A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Nottingham Forest will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Nottingham Forest have lost him in all but the paperwork.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Nottingham Forest have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
7 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.
The phone has started ringing about Nikola Milenković again, and this time the name on the line is Reading. Nottingham Forest are listening politely and promising nothing.
Nottingham Forest offered $480.0K; Manchester United said it was not close. The manager will be told the money is still there for the right player, which is what managers are told.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Nottingham Forest will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Nottingham Forest people have started saying his name in the past tense.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Nicolás Domínguez wants continental football; whether Nottingham Forest can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Manchester United have kept their man, and Nottingham Forest go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Chris Wood 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Nicolás Domínguez 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.
Huddersfield Town wanted more than $9.8M and the board would not go there. Walked away, for now, which in a transfer window means until somebody blinks.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Rodrigo Castillo and Nottingham Forest agree another 4 years.
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.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Max Watters has, at Nottingham Forest, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
Nottingham Forest asked and Manchester United said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
The general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.
$9.8M on the table at Huddersfield Town. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
The name of James McAtee has come up in conversations Nottingham Forest were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
The most common injury in the game and the most rushed back from. Nottingham Forest will quote 15 days and will be careful with it, because the second one is always worse than the first.
The offer from Aston Villa for Zach Abbott was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
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.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Nottingham Forest has been clear about where Nikola Milenković stands, which is more than many ever get.
The general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.
“I watch every Nottingham Forest game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Sheffield United runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
Add another name to the list: Lincoln City have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Nikola Milenković. The answer from Nottingham Forest has not changed — yet.
Nottingham Forest asked and Fulham said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Cuiabano 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.
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.
10 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.
Nottingham Forest have made the call to Manchester United. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Brighton waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Nottingham Forest is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Nottingham Forest asked and Huddersfield Town said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Dan Ndoye wants continental football; whether Nottingham Forest can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Nottingham Forest can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
The name of Eric da Silva Moreira has come up in conversations Nottingham Forest were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Nottingham Forest have made the call to Burnley. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
Nottingham Forest asked and Sunderland said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
The offer from Reading for Nikola Milenković was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
Newcastle United pay $12.1M, and the deal is done. The number reads well on a balance sheet; whether it reads well on the pitch is next season's question.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Central Coast Mariners waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Nottingham Forest is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Arnaud Kalimuendo trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
The system has changed and his position has not. A footballer can improve his form; he cannot improve the manager’s formation, and that is the whole of the problem.
The dugout10 Jul 2028
The manager has not finished forgetting Ben Gannon Doak's mistake
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Stoke City have kept their man, and Nottingham Forest go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Tomáš Rigo has, at Nottingham Forest, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and Nottingham Forest know it.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Nicolás Domínguez 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.
“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.
Nottingham Forest and Stoke City have settled on $3.8M. The rest belongs to the player and his agent, and a supporter who has watched one of these before knows not to buy the shirt yet.
$11.1M on the table at Chesterfield. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Blackpool paid $5.1M and Nottingham Forest took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
Add another name to the list: Portsmouth have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Nikola Milenković. The answer from Nottingham Forest has not changed — yet.
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $12.0M — a club that wants Tomáš Rigo enough to be asked twice.
Nottingham Forest asked and Queens Park Rangers said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and West Ham United waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Nottingham Forest is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Nottingham Forest are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
The system has changed and his position has not. A footballer can improve his form; he cannot improve the manager’s formation, and that is the whole of the problem.
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.
In brief
The dugoutNicolò Savona asks for a word with the manager
Nottingham Forest offered $21.1M; Norwich City said it was not close. The manager will be told the money is still there for the right player, which is what managers are told.
He is going to Arsenal, the club has $89.3M it did not have on Friday, and the phone-ins have already decided how they feel about that. Selling well and selling somebody they loved are not the same skill.
“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.
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $10.0M — a club that wants Taylor Harwood-Bellis enough to be asked twice.
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Ryan Yates has pre-agreed a move away, which means every appearance between now and June is made by a man the club can no longer sell, and somebody upstairs will be asked why the contract was allowed to get here.
Rodrigo Castillo 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.
The offer went to Norwich City this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.
Nottingham Forest asked and Liverpool said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Wolverhampton waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Nottingham Forest is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Nottingham Forest have gone to Southampton with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
Add another name to the list: Arsenal have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Omari Hutchinson. The answer from Nottingham Forest has not changed — yet.
“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.
Ibrahim Sangaré and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Steven Benda 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.
43 appearances and 8 goals away from here, and a player the manager did not have in August. Loans are sent out hoping for exactly this and most of them do not deliver it.
