Nottingham Forest banter 7

17 Mar 2026 12:17:08
Are illegal payments fraudulent? And using unregistered agents illegal? Are there any VAT and Inland Revenue aspects to Chelsea under reporting of transfer activity? All seems very odd to me. Winning titles and trophies with players acquired under the radar.

17 Mar 2026 21:54:30
You would think there would be VAT and Inland Revenue implications Frog but Abramovitch ( like Putin and all the Russian oligarchs) are masters of money laundering and creative accounting. Been at it for generations mate .

17 Mar 2026 09:47:43
Chelsea get a slap on the wrist for years of cheating, beyond a joke.

17 Mar 2026 12:40:31
All of the big clubs get away with it.

17 Mar 2026 08:25:39
Rob Edwards as our next manager anyone - assuming we stay up. He, from the off, as turned Wolves round and really on recent results would be mid table. Remind me who their last manager was.

17 Mar 2026 08:38:15
Happy St Patrick's Day!!!!
???

17 Mar 2026 08:44:17
Happy St Guinness Day, Rogie.

17 Mar 2026 09:06:01
We wouldn't go far wrong with Armstrong from Wolves either, big, strong and can score.

17 Mar 2026 09:13:54
Cheers, Gazzi!!!

17 Mar 2026 09:20:13
Get some 00 Guinness down you. ???

17 Mar 2026 09:36:14
Hi Ed, For some reason when I hit the Thumbs Up, nothing happens?
Any suggestions?
Cheers

{Ed033's Note - They don't work on all pages, only the main pages with the updated thumbs look.

17 Mar 2026 11:13:03
Rogie, enjoy your day, mate.

17 Mar 2026 11:22:13
I will, mate!!!
Cheers, All!
???

17 Mar 2026 15:45:33
As no one answered this thread, I started re Wolves and their success. Their previous manager, who failed with the Wolves squad, was our very own VP. As for Armstrong, or any striker coming to this basket-case of a club, there is a cat in hell's chance.


We will only survive if Tiawo keeps on being picked; he will score goals. If Jesus is picked instead, we go down.

17 Mar 2026 08:03:17
I have no problem with VAR but after Sunday's result against Fulham I think the margin is too fine. The player involved even had his back to goal. I don't think football fans of any club want to see goals disallowed by such fine margins,
We've all seen it and I think the fans and players of any club feel cheated so I would propose either keep it as it is but with a line across the penalty area at which no one is offside unless they have crossed it or 10% of a player's body being offside.


We are in the entertainment business and goals contribute to this. FA, think on!

17 Mar 2026 09:59:57
10% of the player's body is ridiculous!! It would have to be either 9% or 11% to give anyone a chance of managing it. ?

17 Mar 2026 10:30:05
Can you imagine if they had VAR back in the seventies? Best, Bowles, Worthington, even Bobby Charlton with his comb-over. It would have been 0-0 draws every week. They would have had to wear swimming caps just to keep onside.

16 Mar 2026 20:30:24
Seeing as we're all in a great mood and looking forward to our full on 100% effort on Thursday night, I thought I would put this forward. There are many small reasons why we are where we are but in my opinion, the biggest shambles has been recruitment. So I've tried to match £ for £ players we've let go or didn't sign against those we have signed. 1. Is Morato better than Worral and McKenna? Imo.

No 2. Is Dominguez better than Gardner? Imo. No 3. Is Jesus better than Surridge or Davis? Imo. A big fat No. 4. Is Ndoye better than Zinckernagel? Imo. No 5. Is Hutchinson better than Johnson? Imo. No. There are of course mitigating circumstances, but I think you get my drift. Apart from a few obvious shining lights, it highlights how bad our recruitment has been.

16 Mar 2026 23:36:37
Our recruitment has been limited because of how much money we've got. City etc can spend twice the amount we can and pay 60Mill for a striker etc. We're still in the 30-35 mill bracket.
Most of the players you mention were good for us in the Championship, but up against the best teams in the Premier League, they would have fallen short in terms of talent and ability.
I agree that the recruitment is very poor. We seem to have brought in average players, but then there are only so many players who would bother to come to us, even less now because of our instability.
The Club lacks confidence all round.

There is no team building among the upper echelons themselves, and Mr. M just wants to dominate everything for his own kudos.
All the Coaches we have had have struggled to make the Club work properly, and the players play well, and really we only have 9 or 10 good players in all who simply cannot play a major game every three days, plus we get key injuries all the time.
Recruitment must be a key to a Club's success, but I fear for us we need a wise and cool head to handle it properly - where is such a person? And will they be able to deal with Mr. M effectively to improve the Club?

