As we're unlikely to see terraces again at football, this is the virtual equivalent where you can chat to your hearts content about all football matters and, obviously, Arsenal in particular. This forum encourages all Gooners to visit and contribute so please keep it respectful, clean and topical.
greengooner wrote:Forest on the verge of signing ex-Arsenal and current mental bas**rd mr n bentner.....be afraid be very afraid....if you own a taxi in Nottingham
The final nail in the coffin of a once great and proud club. RIP Nottingham Forest.
If they then sign Comedy Eboue the fucking world will end.
greengooner wrote:Forest on the verge of signing ex-Arsenal and current mental bas**rd mr n bentner.....be afraid be very afraid....if you own a taxi in Nottingham
Herd wrote:Apparantly Bendtner had agreed to go to Barcelona but no one else agreed so he's off to Forest instead !
In his furure autobiography ("Bendtner - the footballer Messi could have been") Bendtner will claim the Barca move only fell apart because Barca could not match his ambition.
...and there were no decent kebab shops in Barcelona.
supergeorgegraham wrote:Clough and Taylour made Forest a big club forever. 2 back to back European cup wins. Only Man United and Liverpool beat that record. Shame Forest ended up in limbo I always see them as a PremierLeague club.
Agree 100% mate. I've always liked Nottm Forest and would love to see them back in Division 1 (or the Premier League as we have to call it now).
Watched The Damned United again recently - his time at Leeds was spectacularly shite but what Brian Clough (and Peter Taylor) achieved at Derby and then Forest was incredible. To get a team promoted from Division 2, win the League Title next season, win the mighty European Cup the next season and then retain it the next season is an achievement that will never, ever be repeated. It still defies belief.
Great man Cloughie!!
Amen to that.
I loved Damned United. It was crying out for a sequel where they could do the Forest part of his career.
DB10GOONER wrote:It was an epic achievement. But let's not forget that it was under Clough that they then went into serious decline and got relegated. He had stayed way too long with way too much power - his last 10 YEARS as Forest manager only got them 2 League Cups. Cloughie was also alleged to have taken (and given) numerous bungs;
The misconduct investigation into him by the FA was only dropped because he was seriously ill.
I'll have you know the great man got three 3rd Place Trophies in 84, 88 and 89
Other than that they were solidly top half from 83-92. Shame about his last season though. Selling your goalscorers was never going to work out well.
There are some vague similarities to TOF and Clough - early success and tailed off - but Clough could actually WIN the European Cup. Twice.
He would have been done for taking bungs, as George was, had he not been retired.
And Wenger has finished solidly top half also for a decade - indeed top 4 every season as the AKB love to point out - is that now acceptable as the benchmark for being a "great man"?
Three third place finishes in a decade? He also finished 12th, 9th (twice), 8th (4 times) and 22nd during that period. Imagine the carry on here if Wenger did that? If anything Clough's decline is even worse than Wenger's decline - to go from winning the league and back to back European Cups to relegation is a serious decline. Do you not think it's a bit of a double standard to criticise Wenger (rightly) for not winning the league for a decade but then to portray Clough's final decade at Forest as anything other than serious decline?
I don't know for sure but I think Cloughs decline was due to the split with Peter Taylor and then his death. Taylor found the players and Clough had the ability to make them play to their highest potential.
Without Taylor he would never have won the European Cup twice. I think Taylor died in 1986 and by then the magic was gone from Clough but together they did the impossible.
Cloughs decline was partly due to Taylor for sure and partly due to his alchohlism which became cronic .
Also like with many things the world was changing and playersno longer lived in fear of their managers which was something
Clough and later Graham had going for them !
Clough was only great with Peter Taylor next to him. When you look at the success Clough had it was with Taylor. Admittedly, the league cups wins in 1989 and 1990 was down Clough's last stand , similar to Wenger 2014 & 2015 FA Cup wins. But they were as far away a league title contenders as we are now.
Don't forget Clough took them back down to where he joined them from.
I've always had a soft-spot for Forest. They were the first team I ever saw us play at Highbury and my Dad would always go on about how they always looked to play football rather than just whack it about or grt physical. Cloughie was a total nutcase but 25 years ago, he was talking about tv ruining football, money taking the game away from the fans, players not caring about their club or contracts and owners and boards only in it for the money. It's strange to think now that he was deemed a nuisance and a misery for saying all that stuff when it's exactly what we've got today.
