The words a physio says slowly. 31 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
“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 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.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Sulyman Krubally has just signed for Nottingham Forest, and for once the answer mattered.
3 games without scoring. Strikers stop looking up, midfielders take the extra touch, and every shot that clears the bar is followed by a groan that has been building since the last goal.
Successful dribbles: 17. 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.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Nottingham Forest told Mathys Tel something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
“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.
“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.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Eric da Silva Moreira 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 dugout22 Oct 2029
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 0‑2 defeat, delivered by Joshua Davis to a room that had heard them 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.
Everton 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.
It happens to all of them and it is still the hardest paragraph a local paper has to write. 37 years old, 3 points down on where he was, and a body that has started charging interest on a career.
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.
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.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Nicolò Savona signs something — a contract at Nottingham Forest or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
A year in and the language has not come, the city has not opened up, and he eats alone more often than anybody at Nottingham Forest would like to admit. It is showing on Saturdays.
“I did not come here to warm up in front of people.” He is out of contract eventually, he is old enough to count the weeks, and Nottingham Forest will have to give him a reason to stay or an exit.
He asked about his future and was given an answer with minutes in it. The manager has now made a promise in a building where promises are remembered, and the clock on it has started.
The words a physio says slowly. 17 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
0‑4 to Manchester United, 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.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Brandon Thomas will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Nottingham Forest the goodbyes have quietly begun.
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.
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.
Something was said to Jens Petter Hauge and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
26 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Nottingham Forest lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Two goals and a mark of 9.32 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
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.
2 goals inside twenty minutes with Norman Bassette in the middle of it, and Bournemouth unable to get near the ball long enough to change anything. Some matches are won before the first drink.
The words a physio says slowly. 37 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
“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.
“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.
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
The dugout24 Sep 2029
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 0‑1 Joshua Davis left the room before anybody could ask which.
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 Jens Petter Hauge is on it.
46 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Nottingham Forest lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
“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.
Everything was agreed until it was not, and Max Watters reports back to Nottingham Forest with a summer to forget. Neither club is saying who walked away from the table.
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.
Marked 7.96. There is a kind of forward whose value only shows up when you count what he was involved in rather than what he finished, and this is the day that argument makes itself.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Eric da Silva Moreira was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
In brief
Squad7 new faces, and Nottingham Forest are still learning each other
The words a physio says slowly. 56 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
“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 offered $2.1M; Chelsea 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.
“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.
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.
The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Brandon Thomas has agreed terms with Tranmere Rovers for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
Norman Bassette 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.
“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.
64 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Nottingham Forest lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
“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 offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Boardroom3 Sep 2029
Deadline passes with 26 signed and 16 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.
“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.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Callum Hudson-Odoi and Nottingham Forest agree another 4 years.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Tottenham is saying, and nobody at Nottingham Forest is enjoying the guessing.
40 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Nottingham Forest lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Nottingham Forest offered $5.8M; Derby County 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.
Nottingham Forest have gone to Chelsea 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 deal that would have taken Vladan Kovačević to Toulouse FC 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.
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.
The words a physio says slowly. 47 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
The offer went to Derby County 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.
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Vladan Kovačević had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
10 boys move up, and somewhere in the building the people who coached them at twelve are quietly having the best morning of their working year. Nothing about this shows up in a result and it is why the academy exists.
Nottingham Forest asked and Sheffield Wednesday 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 academy exists for exactly this morning. Thomas Hughes has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
54 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Nottingham Forest lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
The offer from Exeter City for Jens Petter Hauge 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.
“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.
$2.0M on the table at Chelsea. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
$2.0M was the most the club would pay and Chelsea 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.
Everything agreed with Tottenham, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Lorent Tolaj wants continental football; whether Nottingham Forest can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
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.
63 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Nottingham Forest lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
“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 offered $5.1M; 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.
Add another name to the list: Exeter City have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Jens Petter Hauge. The answer from Nottingham Forest has not changed — yet.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Tottenham is saying, and nobody at Nottingham Forest is enjoying the guessing.
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.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Nick Pope and Nottingham Forest agree another 2 years.