17 Mar 2026 02:49:41
You both make good points, but I think the situation is even worse than that, and the repercussions worse:
1) We have apparently signed 72 players, permanent or on loan, in 3.5 years in Prem. Most have been a failure. It is too high a number, and it indicates just how chaotic everything probably is. Ange, SD and VP basically have been unable to sign anyone.
2) We spent so much on our woeful recruitment in the summer that we had nothing left in Jan, so we bought Luca and Netz. West Ham, for example, spent properly and got 2 or 3 quality additions.
3) When we first got promoted, Mr M’s 21 (?) year old son appeared to take a lead on some deals.
4) I would disagree on our prior ability to buy one or two v good players/strikers. Maybe not £80m, but it could have been £50m for sure, but we wasted it (look what Hutchison cost alone, McAtee).
4) I read somewhere, and this is my big fear, that our salary is over 90% of our Premier League revenue. Wages as a % of turnover are much more important than PSR going forward, so selling our good players if relegated won't save us.

This should be a proper wake up call as a stat, and has me very worried.
5) If we do get relegated, and I have thought we would once Nuno left, the situation financially could be very, very tough. People underestimate this, I think, and who do we have in the club beyond Mr M to sort that out? Sticking us back in the cycle of finger-crossing.
6) We are on our multiple CEOs since being promoted too (I forget the number), but could be 4th.
7) Assuming we do get relegated (I realise that hasn’t happened, may not happen), the change required in personnel will be huge, and the wages of our second tier players probably atrocious. Wolves are already building for the Championship, and look way ahead of us in that regard.

Mr M controls and wants to control almost everything. Without a plan or proper structure, you cannot succeed. What is our plan? Will he/we ever really change? Doubt it. This is the season our luck may run out and then what happens?

17 Mar 2026 08:30:34
Some clubs in the Premier make a point of bringing in players around £20-30 million, improving them, then moving them on for 80 plus, and top clubs have purchased players at 80 plus and they've failed, but their recruitment means they can absorb that.

We cannot; our structure and wages mean they have to succeed or we're toast this season!!!! So, if we go down, tough, we deserve it, and if we stay up, great, we also deserve it. You're only as good as your last result. ??

16 Mar 2026 17:43:19
Daily Mail today. P. 63. Spot on.

16 Mar 2026 18:28:14
Lucca P45!!!!.
???

16 Mar 2026 18:33:18
Big shout out to Radio 1's Greg James!!
Cycling on a Tandem from Weymouth to Edinburgh 1000km!!
He's raised over half a million for Comic Relief so far, brilliant effort Greg!!
Keep going!

16 Mar 2026 19:22:09
Very good Rogie ????!

16 Mar 2026 17:22:37
My Forest team for the European away trip-
All Edu signings plus Edu in the dug out organising his troops if gardening leave isn’t quite up to his tastes.
Stick in Abbott and a few of the young guys to show the flops what wearing a Forest shirt really means.

Let the whole world see what a giant pile of excrement Edu has signed.
Platt wasted millions, this guy is on a whole new level.

16 Mar 2026 17:17:41
So Chelski are found guilty by the Premier League for illegal payments, and get a slapped wrist! 1 year transfer ban, suspended for 2 years! So is this justice?
Will Man City also dodge a bullet?
Is this punishment just for the so-called big 6, or will all teams get away with serious financial fraud?

16 Mar 2026 17:53:50
Absolutely bent Redtree. There's an excellent article on it on the BBC football website. Apparently what saved them from points deduction was that the new company that bought Chelsea from Abramovitch self reported his corruption after going through the books on acquisitions. Also the money made didn't exceed the FFP limit.
I await with interest Man City's fate

16 Mar 2026 19:33:00
I emailed the Prem last week and asked them why they haven't responded to my letter from last year. No reply or acknowledgement.

16 Mar 2026 20:44:25
If it had been us, it would have been an instant points deduction. Two-tier justice in the Premier League.

