Here we are again. A familiar situation to Forest fans who, since I've been watching Forest have been under new management fifteen times (That's not including Gary Brazil as Interim manager). This feeling the majority of us are having right now comes around far to often as far as I am concerned.
It seems like a cop out the majority of the time, our managerial appointments that is. Never in my memory have we gone and took a a manager off of another club, equally, I cannot remember a time when all Forest fans were singing off the same hymn sheet "We want this man to manage our club for the foreseeable future, and to take us back to the Premier League."
Our latest appointment has been underwhelming at best. As a fanbase we were all astounded to hear of Karanka's departure and whether you believe Karanka or the club is up to you, but I would really not be surprised to find out that Karanka jumped before he was pushed, because he spent too much money to be just outside the playoffs, but is that really that bad?
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| New Forest manager, Martin O'Neill, is far from a favourite at present. |
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| Ex Manager, Aitor Karanka's departure came very suddenly. |
Two years ago we stayed up on the last day of the season, last season we finished seventeenth, would seventh or eighth have been that bad? No, not as far as I'm concerned. Whatever happened, losing Karanka when we did killed our season. Our record under caretaker manager Simon Ireland was woeful, embarrassing even when we hosted Reading. Two weeks of that sh*t followed, before we appointed Martin O'Neill.
Since then we have been nothing short of awful. Daryl Murphy must be laughing his way to the bank, if we keep playing like this he'll definitely be getting a contract extension. The style of football is like something out of the stone age. I'm not for a second suggesting that Forest Fans have some divine right to watch entertaining football, but when we spend £13.5m on a midfielder and £6m on a striker, less than a year ago, who now don't suit the style of play, whose fault is it? Is it Grabban's fault he can't hold the ball up? No, that's not his game. is it Carvalho's fault that he's being managed by a footballing neanderthal and had never heard of route one football until MON took charge? No, it isn't.
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| Optimism during the summer was high, follwing the sings of Diogo Gonclaves (L) and Joao Carvalho (R). |
When MON was appointed, I'll be honest I was optimistic, I was onside. I think I tweeted my support for him when it was announced, saying "The difference between Pearce and O'Neill is that O'Neill is a decent manager." How wrong could I be? The warning signs were there early door but I was still hoepful that there was some method in the madness. Weeks go by, no sign of Carvalho. Murphy is up top and Grabban is on the bench with Carvalho. At this point I, like others are starting to lose their sh*t. The final nail in the coffin was the consistent lack of a natural left back.
Since O'Neill took charge it has become common to not have Jack Robinson in the team. A fully fit, and decent left back, missing from the eighteen on a regular basis. Who plays left back? Either our best Central Midfielder, Jack Colback, or Forest Fan's Marmite, Ben Osborn. Why though? recently in the press Robinson has spoken out, against the manger and that must be the reason. But if Robinson is moaning to the press, who else amongst the playing staff is unhappy?
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| The aforementioned pair, Jack Colback (C) and Ben Osborn (R) Celebrate Forest's starlet Joe Lolley (L) bagging another. |
The local press have been awful, for the most part, during the recent discontent amongst supporters. Columnists Kenny Burns and Gary Birtles have been defending their ex-teammate since day one, blaming the fans for the results and then blaming the players. O'Neill himself attacked fans in a press conference, saying that "The fans need to remember that it's me who picks the team." We're not far off being back under a regime similar to Billy Davies' second time around where everyone resents each other. The fans are divided into two factions, who resent each others views, the players appear to resent MON and MON appears to resent us, the supporters.
One this is for sure, if MON is given the summer to build his own squad there will be a massive turnover of players and losses on both Grabban and Carvalho. In my opinion, giving O'Neill the summer will set us back five years. We will have a load of players suited to a style of football that categorically WILL NOT get us promoted. I just hope to God that Nicholas Randall, Evangelos Marankis and the rest of the board make the right decision, other wise we will face nearly another decade of mediocrity.
Craig
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