Marked for Benjamin Cunningham
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad16 Apr 2040
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 11 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Squad16 Apr 2040
Defences have started doubling up on Deivid Washington
32 goals and a season average of 7.41 will do that. The space he used to find has gone; he keeps scoring anyway, which is the mark of the real thing.
Squad16 Apr 2040
The words a physio says slowly. 20 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Player ratings16 Apr 2040
Gustavo Sá, 35, rolls back the years — 7.80
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 7.80 at 35, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Market16 Apr 2040
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Nottingham Forest is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad16 Apr 2040
Gustavo Sá in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Nottingham Forest this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match14 Apr 2040
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 6 goals between Nottingham Forest and West Ham United, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
Match14 Apr 2040
3‑3, and both dressing rooms will call it two points lost. A draw that asked plenty of questions and answered none of them.
Market16 Apr 2040
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Gustavo Sá’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad9 Apr 2040
There were 11 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
Squad9 Apr 2040
28 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Nottingham Forest lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Match7 Apr 2040
5‑1, and Gustavo Sá took the headlines on an afternoon when everything Nottingham Forest tried came off. Days like this are retold all winter.
Player ratings9 Apr 2040
Both of them Gustavo Sá's — 8.29
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.29, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Player ratings9 Apr 2040
At 39 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.20 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Squad9 Apr 2040
James McAtee was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Market9 Apr 2040
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Marcus Isane Kjos will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Nottingham Forest the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Match7 Apr 2040
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 6 goals between Nottingham Forest and Milton Keynes Dons, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad2 Apr 2040
There were 11 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
Squad2 Apr 2040
The words a physio says slowly. 36 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Squad2 Apr 2040
413 appearances across 11 seasons in one shirt. Nobody builds a career like that on purpose any more; it happens to a certain kind of footballer at a certain kind of club.
Squad2 Apr 2040
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Callum Hudson-Odoi and Nottingham Forest agree another 2 years.
Market2 Apr 2040
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Nottingham Forest, and it is not being withdrawn.
Match31 Mar 2040
4 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Match31 Mar 2040
Two or more conceded in each of the last 5 matches. It is not one mistake repeating itself, which would be the easier thing to fix; it is a different one every week.
Match31 Mar 2040
0‑2 to Bristol City, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Boardroom2 Apr 2040
86% of the income goes out in wages at Nottingham Forest
Every club in football pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time somebody has tried it.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad26 Mar 2040
The words a physio says slowly. 43 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Squad26 Mar 2040
Defences have started doubling up on Deivid Washington
31 goals and a season average of 7.42 will do that. The space he used to find has gone; he keeps scoring anyway, which is the mark of the real thing.
Squad26 Mar 2040
There were 6 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
Player ratings26 Mar 2040
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 7.91 at 39, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Squad26 Mar 2040
Gustavo Sá was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Player ratings26 Mar 2040
Gustavo Sá runs at them all day
Successful dribbles: 21. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad19 Mar 2040
51 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Nottingham Forest lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad19 Mar 2040
Defences have started doubling up on Deivid Washington
30 goals and a season average of 7.41 will do that. The space he used to find has gone; he keeps scoring anyway, which is the mark of the real thing.
Squad19 Mar 2040
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 6 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Player ratings19 Mar 2040
At 38 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 7.87 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Market19 Mar 2040
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Nottingham Forest is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad19 Mar 2040
Luca Netz in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Nottingham Forest this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match17 Mar 2040
It finished 2‑2, and it somehow always looked like it would. One of those afternoons where the table moves less than the tempers.
Market19 Mar 2040
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Gustavo Sá’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
Player ratings19 Mar 2040
Gustavo Sá runs at them all day
Successful dribbles: 9. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad12 Mar 2040
58 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Nottingham Forest lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad12 Mar 2040
There were 10 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
Squad12 Mar 2040
A season average of 7.40 with 29 goals behind it. Opponents have started planning around him, which is the sincerest compliment football pays.
Player ratings12 Mar 2040
The game went through Chinaza Nwosu — 7.22
Marked 7.22 on 21 actions at both ends of the pitch. Midfielders like this get described as unspectacular by people who have never tried to play against one.
Squad12 Mar 2040
James McAtee was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Market12 Mar 2040
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Nottingham Forest is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Match10 Mar 2040
Beaten 1‑2, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Market12 Mar 2040
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Nottingham Forest know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Player ratings12 Mar 2040
Successful dribbles: 8. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad5 Mar 2040
The words a physio says slowly. 66 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Squad5 Mar 2040
Defences have started doubling up on Deivid Washington
28 goals and a season average of 7.39 will do that. The space he used to find has gone; he keeps scoring anyway, which is the mark of the real thing.
Player ratings5 Mar 2040
Zach Abbott, 33, rolls back the years — 7.80
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 7.80 at 33, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Market5 Mar 2040
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Squad5 Mar 2040
James McAtee in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Nottingham Forest this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Market5 Mar 2040
Noah Streit wants to know where this is going
“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at Nottingham Forest hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Match3 Mar 2040
6 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Nottingham Forest and Bolton Wanderers in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
Squad5 Mar 2040
Luca Netz falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad27 Feb 2040
The words a physio says slowly. 73 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Squad27 Feb 2040
James McAtee was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad27 Feb 2040
The injury that keeps coming back, keeps being rushed back from, and quietly costs more careers than the dramatic ones. 14 days is the estimate; the honest figure depends on whether anybody is patient.