Nobody will confirm this and nothing else explains the last month of selections. A costly error buys a player a period of being second choice that is always longer than the error was.
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
“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.
6 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Nottingham Forest has to find a result from somewhere.
The general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 3 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
5 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.
Successful dribbles: 25. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Nottingham Forest are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Nottingham Forest they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Nottingham Forest can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
The dugout15 May 2028
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Joshua Davis was not hiding it after 0‑0, and nobody in the Nottingham Forest dressing room was either.
In brief
The dugoutChris Wood has become a man the manager trusts
“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.
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.
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Nottingham Forest can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
4 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Nottingham Forest has to find a result from somewhere.
39 appearances at Newport County and the goals have stopped going in. Nottingham Forest lent out a goalkeeper and are watching somebody else’s season get better every week.
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and Nottingham Forest know it.
“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.
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Loan watch1 May 2028
Steven Benda’s loan is measured in nothing happening
23 clean sheets from 33 appearances at Plymouth Argyle. That is the whole of a goalkeeper’s job done properly, and it is being done a long way from the club that owns him.
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Nottingham Forest are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
9 months left and silence from upstairs — no offer, no talks, nothing for his people to answer. Clubs that let a calendar do their negotiating usually end up negotiating with the calendar.
0‑3 against Manchester City, and no complaints that would survive the replay. The manager spoke about character afterwards; the terraces used shorter words.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Nottingham Forest have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
“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.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Joshua Davis after 0‑3, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
“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.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Luke Campbell will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Nottingham Forest the goodbyes have quietly begun.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Nottingham Forest can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Rodrigo Castillo trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Stoke City will want this one forgotten quickly: 4‑0, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Nottingham Forest were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
“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.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Arnaud Kalimuendo provided it, and the 8.80 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Nottingham Forest they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Ibrahim Sangaré scored, was marked 7.80, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
8 without a win is the sort of run that changes how a town talks about its club, and Stoke City were the afternoon it stopped. Nothing is fixed by one result and everything feels different by one.
Ibrahim Sangaré 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.
35 appearances at Newport County and the goals have stopped going in. Nottingham Forest lent out a goalkeeper and are watching somebody else’s season get better every week.
“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.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Nottingham Forest have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
8 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.
Loan watch3 Apr 2028
Steven Benda’s loan is measured in nothing happening
21 clean sheets from 29 appearances at Plymouth Argyle. That is the whole of a goalkeeper’s job done properly, and it is being done a long way from the club that owns him.
“I have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 4 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Nottingham Forest can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑1, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Nottingham Forest can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
6 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Nicolò Savona is on it.
35 appearances away from home and 9 goals to show for them. Every one of them makes next summer's conversation a little more expensive.
The dugout27 Mar 2028
John Victor is still being punished for one mistake
Nobody will confirm it and the team sheets confirm it every week. One error has bought him a spell as second choice that is already longer than the error deserved.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until James Garner signs something — a contract at Nottingham Forest or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
7 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Nottingham Forest has to find a result from somewhere.
“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.
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Nottingham Forest can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
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.
Loan watch20 Mar 2028
Aaron Bott’s loan is measured in nothing happening
15 clean sheets from 33 appearances at Newport County. That is the whole of a goalkeeper’s job done properly, and it is being done a long way from the club that owns him.
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 3 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 10 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
6 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Nottingham Forest has to find a result from somewhere.
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.
Loan watch13 Mar 2028
Steven Benda’s loan is measured in nothing happening
20 clean sheets from 27 appearances at Plymouth Argyle. That is the whole of a goalkeeper’s job done properly, and it is being done a long way from the club that owns him.
“I have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and Nottingham Forest know it.
He will play here until the summer and then walk out of the door for free, having already signed elsewhere. Supporters will manage the first part of that sentence; it is the second they will struggle with.
5 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Nottingham Forest has to find a result from somewhere.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Nottingham Forest heard it as anything else.
26 appearances at Plymouth Argyle and the goals have stopped going in. Nottingham Forest lent out a goalkeeper and are watching somebody else’s season get better every week.
The general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and Nottingham Forest know it.
Neco Williams 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.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Omari Hutchinson provided it, and the 8.55 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
The run now stands at 4, and the questions being asked around Nottingham Forest are no longer polite ones.
Loan watch28 Feb 2028
Steven Benda’s loan is measured in nothing happening
17 clean sheets from 24 appearances at Plymouth Argyle. That is the whole of a goalkeeper’s job done properly, and it is being done a long way from the club that owns him.