70 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Nottingham Forest lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
The chase for Daryl Dike ended with $3.9M changing hands and West Bromwich Albion out of reasons to say no. The supporters will judge the fee the only way that matters: on Saturdays.
The offer went to Chelsea 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 phone has started ringing about Chris Wood again, and this time the name on the line is Hull City. Nottingham Forest are listening politely and promising nothing.
“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.
Squad30 Jul 2029
Ernie Weaver 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 was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Nottingham Forest has been clear about where Matz Sels stands, which is more than many ever get.
78 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Nottingham Forest lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
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.
Manchester United pay $82.5M, 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.
The chase for Lorent Tolaj ended with $30.8M changing hands and Plymouth Argyle out of reasons to say no. The supporters will judge the fee the only way that matters: on Saturdays.
Nottingham Forest and West Bromwich Albion have settled on $3.9M. 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Bristol Rovers have kept their man, and Nottingham Forest go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
He is going to Manchester United, the club has $82.5M 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.
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.
85 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Nottingham Forest lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Nottingham Forest have done the hard part with Plymouth Argyle, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Birmingham have kept their man, and Nottingham Forest go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
$2.2M was the most the club would pay and Arsenal 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.
Henry Cartwright 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 shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. Nottingham Forest will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
The words a physio says slowly. 94 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Nottingham Forest offered $38.6M; Plymouth Argyle 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.
“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 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.
A loan enquiry to Milton Keynes Dons: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
101 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Nottingham Forest lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
The offer went to Plymouth Argyle 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.
$2.2M on the table at Arsenal. 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 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.
108 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Nottingham Forest lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Everton waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Nottingham Forest is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
The fee is $5.1M, the contract is signed, and the argument about whether he is worth it can begin. Newcastle United drove a hard bargain; time will say who won it.
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.
Nottingham Forest asked and Tottenham said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
$97.0M is a serious amount of money and it does not play centre-forward. Everybody in the dressing room knows who used to be looked at when it went wrong.
$23.6M was the most the club would pay and Burnley 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.
Nottingham Forest and Newcastle United have settled on $5.1M. 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.
He is going to Liverpool, the club has $97.0M 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 number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $6.6M — a club that wants Josh Dasilva enough to be asked twice.
$32.5M was the most the club would pay and Queens Park Rangers 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.
Nottingham Forest have gone to Burnley 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.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Chelsea 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 Derby County 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.
“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 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.
Nobody makes a documentary about a hamstring and everybody in the game fears one. Nottingham Forest will be careful with the return date, because the second one is always worse than the first.
“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.
$30.5M on the table at Queens Park Rangers. 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.
Nottingham Forest and Queens Park Rangers have settled on $4.6M. 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.
The offer from Liverpool for Dan Ndoye 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.
“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 offer went to Preston 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.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Nottingham Forest has been clear about where James Garner stands, which is more than many ever get.
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.
37 games, 0 goals, and a squad option that has arrived without a fee attached. The interesting question at Nottingham Forest now is not whether he plays but who he displaces.
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 Rodrigo Castillo is on it.
He asked about his future and was given an answer with minutes in it. The manager has now made a promise in a building where promises are remembered, and the clock on it has started.
Public backing, and the sort that costs a manager something if it turns out to be wrong. Arnaud Kalimuendo has been told in front of everybody that the shirt is his.
Position 13 on 43 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.
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 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.
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.
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.
Player ratings14 May 2029
A brace, and Gustavo Sá takes the afternoon — 8.25
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Gustavo Sá provided it, and the 8.25 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Lamare Bogarde 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: 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.
“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 3‑2 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
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.
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.
“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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 34 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
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 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.
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.
9 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. David Hughes has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Edward Cunningham has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
The demotion a club never announces and a dressing room always notices. Chris Wood is further from the side than he was, and the reason will not be given until he asks.
“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.
14 goals in 43 games at Sheffield United — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Nottingham Forest updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
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.” 0‑2, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
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 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.
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 defeat on their own grass. The pitch has not changed; the crowd has — louder earlier, and quicker to sense when the opposition would rather be somewhere else.
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.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Joshua Davis after the 1‑1 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 6 goals between Nottingham Forest and Sunderland, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
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.
