FOOTBALL LEAGUE expert Gabriel Sutton (@_FootbalLab) editor of The Football Lab explains why 2016/17 could be a campaign of misery for Nottingham Forest.
Why Nottingham Forest Are Doomed
Believe it or not, Phillipe Montanier will be Nottingham Forest’s eighth manager in owner Fawaz Al-Hasawi’s four years in charge.
The Kuwaiti businessman has already indicated a desire to sell the club and there is a danger his feeling of apathy may filter downwards.
The fact that the club has finished the last three seasons lower than the year before, despite heavy spending in the summers of 2013 and 2014, suggests something is fundamentally wrong off-the-field.
Fawaz often pays bills late, he sacks members of the backroom staff a lot of the time and tries to control too much. Now, the club continues to face all these disruptions without a particularly big budget to compensate.
Montanier has never worked in England and has limited knowledge of the British transfer market, evidenced by the club’s preference for foreign signings. If loanee Hildeberto Pereira is registered as a right-back, five of the six additions are defenders or goalkeepers who have required no transfer fee.
The one exception is forward Apostolos Vellios, who flopped at Everton and has since played at Iraklis, who finished 12th in the Greek Super League.
The addition of just one attack-minded player, two if we account for Pereira’s versatility, provides no encouragement for a team that scored just 43 last year, fewer than any side outside the bottom three.
Goalscoring wise, Forest are pinning their hopes on Britt Assombalonga, a player who has only scored three goals since 2014 due to long-term injuries. Such long spells on the sidelines can have a negative affect on players and there are no guarantees whatsoever that he will be back to his earlier form.
Injuries have been a long-held problem at the City Ground and one cannot pin the blame on individual managers for this, due to the high number of bosses they’ve had in the last few years.
With Nelson Oliveira returning to Benfica, the highest-scoring player from last season still at Forest is a centre-back, Matt Mills.
With two wins and two clean sheets in their last 16 games, even their capacity to nick games 1-0 is warring off.
A combination of a shortage of goals, injuries, a lack of stability and a squad with little quality will culminate in a disastrous season for the Tricky Trees.
Take William Hill’s 10/1 on Forest to suffer relegation.
TOPICS Football League TipsBest Bets
Championship – Nottingham Forest to be relegated (10/1 William Hill)
