It’s been a painful season for Forest fans – it could’ve been worse though – and the end-of-season politics continue before we can fully recover.
As a Forest fan from Nottingham – of all places – I wasn’t moved by the F.A. Cup Final, at all. I used to watch it religiously in the 80s, from 10 am until the 2nd replay, but with the two Manchester sides, it was like deciding who to vote for at a forthcoming general election.
Featuring two sides flying opposing red and blue flags, it reminded me of having to choose between politicians; the ones I despise the least.
With no real representation, the theme tune of the game should’ve been ‘Heaven knows I’m miserable now’, by The Smiths – one of Manchester’s finest exports.
There were the fans from Manchester on one side and those from London, Laos and Kuala Lumpur on the other.
With refereeing decisions permanently going their way, VARchester United must be the most unlikeable team in that league with cry-baby Bruno Fernandes, Moroccan time-waster Amrabat, calamity Maguire, cheating McTominay, waste-of-money Antony, and no charisma Ten Hags.
The Manchester City team is a slightly more likeable setup with England stars such as Phil Foden, John Stones and the loveable Jack Grealish who has spent most of his time at City getting absolutely shit-faced.
Champions of Europe
It appears that Gareth Southgate was so concerned about picking up the German bar bill, he decided to leave Jack behind for this weekend’s Euros.
Manchester City’s owners have invested a lot of time in cheating, breaching FFP, and bullying the league whilst Kyle Walker has been equally committed to impregnating more women than Genghis Khan and Boris Johnson.
Simon Jordan has even gone as far as wanting City expelled them from the league for their bullying tactics.
Like Labour and Conservative, both teams were irrelevant to Forest fans, carrying less representation than our two main political parties and who gives a shit who won.
One competition that was of Interest to some Forest fans was the Chicken Supreme European Conference Trophy.
I watched it primarily to see if there were any quality players at Olympiacos who were likely to switch between the Marinakis-owned clubs this summer.
Forest player Omar Richards – yes, he’s still ours – is now part of history as a winner with the first-ever Greek champions of Europe.
Congratulations to Olympiacos, and I hope the victory has given Marinakis a taste of European success and inspired him to repeat something similar with his English club.
They’re like a bad dream.
As we go into the Euros, there is no getting away from many of those players. It’s like a bad dream: they won’t go away.
We are stuck with a handful of those players for the next month or so now, so we’ve got to grin and bear the Match of the Day adulation of VARchester and Man City players until they are denounced by the press for playing crap and losing in the Quarter Finals.
Fortunately for City and VARchester, with so many Crystal Palace players bound for Deutschland, there will be another club that will be booed if England fail to deliver again.
Forest and England End-of-Season Football Politics
We’re looking forward to shiny new Forest players, PSR breach avoidance, keeping our best players, and a quarter-final elimination for Gareth Southgate’s England.
Alas, we all know it won’t go well for Forest, and England will ultimately have a new manager by August.
Reports are coming out that Forest only needs to clear a deficit of £20 million, and the majority of that could be resolved with one swift sale of Mangala and some clever negotiating for Worrall.
End-of-season football politics are clearly evident within the England squad. Morgan Gibbs-White was only second to Ollie Watkins on the assist stats and yet he has been surprisingly snubbed.
Arguably Forest’s most creative player, it seems odd that MGW hasn’t been chosen for the initial line-up but less surprising when you consider that England managers continually snub creative players that upset the psychological balance of the F.A.
It’s easy for Southgate to pick players like Maguire, Mason Mount and Maddison whilst labelling MGW as a ‘future’ England player who has potential but isn’t quite ready yet.
It’s too much of a headache for an England manager to replace boring, experienced England players with a creative maverick. Southgate can justify the experience and would have plenty of explaining to do if it all goes horribly wrong under the pressure of the inevitable penalty shootout if he picked rookies from provincial clubs.
Personally, I don’t think MGW is a risky decision, it’s an obvious decision for me based on form and statistics. I think Mason Mount is overrated and Maddison is out-of-form and punches like a soft toy. Would you have taken MGW to the Euros?
I worry that Morgan will take the England rejection hard, become subdued, and spend the summer on a yacht reading Wilfred Owen’s poems and quaffing Tequila like Jack Grealish.
MGW could potentially construct a belief that he didn’t get picked for his country because he’s part of a ‘provincial side’.
If he had been in the Spurs or Arsenal side, would he have been chosen? Yes, it’s my opinion that he would. What do you think?
Feed the League
For those who are concerned that Forest are now becoming a bit of a feeder side, you have to remember that this was the plan. Not that long ago, Forest were considering 30-year-old journeymen to see them compete in the lower leagues, only wishing for the days when they could be in a position to buy quality young players from Brazil and sell them on for big profits.
This is the intended transition, this is where we find ourselves, and this is where Forest needs to be if they want to progress.
If Forest can do some good business in the summer and stay within the PSR rules whilst retaining the best players, we can forget the end-of-season football politics and progress to the next stage of building and move up the league – COYR! And Come on England!
