £4,800,000 on former academy player Jamaal Lascelles (For) as he comes home. More much needed players on defense, he is only 31 now so still has a few years left, hopefully at this level. The squad is much the same as what ended last season with one or two more players looking to make the move up to the senior squad. There will be 7 players from the Youth intakes in the first team squad with them all still under 20 years old, it will be a season of growing up for them if Forest are to stay up. The average age for the first ream squad is only 23, a full 4 years lower than the league average of 27. Our Domestic Player Bias is a league high 97% compared to an average of 66%. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
theBlackPrince Posted February 17, 2022 Author Share Posted February 17, 2022 On 16/02/2022 at 19:31, LowestLeagueHero said: Congrats! Great to see you quickly got back to the top flight. Fingers crossed that the "yo-yo" days are over now and you can establish Forest in the PL. (The NAME of the new stadium is great by the way - but 110 million for just that small of a capacity increase? That's not fair. :/ ) It was the only Name I wanted to see on the Stadium and it came true. Be fitting to play in Europe there! It is a huge cost but guess a new stadium from the ground up is expensive!! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
keeper#1 Posted February 18, 2022 Share Posted February 18, 2022 I love a good Nottingham Forest save. Hoping the second trip to the Premiership goes better than the first. 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
theBlackPrince Posted February 18, 2022 Author Share Posted February 18, 2022 Season 5 - Back to the Premier League - August to November Update Well it started off badly with just 1 point from the first 3 games before we once again took the scalp of Manchester United who just seem to struggle at the City Ground. We would edge into the top 10 briefly after 4 wins in 5 games, including a 5-2 demolition of Stoke City. Only 4 more points would come from the next 5 games but that is enough to end November in 10th spot but that is still only 5 points above the drop so far. Dominic Diggin 23b has picked up some monthly awards along the way as he started with 6 goals in the first 6 games but has then slowed down with 2 in the next 7. Overall, you take this start every day of the week, anything averaging over 1 point per game is the target and with 17 from 13 games, we are above this. We do know from our last season here, a strong start does not mean you are safe, will most the season to go, the race to 40 points is on. 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
theBlackPrince Posted February 18, 2022 Author Share Posted February 18, 2022 Season 5 - December to February Update It started with 8 points in 10 games, which is still enough to stay up. It ended with 12 points from 12 points in the next 4 games to push Nottingham Forest up the table into 9th place and with 38 points, should now be safe this season. Those 4 wins were against 12th, 15th, 16th and 20th but these are the teams we need to be getting points from each week to stay in the Premier League and the next goal of becoming a team who can push on and start to challenge those in the top 6. The games in March and April see Forest play 4 of the top 6 teams so points may be at a premium until May, but right now staying up was the only target for the season which looks safe at this time. We have another great looking Youth Intake as once again we look set to stay as a goalkeeper factory! With 4 categories set as "A"rated it is yet to be seen what that translate to once the final report comes through. In transfer news we brought in our first player from our new Dutch ADO Den Haag affiliation as the young Dutch midfielder Bart Martijn (Aff) comes across at 18 without a work permit. He is willing to sit in the under 23's to gain his time needed in England to be "home grown". We will shortly be bringing in some more for company but he speaks fluent English so fitting in should be no problem for him. 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
keeper#1 Posted February 18, 2022 Share Posted February 18, 2022 Seeing these Forest Youth Intakes, I may need poach Mr. Brazil and have come to Middlesbrough in my save. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
theBlackPrince Posted February 18, 2022 Author Share Posted February 18, 2022 5 hours ago, keeper#1 said: I love a good Nottingham Forest save. Hoping the second trip to the Premiership goes better than the first. I think we shall be fine now, starting to get the youth players up to scratch and good enough to beat those bottom few teams every year. 1 hour ago, keeper#1 said: Seeing these Forest Youth Intakes, I may need poach Mr. Brazil and have come to Middlesbrough in my save. He has really done the business in the first several years. I wonder how much further he can take the intakes with the top facilities. But out of loyalty, I will be keeping him for a while longer. 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
theBlackPrince Posted February 18, 2022 Author Share Posted February 18, 2022 2026 - Nigel Doughty Youth Academy Intake After the glowing report that came though in December, I am left underwhelmed by this intake. We don't play with attacking midfielders anymore and we already have enough keepers to field a whole team. Looks like I forgot to take the screenshot before naming them, but follows the same order. Peter Jones 26a looks set to be the fourth "A" player in a youth intake which is rather crazy. He has a superb frame at 196 cm to be an elite goalkeeper but might have the toughest job to ever play for the first team. Nathan Bowden 26b will probably get re-trained to play on the left side of midfield to use his dribbling ability to full use. The third elite prospect is Peter Clements 26c who will also get retrained, this time to play the right side of midfield. Outside of them 3, we will sign all other with decent potential to a deal to see if any develop more than initially thought, but looking back at this last few classes, we seem to be off the mark on this one. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