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.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 2‑3, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
“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.
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.
Barnsley will keep picking him until June and will get nothing for him after it. Max Watters has pre-agreed a move to Nottingham Forest, and the only people who lose in that arrangement are the ones who let the contract run down.
Nottingham Forest asked and Aston Villa said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Something was said to Arnaud Kalimuendo and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
There is no complaint available here and everybody involved knows it, which does not make the walk to the bench any shorter. Form is the only currency in football that cannot be borrowed against.
5 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.
9 goals in 30 games at Bolton Wanderers — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Nottingham Forest updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
“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.
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.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Luke Campbell will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Nottingham Forest the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Loan watch14 Feb 2028
Steven Benda’s loan is measured in nothing happening
16 clean sheets from 23 appearances at Plymouth Argyle. That is the whole of a goalkeeper’s job done properly, and it is being done a long way from the club that owns him.
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Bristol Rovers had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
“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.
The offer from Chelsea for Omari Hutchinson was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
The clock did what Derby County would not, and ended it. Supporters who watched the countdown will spend the next window doing it again.
Boardroom7 Feb 2028
Deadline passes with 4 signed and 11 gone
That is the business done at Nottingham Forest until the window opens again. Whether it was enough will be answered on Saturdays rather than in a column, and the first Saturday is close.
Everything was agreed until it was not, and Ryan Yates reports back to Nottingham Forest with a summer to forget. Neither club is saying who walked away from the table.
He will play here until the summer and then walk out of the door for free, having already signed elsewhere. Supporters will manage the first part of that sentence; it is the second they will struggle with.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Omari Hutchinson. 3‑2 against Bournemouth, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Nottingham Forest have done the hard part with Derby County, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 9 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Nottingham Forest asked and Norwich City said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
It is the least glamorous business a club does and the reason seasons do not collapse in February. Saša Kalajdžić is here for the weeks when three men are injured and somebody still has to play.
Cambridge United pay $120.0K, and the deal is done. The number reads well on a balance sheet; whether it reads well on the pitch is next season's question.
Loan watch31 Jan 2028
Steven Benda’s loan is measured in nothing happening
14 clean sheets from 20 appearances at Plymouth Argyle. That is the whole of a goalkeeper’s job done properly, and it is being done a long way from the club that owns him.
2 in front and in complete control, and it finished with Arsenal the happier side. There is no version of this afternoon that Nottingham Forest will enjoy reviewing.
The offer from Tottenham for James Garner was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Nottingham Forest people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Two goals and a mark of 8.51 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Luke Campbell has pre-agreed a move away, which means every appearance between now and June is made by a man the club can no longer sell, and somebody upstairs will be asked why the contract was allowed to get here.
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Nottingham Forest can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
The fee is $13.3M, the contract is signed, and the argument about whether he is worth it can begin. Norwich City drove a hard bargain; time will say who won it.
“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.
The general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $16.0M — a club that wants Facundo Torres enough to be asked twice.
Cuiabano and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Nottingham Forest asked and Manchester City said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Omari Hutchinson. 2‑0 against Brentford, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Marked 8.25 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 8 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Nottingham Forest people have started saying his name in the past tense.
“It was not right for me. I am not going to explain why to anybody except the people I owe an explanation to.” A deal agreed between two clubs, and a player who declined to be part of it.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Nottingham Forest have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Nottingham Forest can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Ola Aina has pre-agreed a move away, which means every appearance between now and June is made by a man the club can no longer sell, and somebody upstairs will be asked why the contract was allowed to get here.
The offer went to Fluminense this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.
$13.3M on the table at Norwich City. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
“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.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Dan Ndoye wants continental football; whether Nottingham Forest can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
“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.
Ibrahim Sangaré and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Successful dribbles: 25. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Joshua Davis after 0‑1, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
14 appearances at Plymouth Argyle and the goals have stopped going in. Nottingham Forest lent out a goalkeeper and are watching somebody else’s season get better every week.
At 36 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 7.96 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
1 for Ibrahim Sangaré, marked 7.57, and a centre-half's name in the part of the report he normally only reaches by mistake. He will not be allowed to forget it in the dressing room for a month.
Chris Wood and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
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.
The dugout20 Dec 2027
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 2‑3 Joshua Davis left the room before anybody could ask which.
“I have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.
At 23 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
Marked 8.11 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
Player ratings13 Dec 2027
Gustavo Sá was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.10. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
The dugout13 Dec 2027
The manager’s verdict
“I am not going to get carried away and I will not let them either. It was a good day. There will be harder ones.” Joshua Davis kept it short after the 1‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
Two goals and a mark of 8.17 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
“I have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.