Squad27 Feb 2040
Words at Nottingham Forest training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Gustavo Sá is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Match25 Feb 2040
0‑1 to Queens Park Rangers, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Boardroom27 Feb 2040
The manager kept them in and said what needed saying. A response is expected on Saturday, and if it does not come the questions move upstairs.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad20 Feb 2040
81 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Nottingham Forest lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Match18 Feb 2040
2 goals to the good, and then a slow surrender of everything that had been earned. Deivid Washington will not be the one blamed for it, but nobody at Nottingham Forest escapes the conversation that follows a collapse like this.
Squad20 Feb 2040
27 goals and a season average of 7.39. Form like that gets noticed well beyond this town.
Squad20 Feb 2040
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 8 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Player ratings20 Feb 2040
Two goals and a mark of 8.52 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Market20 Feb 2040
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Charlie Compton will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Nottingham Forest the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad20 Feb 2040
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Nottingham Forest this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match18 Feb 2040
Two or more conceded in each of the last 4 matches. It is not one mistake repeating itself, which would be the easier thing to fix; it is a different one every week.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad13 Feb 2040
The words a physio says slowly. 89 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Match11 Feb 2040
2 behind and going nowhere, until Zach Abbott decided otherwise. Sunderland had done the hard part and then watched it come apart, and the noise at the final whistle was the sort a ground keeps.
Squad13 Feb 2040
A season average of 7.36 with 25 goals behind it. Opponents have started planning around him, which is the sincerest compliment football pays.
Player ratings13 Feb 2040
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.31 at 39, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Squad13 Feb 2040
Gustavo Sá was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Market13 Feb 2040
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Nottingham Forest is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad13 Feb 2040
Words at Nottingham Forest training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. James McAtee is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Match11 Feb 2040
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Zach Abbott. 3‑2 against Sunderland, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Boardroom13 Feb 2040
Nothing happens for months and then he simply arrives, at no cost, having signed a pre-contract while still turning out for somebody else. It is the least dramatic way to sign a footballer and frequently the shrewdest.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad6 Feb 2040
97 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Nottingham Forest lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad6 Feb 2040
Defences have started doubling up on Deivid Washington
24 goals and a season average of 7.35 will do that. The space he used to find has gone; he keeps scoring anyway, which is the mark of the real thing.
Squad6 Feb 2040
555 appearances across 15 seasons in these colours. Careers like that are not built any more, and Nottingham Forest know what they have.
Squad6 Feb 2040
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 7 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Market6 Feb 2040
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Nottingham Forest, and it is not being withdrawn.
Match4 Feb 2040
Wolverhampton left with the points after a 2‑3 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Boardroom6 Feb 2040
There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
Market6 Feb 2040
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Nottingham Forest know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad30 Jan 2040
The words a physio says slowly. 107 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Squad30 Jan 2040
Words at Nottingham Forest training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. James McAtee is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Squad30 Jan 2040
Daniel Jebbison was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad23 Jan 2040
117 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Nottingham Forest lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Match21 Jan 2040
18 without defeat on their own grass. The pitch has not changed; the crowd has — louder earlier, and quicker to sense when the opposition would rather be somewhere else.
Squad23 Jan 2040
There were 9 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
Player ratings23 Jan 2040
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.18 at 39, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Market23 Jan 2040
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Nottingham Forest is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad23 Jan 2040
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Nottingham Forest this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Boardroom23 Jan 2040
The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Charlie Compton has agreed terms with Crystal Palace for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
Squad23 Jan 2040
James McAtee falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad16 Jan 2040
126 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Nottingham Forest lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Match14 Jan 2040
3‑0, and the margin flattered nobody — it could have carried another goal or two without complaint. Afternoons like this are why people keep coming.
Squad16 Jan 2040
3 goals in one game. The first was taken well, the second was taken greedily, and by the third the crowd were simply waiting for him to get the ball.
Player ratings16 Jan 2040
At 34 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 9.60 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Squad16 Jan 2040
Defences have started doubling up on Deivid Washington
23 goals and a season average of 7.35 will do that. The space he used to find has gone; he keeps scoring anyway, which is the mark of the real thing.
Market16 Jan 2040
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Nottingham Forest can pretend not to have heard.
Squad16 Jan 2040
James McAtee was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Player ratings16 Jan 2040
17 times he got in the way of something. Centre-halves get written about when they make mistakes and ignored when they do not, so an afternoon like this needs saying out loud: he is the reason the scoreline reads as it does.
Market16 Jan 2040
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Nottingham Forest know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Player ratings24 Oct 2039
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 7.85 at 37, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Squad24 Oct 2039
Luca Netz in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Nottingham Forest this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad24 Oct 2039
Gustavo Sá falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Player ratings24 Oct 2039
Defensive actions: 19. He was first to everything and second to nothing, and the goalkeeper had an easy day because of it.
Player ratings24 Oct 2039
18 times he got in the way of something. Centre-halves get written about when they make mistakes and ignored when they do not, so an afternoon like this needs saying out loud: he is the reason the scoreline reads as it does.
Squad24 Oct 2039
Luca Netz has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Nottingham Forest will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
Squad24 Oct 2039
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Musunda Mwamba, and the manager let it.
Market24 Oct 2039
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Conor Bradley’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.