16 Mar 2026 13:26:02
Anyone want a spare Forest scarf? ??
Can't criticise the lads for effort. It didn't have the energy of the Liverpool game but also it wasn't as lacklustre as Brighton. Fine margins again. What did Napoleon say about rather having a lucky General c than a good one? On another day we'd have won that by 2 or 3 goals.
I've previously banged on about VAR on here so I won't go on about "Refs calls, on field reviews by team captains, 2 or at most 3, each, 10 seconds to decide, like Cricket. Or to remove obvious reffing bloopers.
As VP rightly said, a goal allowed for Liverpool and ruled out for us by the width of a toenail. I'm interested in Arsene Wengers current experiment as part of his FIFA development role in the Canadian Leagues into VAR and the " clear daylight " rule in a new off side rule. I think that's going a bit far myself but VAR s use atm is killing the game.
As for our scoring problems it's a bit unfair on Jesus. He cost £10 million, what do you expect., He works hard and will cone good.

A world class striker costs northwards of £60 million. Instead our recruitment team decided we didn't need a standby for an excellent striker in the twilight of his career, and thus more liable to injury. Blaming Jesus, Taiwo and Lucca for their shortcomings is like blaming vinegar for tasting sour ( as the Taoists say).
So, decision time folks. Does VP send out his second string on Thursday and put his first team in a bandbox ( as Lord Raglan said of the Light Brigade in the Crimea) before the vital Spurs game?
I think Spurs will be obliged to send out their best available team on Wednesday in an attempt to retrieve their Champions League situation, perhaps rest players when it becomes hopeless ie when Athletico score a couple of it gets to half an hour to go with a 4 nil against aggregate. I think Mr M will insist on us doing the same, unfortunately.
I'd go reverse at one nil down. Start weak, stay in the game until half an hour to go then change itl up.
What do we think?

16 Mar 2026 13:49:17
There was talk in the supporters club that Wood won't be available this season, but he was hoping to be fit for the World Cup. Mr M should insist that he stays in Nottingham and puts in a close season for the club. I'm not blaming him for our demise, as there are ten other players on the pitch, but I'm sure he would have made an enormous difference had he been fit.

As for the scarves, I saw two floating down the river as I crossed Lady Bay Bridge.

16 Mar 2026 15:01:26
Put all our best players out, make them earn their money. We're only 1 nil down. Win against them at their place, confidence boost for the Spurs game. If you're going to save your best players for Sunday, keep them at home, no point bringing them on late in a game when you're already losing.

16 Mar 2026 17:20:44
Stokie, if they had spent north of 60 million on a decent striker, that would still have left 120 million of the wasted 180 spent on the likes of.
Hutchinson/ Franz Carr 2.0, all speed & no end product.
Igor Jesus wept. Couldn't the striker match.
Bakwa, you came from, you fraud.
James, make the tea. Only fit for mashing at half time.
Cuhna, tackle as if his life depends on it.


Kilamanjaro. Quick sell him, he scores goals for fun.
Shambles of a window. Shambles of an owner trying to buy everyone's loyalty with a few Temu scarfs.
Shambles of a season & there was no need for any of it.
As long as he's got his double sized seat to dump his jumbo sized cannon on every match. With his personal TV screen to watch Corrie when he's bored with the woeful football. Jobs a gud un.

16 Mar 2026 18:59:24
Thank you for the fair feedback, Larry. ??

16 Mar 2026 19:30:08
Excellent, Larry, and all. ? ? ? ? ?
Hey, Vale, as long as it was only scarves floating down the River, mate, and not Forest fans reaching the end of their tether.
By way of a grisly footnote, the River Trent was one of the boundaries between the old City and County Police Forces.

I heard many credible stories from some of the old timers, before amalgamation, of bodies found floating, being pushed during the night from one bank to another using rowing boats to avoid having to investigate the deaths on behalf of the Coroner. Highly reprehensible, of course.

16 Mar 2026 19:38:38
Whatever happens, Spurs will get an extra day of recovery and prepare with no travel. Their game on Wednesday will be interesting. Effectively starting 3 nil down, if Atletico get an early couple of goals, making it, say, 5 nil at half time, then I expect Tudor to start withdrawing key players, ready for us on Sunday.


However, this may not be acceptable to Spurs fans and hierarchy, already on his back despite a better showing against Liverpool.
But, if Spurs get a first half couple, then he will keep his best 11 on.
Extra time and a few knocks will be very very helpful to us...

16 Mar 2026 10:14:40
Why start a must win game with the same attacker up top? Jesus puts a shift in, but he doesn't score in the Premier League! Taiwo should have started!
So we need a goal and VP takes MGW off for Yates! I love Yatesey, he is Garibaldi through and through, but why?
Only positives really, we didn't lose to Fulham for a change, plus Spurs might not get rid of their interim manager before our visit!
COYR.