Jens Petter Hauge and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Gustavo Sá and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
The ambition story running backwards, and the one nobody tells: a footballer who wants a smaller ground, fewer cameras and a crowd that does not turn. It is not weakness and it is rarely reported as anything else.
Somebody else has been better, the manager has said so with a team sheet, and there is no argument to be had. He will get the shirt back the only way it can be got back.
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.
The board had gone up, the arguing had started, and then the ball was in the net in the 90th minute. Aston Villa will replay every second of the added time for a week.
At 35 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 7.88 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
The general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.
Sidiki Chérif and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Joshua Davis on a 1‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
The dugout22 Nov 2027
Somebody else is better right now than Daniel Muñoz
The team sheet says it in public every week until it changes. The only version of being dropped a footballer cannot argue with, and the one he takes hardest.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Chris Wood is on it.
In brief
Loan watchSteven Benda’s loan is measured in nothing happening
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Nottingham Forest have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Nottingham Forest can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Nottingham Forest has been clear about where Arnaud Kalimuendo stands, which is more than many ever get.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Nottingham Forest, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Clubs make promises constantly and the page usually only hears about them when they are broken. This one was honoured, and the dressing room noticed that faster than any supporter did.
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.
Sidiki Chérif is 20, and for one weekend he was the best of everybody his age in the division. Nobody should build a career on it and everybody quietly does.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Dan Ndoye wants continental football; whether Nottingham Forest can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Nottingham Forest are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
He is 23 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
Ninety minutes of very little, and then everything at once. The winner arrived in the 88th, and Crystal Palace spent what remained of the match appealing to the referee rather than chasing the ball.
“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.
The general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Dilane Bakwa, and the manager let it.
The dugout1 Nov 2027
The manager’s verdict
“I am not going to get carried away and I will not let them either. It was a good day. There will be harder ones.” Joshua Davis kept it short after the 2‑1 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
Successful dribbles: 15. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
The dugout25 Oct 2027
The view from the dugout
“We did not lose. Some weeks that is all you get, and I would rather have the point than not.” Joshua Davis chose the glass-half-full version of 0‑0; the supporters left with the other one.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Chris Wood is on it.
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.
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.
The crowd waited for a goal that never came. Fulham defended in numbers and left with what they came for, and the two sides could be playing still without troubling a scorer.
Ipswich Town will want this one forgotten quickly: 4‑0, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Nottingham Forest were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
Two goals and a mark of 8.99 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Omari Hutchinson has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
There is a particular helplessness in conceding 2 times before the twentieth minute. Ipswich Town tried to reorganise, Nottingham Forest did not allow it, and the result was written long before it was confirmed.
8.09. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Esapa Osong 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.
In brief
The dugoutThe view from the dugout
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of Esapa Osong
The dugoutDaniel Muñoz dropped after a run of poor form
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Nottingham Forest heard it as anything else.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Esapa Osong 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.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Basima Balagizi and Nottingham Forest agree another 3 years.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Stephy Mavididi is on it.
Ipswich Town next, and one man in the Nottingham Forest dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
Loan watch11 Oct 2027
Aaron Bott’s loan is measured in nothing happening
6 clean sheets from 9 appearances at Newport County. That is the whole of a goalkeeper’s job done properly, and it is being done a long way from the club that owns him.
13 seasons and 319 appearances, all of them here. Careers like this are not designed; they happen to a certain kind of man at a certain kind of club, and this town has one.
“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.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Matz Sels and Nottingham Forest agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Nottingham Forest asked and Chelsea said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Marked 8.39 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Esapa Osong 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.
The deal that would have taken Ola Aina to Exeter City has collapsed at the last stage, and he reports back to Nottingham Forest with a summer to forget and a season still to play. Nobody is saying which side walked away.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Eric da Silva Moreira is 21, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Manchester City have kept their man, and Nottingham Forest go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Esapa Osong was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
9 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
The deal that would have taken Murillo to Watford has collapsed at the last stage, and he reports back to Nottingham Forest with a summer to forget and a season still to play. Nobody is saying which side walked away.
A deal that was a phone call from completion at lunchtime was dead by midnight. Nottingham Forest will try again when the window opens; Derby County may not be selling by then.
“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.
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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Manchester United have kept their man, and Nottingham Forest go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Successful dribbles: 19. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Watford waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Nottingham Forest is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
$58.9M was the most the club would pay and Liverpool were asking for more. Deals like this are revived in the last week of a window roughly half the time, and everybody involved knows it.