theBlackPrince Posted February 18, 2022 Author Share Posted February 18, 2022 Season 5 - Final Day of the Season and everything to play for I wouldn't normally post just for the final day of the season but we are, mathematically in which a long shot chance of making the final European place. We sit in 10th, 2 points behind Brentford in 7th who hold on to that last European slot. Holy smokes, we could see Brentford in Europe, and Fulham!! What is going on here? We are definitely on the outside looking in as all 3 of the teams above are playing teams in the bottom 5, so we would need a huge amount to go in our favor for this. I am over the moon with 10th and this is a successful season but the final day also means we get to see a close title race for once, decided on this day. 4 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blarney Posted February 20, 2022 Share Posted February 20, 2022 (edited) At least you get glowing reports of youth intake.... all I've managed for 2 seasons is "eh, maybe better luck next season!!" Okay, that's not really what they've said but that's how it's been. I think this year they're saying I've maybe 1 good player coming in. Hopefully with the upgrades to my youth recruitment that will change next year. Gratz on the wildly successful season though. Things are definitely looking up. Edited February 20, 2022 by Blarney Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
theBlackPrince Posted February 20, 2022 Author Share Posted February 20, 2022 (edited) Season 5 Premier League Review - Survived, now time to Thrive So we didn't have the magical end to the season to win a fairy tail European slot as we took a 2-0 lead against Newcastle, only to go down to 2-3 before that man once more, Ryan Yates scored in the 90th minute for a 3-3 draw. Even if we had won, Everton had the better goal difference so we would have missed out on goal difference. Europe was never on the cards at the start of the season so a 10th place finish is more than we could have hoped for this season. It is a full 16 points more than we achieved in our first season in the Premier League and I don't fear that we will be in the bottom 3 next season, but that could be famous last words. Manchester United would win the title on goal difference over Liverpool with Arsenal and Manchester City rounding out the top 4. Fulham will be the largest story of the season as they have finished 17th, one place above the drop each of the past 3 seasons. Dutch Manager Arne Slot has certainly turned their fortune around. At the bottom it will be Stoke, Crystal Palace and Brighton, who were in their 9th season in the top flight when it happened. West Ham survived on goal difference and Aston Villa had been in the bottom 3 most of the season but survived. Basford United have yet to spend any money from transfer's received and struggled once more but won on the last day of the season again to stay up! Player Review As we said at the end of last year, Karl Darlow (For) now at 35 years old would see his playing time lessen as we brought Clive Nurse 23a on with more first team games. He now has over 50% of the starts and will look to take on the #1 role for most games next season. In the back 4, captain Joe Worrall continues to lead the line and had another great season, picking another fans player of the year award and looks set to feature for Forest for more years to come. Fin Back was ever present on the right hand side and is always reliable, if not spectacular. That cannot be said for Fernando Thicket 22e who has rapidly become one of the best players at the club and the first to stand out from that 2022 class. He has solidified that left back role, but he does love a yellow card pretty much every week! Leo Fuhr Hjelde (Not) was the young player of the season, who joined after a second loan spell shared game time with Jamaal Lascelles (For) who was solid when called on in his return to Forest. We are still a little short back here so hopefully we will have some players move up from the under 23's next season. In midfield vice captain Ryan Yates would put in a true shift every game and chipped in with a huge 13 goals and 6 assists. Forest through and through, he always played his heart out. Eddie Craig 22c played often but is still struggle to be consistent, but he is only 20 and hopefully that will come with more time. Harvey Sayer (Aff) would really shine this season with a team high 15 assists from the left hand side. The 23 year old may not improve much more but for now, his performance is not one of those we worry about. Ben Osborne (For) on the other hand is struggling to get into the team and we may have seen the last game in a Forest shirt as he looks for more game time in his final years. Alex Mighten I feel we just need more from, 5 goals and 4 assists in 31 starts is not world beating for on of the better players at the club. Will he finally start to deliver next season? Up front it was another great season for Dominic Diggin 23b who scored 17 times and lead the team. He was wonderful at times and still at only 19 years old, could be years from his prime. Can he go better next season and hit over 20 goals? Tyler Walker (Not) would chip in with 12 goals and Richard Boatend (NC) would score 7 in 16 starts. Rafer Trimmingham 24e we still don't know where his best position is, playing in midfield and striker roles this season, he has bags of potential for next season as the first from the 2024 class to see the first team. Edited February 20, 2022 by theBlackPrince Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