“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.
Player ratings16 Apr 2029
Dan Ndoye was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.29. 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.
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.26, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
The dugout16 Apr 2029
The manager has not finished forgetting Matz Sels'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.
Successful dribbles: 29. 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 decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Dan Ndoye and Nottingham Forest agree another 4 years.
Leny Yoro 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 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.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Zach Abbott, and the manager let it.
The dugout9 Apr 2029
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.
Ninety specific minutes wanted a different sort of player, and the manager picked one. He is not out of form and he is not in the side, and both are true.
“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.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Dan Ndoye and Nottingham Forest agree another 4 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 Rodrigo Castillo is on it.
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.
22 appearances at Central Coast Mariners 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.
400 games in this shirt, through managers and relegations and everything else. Service like it is disappearing from the game and the crowd knows what it is watching.
Lamare Bogarde 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 pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Gustavo Sá, and the manager let it.
Player ratings26 Mar 2029
Gustavo Sá was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.03. 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: 17. 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.
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.
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.
Up for the corner, and James Garner delivers — 7.61
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. James Garner scored, was marked 7.61, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
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 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.
22 days, the scan says, and scans are kinder than reality. The fixtures in that window have just become somebody else’s job.
The dugout19 Mar 2029
The manager has not finished forgetting Matz Sels'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.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Arnaud Kalimuendo provided it, and the 8.99 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
“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.
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 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 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.
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 found out with everybody else, an hour before kick-off, from a sheet of paper on a wall. Nobody at Nottingham Forest pretended it was anything other than a decision about him.
Conceding is one thing; the response is what tells you about a dressing room. Arnaud Kalimuendo had Nottingham Forest level again within 4 minutes, and Crystal Palace never got to play with a lead at all.
“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.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Nottingham Forest, another week without a signature from Daniel Muñoz.
In brief
SquadA place in the month's best eleven for Leny Yoro
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.
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.
“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.
Player ratings26 Feb 2029
Leny Yoro was on a different afternoon to everybody else
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.
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.
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.
“I did not go to Newcastle United to sit and watch. I want to come back to Nottingham Forest and fight for my place.” 5 appearances in 27 matches say the rest.
10 goals in 34 games at Sheffield United — 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.
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.
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.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Joshua Davis after 0‑4, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Leeds United have kept their man, and Nottingham Forest go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
West Bromwich Albion wanted more than $6.4M and the board would not go there. Walked away, for now, which in a transfer window means until somebody blinks.
“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.
“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.
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.
The fee was agreed and the flight was looked at — and then the phone stopped ringing. Milton Keynes Dons moved on, Nikola Milenković reports back to Nottingham Forest, and everybody pretends Monday is just Monday.
The offer went to West Bromwich Albion 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.
“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.
Boardroom5 Feb 2029
Deadline passes with 5 signed and 5 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.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Middlesbrough is saying, and nobody at Nottingham Forest is enjoying the guessing.
“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.
Successful dribbles: 21. 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Bradford City have kept their man, and Nottingham Forest go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Successful dribbles: 28. 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.
7.91, 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.
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.
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.
“I watch every Nottingham Forest game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Newcastle United runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
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.
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.
A shoot-out is remembered by its ending, and this one ends with Nick Pope: 1 kept out, and a set of supporters who will describe every one of them for the next twenty years.
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.
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.
Position 18 and 18 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.
The clubs have shaken hands with Wolverhampton; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.
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.
“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.
Player ratings15 Jan 2029
Up for the corner, and James Garner delivers — 7.71
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. James Garner scored, was marked 7.71, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
The fee is $1.4M, 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.
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 and Norwich City have settled on $1.4M. 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.
A defender on the scoresheet, which happens rarely enough that everybody in the ground remembers who took the corner. 1 for him, and a mark of 7.85 for the rest of it.
Norman Bassette 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 Middlesbrough 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.
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.
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 watch every Nottingham Forest game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Belenenses runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
“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.
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.
Rodrigo Castillo 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Arnaud Kalimuendo. 2‑1 against Leeds United, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Marked 8.22 — 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.