Transfer targets6 Sep 2027
$14.4M settles it between the clubs for Derry Murkin
Derby County have accepted the money. What Nottingham Forest do not yet have is the man, and between here and the photograph is a conversation about wages that both sides are dreading.
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Esapa Osong had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
12 in and 26 out, and no more changes for months. The manager has what he has, the supporters have their opinion of it, and the table will have the last word.
$46.2M on the table at Liverpool. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Arsenal have kept their man, and Nottingham Forest go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The chase for Jens Petter Hauge ended with $26.5M changing hands and FCSB out of reasons to say no. The supporters will judge the fee the only way that matters: on Saturdays.
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Neco Williams had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
Two goals and a mark of 8.70 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Nottingham Forest have done the hard part with Norwich City, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Nottingham Forest can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
The offer went to FCSB this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.
The offer went to Feyenoord this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.
The offer from Leicester City for Murillo was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
The deal that would have taken Ibrahim Sangaré to Lincoln City has collapsed at the last stage, and he reports back to Nottingham Forest with a summer to forget and a season still to play. Nobody is saying which side walked away.
$8.9M was the most the club would pay and Leeds United were asking for more. Deals like this are revived in the last week of a window roughly half the time, and everybody involved knows it.
The name of Esapa Osong has come up in conversations Nottingham Forest were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Senior shirt numbers handed to boys the coaches have known since they were twelve. Most will not make it and all of them have already done the hard part.
“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.
Nottingham Forest have gone to Leeds United with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
Nottingham Forest asked and Manchester United said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Esapa Osong was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
Squad9 Aug 2027
Esapa Osong 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.
“I watch every Nottingham Forest game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Newport County runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Nottingham Forest, and both men came out saying it was fine.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Nottingham Forest has been clear about where Ryan Yates stands, which is more than many ever get.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager has not finished forgetting Ben Gannon Doak's mistake
The offer from Reading for Nikola Milenković was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
The name of Murillo has come up in conversations Nottingham Forest were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
“I have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.
Nottingham Forest asked and Manchester City said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
14 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Nottingham Forest, and 0 appearances in 5 say he has earned the hearing.
The general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.
Chris Wood 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Liverpool have kept their man, and Nottingham Forest go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
“I respect the manager and I am not going to sit here and pretend I am happy.” It is the most common sentence in football and it has never once been the end of a story.
Squad26 Jul 2027
Esapa Osong 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.
The offer from Bristol City for Ibrahim Sangaré was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
The phone has started ringing about Nikola Milenković again, and this time the name on the line is Reading. Nottingham Forest are listening politely and promising nothing.
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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Manchester United have kept their man, and Nottingham Forest go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
“I did not go to Sunderland to sit and watch. I want to come back to Nottingham Forest and fight for my place.” 0 appearances in 5 matches say the rest.
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.
A conversation in the manager’s office, and a commitment that came out of it. Promises like that are cheap to make and expensive to break, and Chris Wood has written the date down.
Daniel Muñoz has done the arithmetic and does not like the answer. Nothing corrodes a squad faster, and no club has ever solved it by explaining the wage structure to a footballer.
The offer from Rotherham United for Ola Aina was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
The general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.
“I have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Arnaud Kalimuendo and Nottingham Forest agree another 5 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
“I did not go to Newport County to sit and watch. I want to come back to Nottingham Forest and fight for my place.” 0 appearances in 5 matches say the rest.
Shae Cahill 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.
The name of Murillo has come up in conversations Nottingham Forest were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
“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.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Nottingham Forest can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Eric da Silva Moreira and Nottingham Forest agree another 5 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
“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.
Nottingham Forest asked and Sunderland said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Nottingham Forest have done the hard part with Hull City, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Daniel Muñoz wants continental football; whether Nottingham Forest can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
Sidiki Chérif 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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Dan Ndoye trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
In brief
The dugoutChris Wood has become a man the manager trusts
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Nottingham Forest have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Milton Keynes Dons waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Nottingham Forest is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
The name of Nikola Milenković has come up in conversations Nottingham Forest were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Colchester United pay $150.0K, and the deal is done. The number reads well on a balance sheet; whether it reads well on the pitch is next season's question.
Nottingham Forest have made the call to Brighton. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Nottingham Forest, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Universidad Catolica paid $46.0M and Nottingham Forest took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
Nottingham Forest offered $10.5M; Sunderland said it was not close. The manager will be told the money is still there for the right player, which is what managers are told.
Morgan Gibbs-White has gone, the accounts have $46.0M in them, and the supporters have the feeling of having been sold something themselves. Good business and a good decision are not always the same thing.
