Following In Our Father's Footsteps: Nottingham Forest FC

INTRODUCTION

SANTIAGO BERNABEU, 28 MAY 1980

On the 28th May 1980, in the 21st minute John Robertson scored the only goal of a tense game in the European Cup Final. Robertson was playing for Nottingham Forest, who went on to secure their second consecutive European Cup title under legendary manager Brian Clough.

PORTMAN ROAD, 8 MAY 1993

On the final day of the inaugural Premier League season, Nottingham Forest lost 2-1 to Ipswich Town, concluding a season in which the two time European Champions were relegated from the top flight. The reason the game was so notable though was that this would serve to be Brian Clough’s final game in charge of the team he had led to glory.

THE CITY GROUND, 16 MAY 1999

Despite beating Leicester City 1-0 in the final game of the 1998-1999 season, Nottingham Forest finished bottom of the Premier League and were relegated from the top flight once again. Despite returning to the top flight on numerous occasions since Brian Clough’s retirement, this was to be the last time Nottingham Forest would compete in the Premier League as of the 2015-2016 season.

20 SEPTEMBER 2004

The sad news filtered through the UK and the global footballing world as Brian Clough passed away as a result of an ongoing struggle with stomach cancer. In the aftermath of his passing, Nottingham Forest and Derby County fans, normally the most fierce of rivals mourned together, with the former manager being honoured by Nottingham Forest with his name being emblazoned across a stand at the club’s City Ground Stadium.

With Brian Clough's death a legacy had been left untarnished at the club, desperate for somebody to come along and re-embrace it and return Nottingham Forest to the top of the English game...

Index

Achievements

NOTTINGHAM FOREST SOLD TO AL-HASAWI FAMILY

10 July 2012


The Al-Hasawi family have completed their takeover of Championship side Nottingham Forest.

They agreed to take control of the two-time European Cup winners after reaching terms to buy the late Nigel Doughty’s controlling stake.

”It’s an hour and privilege to assume control of this great club,” said the Kuwaiti-based family, who plan to hold a news conference on Saturday.

”You can be assured of our best efforts in bringing the Reds back to the top.”

Doughty put Forest up for sale in October but died four months later.

The Al-Hasawi’s interest in the club first emerged at the end of May.

Fawaz Al-Hasawi had been chairman of Al-Quadisya Sports Club in his native country, but his decision to step down was a precursor to interest in investment within English football.

”We know there are challenging times ahead of us to bring the club back to its glory days and we look forward with excitement towards a new successful future,” added the Al-Hasawi statement. ”We are in this for the long haul but hope that the club can progress well over the next couple of years as we aim to reach the holy grail of English football, the Barclays Premier League.”

Information

Just for context, the start of this story does not mark the end of my Marseille story! There will still be regular updates for that story, and potentially this one too, depending on how it goes in the initial phases of the game! Thanks for checking out this one and for checking out my Marseille story to those who have! Hope you enjoy!

NOTTINGHAM FOREST DECIDE NOT TO EXTEND DOUGIE FREEDMAN’S CONTRACT

27 May 2015


Nottingham Forest have today decided not to extend manager Dougie Freedman’s contract, an official club statement has confirmed. After finishing the season in 14th, the former Bolton and Crystal Palace manager has parted ways with the club after a run of form that saw the Red’s only win 2 of their final 12 games of the season and only 7 of the manager’s 18 league games in charge at the club.

After starting the season positively under previous manager Stuart Pearce, the club’s form soon slipped as they only won 3 of 21 games after their positive start. Freedman was soon appointed as manager until the end of the season, with a review due at the end of the campaign, but after talks with the board the decision was made to look for someone new to take over in the dugout at the City Ground.

Fawaz Al-Hasawi issued a statement stating, ”We would like to extend our appreciation to Dougie and his staff for all the hard work that they put into the club during their time at the club. There were some thrills during their time, and they picked the club up from what was a potentially dire situation under the previous regime and now we can continue to look forward and hopefully make even more progress under the manager we choose to work with for next season. We would like to once again make it known how grateful we are to Dougie for what he achieved at the club and we wish him well and all the best for the future, wherever that may be.”

After the dismissal of Freedman, the bookies are already taking bets over who will succeed him as manager. Nigel Pearson, looking likely to be without a job after a rumoured bust up with the Leicester City owners, is the favourite should he be ousted from the King Power Stadium, whilst Martin O’Neill, the current Republic of Ireland manager, is also in the running. The candidate most likely to warm Forest fan’s hearts though is likely to be Nigel Clough, the son of legendary former manager Brian Clough, who is available after his contract was terminated at League One side Sheffield United.

NIGEL CLOUGH ANNOUNCED AS DOUGIE FREEDMAN’S REPLACEMENT

05 June 2015

http://i1017.photobucket.com/albums/af298/Mg1001/Nigel%20Clough.jpg

Nottingham Forest have today confirmed that Nigel Clough has been named as the club’s new manager, signing a one year contract until June of next year. The former Burton Albion and Derby County manager, was let go as manager of League One side Sheffield United at the end of the football league season, before being approached by the Al-Hasawi family to become Dougie Freedman’s replacement at the City Ground.

Chairman Fawaz Al-Hasawi confirmed his delight at securing Clough as the new manager of the club, claiming ”We are delighted to announce Nigel as manager of the club. I think he is an appointment that is going to please the fans a tremendous amount and I believe that in the coming weeks the excitement ahead of the new season is going to be ramped up an incredible amount. He knows the club inside out from his playing days and obviously his father is an incredible piece of the club’s history, but we want to stress that the success his father achieved will not be used to judge how well he does here. We are confident that the years in which Nigel is manager of Nottingham Forest can be fruitful and we can go on to have a successful era, starting next year.”

Born in Sunderland in 1966, Clough had a long playing career, appearing for Nottingham Forest for the majority of his career, before moving on to Liverpool and Manchester City, before seeing out his career at Burton Albion as player-manager. His time at Burton was bought to an end in 2008, where he moved to becoming the permanent manager of the club, taking them into the football league. Despite his links to Nottingham Forest, Clough was appointed as manager of rivals Derby County, although he failed to guide the Rams into the Premier League, and was eventually sacked at the start of the 2013-2014 season after the team lost 3 games in 8 days. After the termination of his contract at Pride Park, Clough was then named manager of Sheffield United just over a month later, and guided the Blades into the Semi Finals of the FA Cup in the 2013-14 season before taking them to the Semi Finals of the Capitol One Cup in the 2014-2015 season before parting ways with the Bramall Lane side at the end of last season.

Further to his statement confirming Clough’s appointment, Fawaz Al-Hasawi stated that the club’s work off the pitch was far from over, and that the new manager would have to cope with what was already available to him, as the club is currently under a transfer embargo, meaning that they cannot sign any player for a fee until at least the end of the season. ”We are working hard to work with the Football League to stop our transfer embargo, and hopefully, within the near future, Nigel will have the ability to bring in players and build the squad he wants to build here at the City Ground.”