theBlackPrince Posted February 20, 2022 Author Share Posted February 20, 2022 You can't win anything with kids - Season 6 2026/27 Premier League Preview That's what they say when 13 of the 25 squad members couldn't have a beer if we toured America. We had decided this season to promote some more youth prospects into the first team this season and get them game time in the under 23's if not selected for the main team. But, we may sacrifice a little this season to try and offer them all at least 10-15 games to try and bring on their development over the season. Out of the 25 plays in this years squad. 12 have come through the Youth Academy since Brian Trent took over 4 have come back to Forest after starting their career here 4 were at the club from the Academy since Brian Trent took over 3 were born in Nottingham/Nottinghamshire. 2 were from affiliates or Nottinghamshire clubs. We still have a good mix of veteran players who we will rely on, Captain Joe Worrall and vice-captain Ryan Yates we will expect to play most matches and add that leadership to the team. We have a lot of exciting prospects at only 18 and 19 years old including Emanuel Sanchez 24a who plays down the right like Alex Mighten, maybe some competition will do him good? The coaching team still believe the player with the most potential is Rafer Trimmingham 24e closely followed by 17 year old Louis Santwris 24c, leading the way for the academy class of 2024. When we break down the classes starting to make an impact it is a pretty even split over the past 4 years to date with 4 from each class. We are just missing goalkeeper Thomas WIlson 22a from the "A and B" lists, he will likely move up the ranks when Karl Darlow retires. The outlier in all this is Rohan Forbes 23g, the lowest perceived potential rating we have seen since they go from A to Z when naming youth players. It will be interesting to see how he develops and if any others past E, which seems to be the current limit happens over the next few years, 2022 Class - 4 players - B, C, D, E 2023 Class - 4 players - A, B, E, G 2024 Class - 4 players - A, B, C, E Transfer News With one eye on developing young talent from our affiliates, we signed two players both for £2,100,000 from Basford and ADO Den Haag. Billy WIlls (BU) will go straight back on loan to help Basford and could be a Championship level talent. We added a 50% sell on clause for them also if he does make it big. Samir Molenaar (Aff) is another keeper in the mix but could be a Premier League talent and join two fellow Dutch players here with no work permit so to date. Going out we had an offer too good to turn down for Will Swain, £7,750,000 for a player with less than 30 starts in 6 seasons. I really hope he does well with Stoke. We sold one of our fringe youth prospects, Omarion Galloway 22h to Bristol City for a little over £1,000,000. For a player not good enough for the first team, we had to cash in. Other than that, loans going out as usual. Oh, and we had a £25,000,000 offer for Aston Villa's Matty Cash accepted but he wanted £120,000 per week which is more than double the next player. Sorry Matty, one of my favorite players but not busting the wage budget for one player. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
theBlackPrince Posted February 21, 2022 Author Share Posted February 21, 2022 Season 6 Premier League Update - August to November Update 2026 6 Wins, 6 losses and we sit pretty much middle of the table, which is fine by me! We are good at home, not so good away but we are in every game which is pleasing. We do also have a Rooney and a Beckham scoring goals for us.... The win against Arsenal is the biggest win of the season and a couple of times we have touched on the Europa League places, but it is tight from 3rd to 13th with just 5 points separating the teams. I fully expect the grow as the to teams start to pull away, but it looks like Manchester United are running away with the title again this year and remain undefeated in 13 games. The aim for the season was maybe not to get to Europe, but to bring youth players on and we have managed to do that so far. We did make one late signing in Johan Walsh (Not) from Everton for £4,100,000. The 19 year old from Retford comes into a crowded midfield but has the potential to play in the Premier League in which we should at the very least, see his value increase if he doesn't make the first team. We are unsurprisingly the top producers of talent in the Premier League as 22 of the 27 players we have developed in the Nigel Doughty Academy are still at the club. In big news (I think the game glitched as I didn't seem to get my 50% sell on) Brennan Johnson has left Leeds for Arsenal. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
theBlackPrince Posted February 21, 2022 Author Share Posted February 21, 2022 (edited) Youth Academy+ Challenge - Update to Recruitment Rules In my quest for this not just to turn into a youth academy only challenge, there is just not enough prospects from just the Nottinghamshire area to buy of any standards. I also went back to look at the Forest teams of the European success and they were full of home nations. I could just keep getting foreign affiliates but I'm now not sure that is the right route. So, I decided to to look to expand the Nottinghamshire only to "East Midlands Only" to follow the Athletic Club "Basque" Policy. Lincolnshire, Derbyshire, Leciestershire, Rutland and Northamptonshire will now be scouted and have a (EM) tag attached. I hope this add's more potential players to the pool to buy and keep the team more, home grown. Greater Basque vs East Midlands Area size - Greater Basque 8,088 sq miles / East Midlands 6,034 sq miles Population - Greater Basque 3,155,978 / East Midlands 4,804,169 I do not expect much from Lincolnshire and Rutland which accounts for 1,100,000 of the population which brings it closer to the Basque population. Edited February 21, 2022 by theBlackPrince Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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