The name of Ibrahim Sangaré has come up in conversations Nottingham Forest were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Nottingham Forest heard it as anything else.
With 6 players away on international duty the sessions are small and the manager can actually hear himself. It is the one break in the season, and it never quite feels like one.
12 goals in 30 games at Eintracht Frankfurt — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Nottingham Forest updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
“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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Ipswich Town have kept their man, and Nottingham Forest go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Stockport County waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Nottingham Forest is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
The offer went to Sunderland this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.
The name of Morgan Gibbs-White has come up in conversations Nottingham Forest were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Luca Netz and Nottingham Forest agree another 4 years.
Chris Wood and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Chris Wood 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.
2 appearances, 0 clean sheets, and a goalkeeper no further forward than the day he left. Whether that belongs to him, to the club that borrowed him or to the people who arranged it is the argument Nottingham Forest will have this month.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Zach Abbott trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Chris Wood is on it.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Steven Benda was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Ibrahim Sangaré signs something — a contract at Nottingham Forest or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Position 13 on 41 points. Every season is a story and this is the last line of it, and now the club has three months to decide what the next one is about.
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Murillo scored, was marked 7.62, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
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.
He has had enough of the noise. Whether Nottingham Forest can be a quieter place for him, or whether the only cure is a move somewhere the phone-ins are gentler, is a question for the next few months.
The dugout24 May 2027
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 1‑2 defeat, delivered by Joshua Davis to a room that had heard them before.
The manager wanted a different profile for this opponent, which is a real football reason and no consolation. He did nothing wrong and he did not play.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Morgan Gibbs-White signs something — a contract at Nottingham Forest or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager has not finished forgetting John Victor's mistake
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Kanye Bradshaw and Nottingham Forest agree another 3 years.
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
The dugout17 May 2027
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Joshua Davis was not hiding it after 0‑0, and nobody in the Nottingham Forest dressing room was either.
Nobody will confirm it and the team sheets confirm it every week. One error has bought him a spell as second choice that is already longer than the error deserved.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and James McAtee trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Two goals and a mark of 8.35 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
“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.
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Nottingham Forest can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
He will play here until the summer and then walk out of the door for free, having already signed elsewhere. Supporters will manage the first part of that sentence; it is the second they will struggle with.
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.
Kanye Bradshaw and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
“I watch every Nottingham Forest game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Exeter City runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
10 goals in 36 games at AC Milan — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Nottingham Forest updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
“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.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Nottingham Forest can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Dan Ndoye trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Esapa Osong has his answer from Nottingham Forest; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Ibrahim Sangaré signs something — a contract at Nottingham Forest or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Nottingham Forest can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
Behind, and beaten by any honest reading, until minute 85. Newcastle United had the points in their pocket and a corner of the ground still believed, which is generally when it happens.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Nottingham Forest has been clear about where Nicolás Domínguez stands, which is more than many ever get.
It needed Chris Wood to find the net to bring anything home at all: 1‑1 against Newcastle United, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.
The dugout26 Apr 2027
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Joshua Davis was not hiding it after 1‑1, and nobody in the Nottingham Forest dressing room was either.
Nobody will confirm this and nothing else explains the last month of selections. A costly error buys a player a period of being second choice that is always longer than the error was.
7.97, 1 on the scoresheet, and the specific comedy of a back-four player celebrating like somebody who does this every week. He does not, and that is exactly why the ground reacted the way it did.
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.
Clubs make promises constantly and the page usually only hears about them when they are broken. This one was honoured, and the dressing room noticed that faster than any supporter did.
33 appearances away from home and 9 goals to show for them. Every one of them makes next summer's conversation a little more expensive.
The dugout19 Apr 2027
The manager has not finished forgetting Ben Gannon Doak's mistake
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Nottingham Forest have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Chris Wood 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.
“I watch every Nottingham Forest game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Exeter City runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Nikola Milenković trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 2‑0, Joshua Davis could afford to be generous.
“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.
At 22 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
Chris Wood and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Nottingham Forest can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Nottingham Forest, and 14 appearances in 34 say he has earned the hearing.
“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.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Nottingham Forest told James McAtee something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Nottingham Forest, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Stephy Mavididi’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Nottingham Forest needing him to play as if none of it matters.
5 goals in 19 games at Vasco da Gama — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Nottingham Forest updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
Numbers do not stay secret in a dressing room. He is not asking for more than he is worth; he is asking why somebody beside him is worth more, and Nottingham Forest have no good answer.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑2, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
4 call-ups is a compliment to the squad and a headache for the man running it. He will get them back in a fortnight, tired, in various states of repair.