Leeds United held the lead for 4 minutes, which is not long enough to enjoy it. Nottingham Forest answered before the celebration had properly finished, and the shape of the afternoon changed with it.
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 Rodrigo Castillo is on it.
The dugout25 Dec 2028
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.
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.
Two goals and a mark of 7.95 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
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.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Ben Gannon Doak 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.
Behind, and beaten by any honest reading, until minute 93. Manchester City had the points in their pocket and a corner of the ground still believed, which is generally when it happens.
Position 18 and 14 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.
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.
“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 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.
6 goals in one match, Arnaud Kalimuendo on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of Nottingham Forest and Sunderland.
Successful dribbles: 27. 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.
“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.
“Three loans in three years. At some point a club has to decide if I am their player or their asset.” The spell at Newcastle United continues; the message travels home.
The dugout4 Dec 2028
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.
The manager has re-ordered his thinking and Ben Gannon Doak has come out of it lower. He will be told it is temporary, and the players who have heard that before will avoid his eye.
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 dugoutSomebody else is better right now than Daniel Muñoz
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Nikola Milenković signs something — a contract at Nottingham Forest or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
The shape wanted a different profile against this opponent, which is a real football answer and no comfort at all to the man it is about. He did nothing wrong and he did not play.
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 Ola Aina is on it.
The shrug has gone, the language is coming, and he now argues in training like somebody who expects to be here next year. Half a signing's value is this and none of it appears on a fee.
Norman Bassette 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 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 2 appearances in 13 say he has earned the hearing.
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.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Nottingham Forest. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 22 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Leny Yoro 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.
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.
With 5 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.
The dugout13 Nov 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.
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.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Joshua Davis after the 1‑1 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 30 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.
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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Norman Bassette. 3‑1 against Burnley, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
“I did not go to Belenenses to sit and watch. I want to come back to Nottingham Forest and fight for my place.” 1 appearances in 9 matches say the rest.
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 board had gone up, the arguing had started, and then the ball was in the net in the 99th minute. Preston will replay every second of the added time for a week.
Two goals and a mark of 8.59 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Chances created: 18. Nothing on the scoresheet and everything in the match: the pass before the pass, over and over, until the defence stopped guessing right.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Eric da Silva Moreira 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.
Lamare Bogarde 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.
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.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Nicolás Domínguez provided it, and the 8.18 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
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.
Successful dribbles: 18. 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 point taken on 93 minutes is worth exactly one point and considerably more than that to a dressing room. This side does not stop, which is a reputation worth more than the result.
“I did not go to Newcastle United to sit and watch. I want to come back to Nottingham Forest and fight for my place.” 2 appearances in 9 matches say the rest.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 56 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.
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.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Ola Aina’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.
4 goals in 11 games at Sheffield United — 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 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 Jens Petter Hauge has written the date down.
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.
6 goals in one match, Rodrigo Castillo on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of Nottingham Forest and Liverpool.
With 5 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.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Joshua Davis after 2‑4, 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.
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.
Beaten 4 times, with 4 saves for company. Goalkeepers carry these scorelines on their record whoever actually caused them, which is the quiet injustice of the job.
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.
“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.
“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 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.
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.
8.05. 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.
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.
Leny Yoro 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 Newcastle United runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
“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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Nicolò Savona trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
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.
0‑3 to Tottenham, 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.
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 keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Nottingham Forest, another week without a signature from Nicolò Savona.
The music was off and the showers ran late. What was said in that dressing room stays there, but Saturday will publish the minutes.
The dugout18 Sep 2028
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 0‑3 defeat, delivered by Joshua Davis to a room that had heard them before.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 98 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
“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.
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.
“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.
Everything was agreed until it was not, and Eric da Silva Moreira reports back to Nottingham Forest with a summer to forget. Neither club is saying who walked away from the table.
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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Middlesbrough have kept their man, and Nottingham Forest go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
“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.
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 deal that would have taken Nikola Milenković to Milton Keynes Dons 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.
“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.
Boardroom4 Sep 2028
Deadline passes with 14 signed and 38 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.
“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.
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.
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.
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.
Manchester United pay $20.5M, 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.
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.
5 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.
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.
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.
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.