Scott Hamilton and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Every touch weighed, every quote parsed, every mistake replayed. Some players grow into that; some are quietly finished by it; nobody knows which until afterwards.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager has not finished forgetting Ben Gannon Doak's mistake
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Ibrahim Sangaré scored, was marked 7.86, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Nottingham Forest can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
“I watch every Nottingham Forest game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Exeter City runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
The ambition story running the other way, and the one nobody tells: a footballer asking for a smaller stage, fewer cameras and a crowd that does not turn. It is not weakness and it is very rarely reported as anything else.
The one version of being left out a player cannot argue with, and the one he takes worst. Somebody else has been better and the team sheet says so, in public, every week until it changes.
“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 1‑1, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
“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.
312 appearances across 12 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.
The general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and Nottingham Forest know it.
25 appearances away from home and 11 goals to show for them. Every one of them makes next summer's conversation a little more expensive.
The dugout8 Mar 2027
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 0‑1 defeat, delivered by Joshua Davis to a room that had heard them before.
“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.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Nottingham Forest can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Every long career reaches the week the last one is thought about. He would like it to be where he started, and Nottingham Forest know now that the thought has arrived.
1 for James Garner, marked 7.72, and a centre-half's name in the part of the report he normally only reaches by mistake. He will not be allowed to forget it in the dressing room for a month.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Daniel Muñoz wants continental football; whether Nottingham Forest can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
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.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Joshua Davis after 2‑3, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
26 appearances away from home and 9 goals to show for them. Every one of them makes next summer's conversation a little more expensive.
The dugout22 Feb 2027
The manager has not finished forgetting Ben Gannon Doak's mistake
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
The offer from Chelsea for Morgan Gibbs-White was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
7.75, 1 on the scoresheet, and the specific comedy of a back-four player celebrating like somebody who does this every week. He does not, and that is exactly why the ground reacted the way it did.
“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.
Chris Wood 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.
Nottingham Forest asked and Brighton said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
“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.
“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.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Callum Hudson-Odoi and Nottingham Forest agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Nottingham Forest asked and Burnley said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Nicolás Domínguez wants continental football; whether Nottingham Forest can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
9 goals in 21 games at Eintracht Frankfurt — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Nottingham Forest updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
In brief
The dugoutHalf-satisfied: Joshua Davis on the draw
“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.
He is going to Liverpool, the club has $75.9M it did not have on Friday, and the phone-ins have already decided how they feel about that. Selling well and selling somebody they loved are not the same skill.
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 2 arrived, 5 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
Nottingham Forest have gone to Fulham with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
The offer from Wolverhampton for Liam Delap was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
The accountants will call it good business and they will be right, which is not the point anybody outside the boardroom is making. Igor Jesus was one of the reasons people came, and $76.8M does not replace that by itself.
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $11.0M — a club that wants Timothy Castagne enough to be asked twice.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Leicester City have kept their man, and Nottingham Forest go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
He left as a boy and has come back still knowing where the away end is. Most signings have to be explained to a town; this one needed a photograph and nothing else.
The board had gone up, the arguing had started, and then the ball was in the net in the 91th minute. Brighton will replay every second of the added time for a week.
The name of James Garner has come up in conversations Nottingham Forest were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Boards get told what they have done wrong for years and hear nothing on the days they get it right. This is one of those days: James Garner from Everton for $57.0M, and a ticket office having a very good morning.
At 23 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
Nottingham Forest asked and Racing Genk said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Aston Villa paid $25.0M and Nottingham Forest took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 23 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $3.3M — a club that wants Viktor Johansson enough to be asked twice.
He is 20, and nobody at Nottingham Forest signed him for this season. Deals like this are judged in four years, by people who may not still be in the building.
One scored and one made, which is a different afternoon from scoring twice and an easier one to overlook. Marked 7.61, and involved in 2 of his side's goals.
The offer went to Zenit this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.
The clubs have shaken hands with Coventry City; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.
Two goals and a mark of 8.38 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
“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.
Nottingham Forest have gone to Stoke City with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Nottingham Forest can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
8 without a win is the sort of run that changes how a town talks about its club, and Everton were the afternoon it stopped. Nothing is fixed by one result and everything feels different by one.
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and Nottingham Forest know it.
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.
The team sheet says it in public every week until it changes. The only version of being dropped a footballer cannot argue with, and the one he takes hardest.
A 1‑1 draw with Leeds United leaves the dressing room somewhere between relief and regret.
The dugout28 Dec 2026
The view from the dugout
“We did not lose. Some weeks that is all you get, and I would rather have the point than not.” Joshua Davis chose the glass-half-full version of 1‑1; the supporters left with the other one.
The unglamorous genius of a well-written contract. Luca Netz is somebody else's player now, and $240.0K has arrived because the people who sold him thought further ahead than the transfer window.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Morgan Gibbs-White signs something — a contract at Nottingham Forest or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Nicolò Savona is on it.
1‑4 to Manchester City, and it was every bit as bad as the number suggests. There are defeats you argue about and defeats you apologise for; this was the second kind.
7 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.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 7 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Daniel Muñoz wants continental football; whether Nottingham Forest can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 15 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
2 kept out in the shoot-out, and a stadium that will still be describing them in twenty years. A goalkeeper only needs one of these to be remembered forever.
5 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.
The most common injury in the game and the most rushed back from. Nottingham Forest will quote 17 days and will be careful with it, because the second one is always worse than the first.
“I did not go to Exeter City to sit and watch. I want to come back to Nottingham Forest and fight for my place.” 1 appearances in 17 matches say the rest.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 24 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
The general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.
The goal that put West Ham United ahead was still being replayed on the concourse when Nottingham Forest equalised, 1 minutes later. Leads are only worth what you do with them.
The demotion a club never announces and a dressing room always notices. Ousmane Diomande is further from the side than he was, and the reason will not be given until he asks.
The ambition story running backwards, and the one nobody tells: a footballer who wants a smaller ground, fewer cameras and a crowd that does not turn. It is not weakness and it is rarely reported as anything else.
The one version of being left out a player cannot argue with, and the one he takes worst. Somebody else has been better and the team sheet says so, in public, every week until it changes.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Nottingham Forest will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
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.
The general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.
Nobody will confirm it and the team sheets confirm it every week. One error has bought him a spell as second choice that is already longer than the error deserved.
The ambition story running backwards, and the one nobody tells: a footballer who wants a smaller ground, fewer cameras and a crowd that does not turn. It is not weakness and it is rarely reported as anything else.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Nottingham Forest will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
The dugout23 Nov 2026
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 1‑3 Joshua Davis left the room before anybody could ask which.
Every touch is being weighed now, in print and everywhere else. Some players grow into that and some are quietly ruined by it, and nobody knows which in advance.
The team at the top of the table next, and the honest measure of where this side actually is. Anybody can beat the club below them; the question is what happens against Arsenal.
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.
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.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Nottingham Forest will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Nottingham Forest have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Nottingham Forest can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
Chris Wood and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
“I did not go to Exeter City to sit and watch. I want to come back to Nottingham Forest and fight for my place.” 0 appearances in 13 matches say the rest.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Nottingham Forest, and both men came out saying it was fine.
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.
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.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Nottingham Forest will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Nottingham Forest heard it as anything else.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Liam Delap has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Nottingham Forest will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
It is a specific kind of quiet, a ground watching a winning position dissolve. Crystal Palace kept coming because nothing stopped them, and Nottingham Forest will be asked about the last half hour all week.
5 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Nottingham Forest has to find a result from somewhere.
“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.
Player ratings2 Nov 2026
Igor Jesus was on a different afternoon to everybody else
9.94. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
Successful dribbles: 15. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Nottingham Forest will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
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.
4 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Nottingham Forest can tell you which week it ends in.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑1, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
The one version of being left out a player cannot argue with, and the one he takes worst. Somebody else has been better and the team sheet says so, in public, every week until it changes.
7 goals in 7 games at Eintracht Frankfurt — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Nottingham Forest updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Nottingham Forest will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Daniel Muñoz wants continental football; whether Nottingham Forest can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 21 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
3 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Nottingham Forest can tell you which week it ends in.
“I did not go to Exeter City to sit and watch. I want to come back to Nottingham Forest and fight for my place.” 0 appearances in 9 matches say the rest.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Joshua Davis after 0‑1, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 92 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
At 20 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Nicolás Domínguez has his answer from Nottingham Forest; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Liverpool in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Nicolás Domínguez trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
4 goals in 5 games at Eintracht Frankfurt — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Nottingham Forest updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Nottingham Forest will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
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.
At 18 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
The general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.
Successful dribbles: 19. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
5 call-ups is a compliment to the squad and a headache for the man running it. He will get them back in a fortnight, tired, in various states of repair.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 109 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
At 22 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
The general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.
Chris Wood 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.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Joshua Davis after 0‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.