Sabri Lamouchi out, Chris Hughton in: Forest favour change again

18 words is all he got. And half an hour is all we got to mull it over. 

In the end, it's fair to say Sabri Lamouchi was a manager who conducted himself with a great deal more class and dignity than whoever issued the curt and joyless statement announcing his departure from the City Ground. When players who've registered a handful of appearances receive more warmth, it leaves a sour taste and doesn't paint the club in the best light. 

Nor, frankly, does the report in the Athletic of the club owner's apparent actions after the Barnsley League Cup game. These events appear to have undermined the former Rennes boss and really can't have helped to lift spirits at a club still shellshocked by the all-too-recent calamity of the past season's finale.

#NFFC can confirm that the contract of head coach Sabri Lamouchi has been terminated with immediate effect.

— Nottingham Forest FC (@NFFC) October 6, 2020

The popular Frenchman's departure tonight was a sad end to a tenure that offered so much promise. Perhaps his greatest failing was to offer a glimmer of hope that the club's short-term goals might be achievable. Now he's a man who failed to make the seemingly-impossible possible and has paid the price for being unable to reverse the rot once it set in. 

Even those of us who supported him have to accept, however, that one hell of a rot had set in - and it wasn't exactly a surprise to see him go in the end.

Chris Hughton - the best possible choice?

Forest may have been short of words to describe his departure - but the English language is short of words to describe the odd feelings this club has a habit of stirring. It's possible to be both disappointed with a poorly handled sacking and mightily impressed with the calibre of his replacement in one mixed-up bundle. 

Chris Hughton seems like the best possible choice in the circumstances - a smart manager with the experience, cool head and pragmatism needed to try to knit together a side from a squad that contains a fair few experienced heads. He's worked for demanding owners in the past, steered clubs to play-off and promotion campaigns and even (fanciful though it sounds from this far out) established clubs in the top flight after getting up. 

You also feel that his style might well suit the players at his disposal and avoid the need for too many more additions after a window in which 13 new faces have already checked in at the City Ground. A complete change of style - with a need for yet more purchases - wouldn't have been wise.

Chris Hughton appointed as manager #NFFC are delighted to announce the appointment of Chris Hughton as the club’s new manager.

— Nottingham Forest FC (@NFFC) October 6, 2020

It's probably a smart tactic to have the new man lined up right away when wielding the axe too - it does at least take the sting out of some of the criticism that might've been levelled at the club hierarchy for its role in the situation we're in.

Don't let the club off the hook

But let's not allow the moment to pass before making this point - the people at the top of the club need to reflect on their failings. They're just as culpable as the man they unceremoniously bundled out of the door and we won't move on unless they learn.

After the disastrous end to last season, the senior leadership had a decision to make - stick or twist. Instead, they tried both. They stuck by the manager in a bid to get some continuity and build on the highest league finish in nine years. They also decided to revamp the squad with the sort of volume of signings and departures you'd expect to have seen if they had actually sacked Sabri. Maybe they hoped to build on the foundations of last season and get a boost from freshening up the dressing room. It feels very much like a 'have your cake and eat it' strategy - and it didn't work. In the end we got the benefit of neither approach - getting simultaneously stuck in a rut and left with a situation in which it'll take some time for a best XI to emerge. Reports will say Sabri was 'backed by the addition of 13 new signings' - but they ought to reflect on the fact that he never really had chance to field some of those more than once, if at all. 

If a limp defeat to Barnsley in a cup competition we could've done without was enough to anger the owner, then perhaps the point of no return had been passed anyway? Throwing players at the problem and hoping something sticks is the sort of short termist folly that the previous regime was famous for. Is that really all we've got? Let's hope not.

Hughton has a great track record, but he could do without him and his players facing a rollicking over Zoom. Evangelos Marinakis might be used to getting his own way, but he has to face up to the fact that he's not in charge of a club that can naturally challenge for honours every season regardless. He can expect results yesterday if he likes, but he won't get them without being a bit smarter than that. I'm sure he knows an awful lot more than me about running a football club, but it's time he showed that he does.

To be fair, in Hughton the club have picked a manager to match their recruitment policy (or part of it anyway) - finding an experienced head who shouldn't need time to adjust to the nature of the league. He seems a popular choice with fans - and a popular figure in the game too. But, as ever with Forest managers, he needs time he doesn't really have to do two seasons work in one. He needs luck as well as skill to find a winning formula quickly. He also needs support - from the owners, the dressing room and us. I hope he gets it.

So, yes, I'm happy with Hughton. And, yes, I'm sad about Sabri. And disappointed with some shoddy communication while at the same time hopeful that things can improve. Like those early era Facebook statuses, with Forest 'it's complicated'. 

Over to you, Aitor Karanka

How was it for you? The annual spin on the managerial merry-go-round comes round with as much certainty as a Goose Fair ride these days, this time leading to Aitor Karanka taking Mark Warburton's place in the City Ground hotseat.



I'd made it clear that I thought Mark Warburton deserved more time to complete the work he'd started, but that wasn't to be. We'll probably never know exactly what caused the club to part company with the former Brentford man. Was it a fallout over transfer targets, concerns over the playing style and team selection, the poor form in recent games, the fact that we were too far off the play offs or a combination of the above? Yet the fact he was given the push after the defeat to Sunderland - and the identity of the man who has replaced him - might well tell us a lot about what the owners are thinking.

I wrote in my last post about Nicholas Randall's open letter to the fans in the summer yet it felt like axing Warburton - described as the 'perfect fit' for the club - marked a change of approach from that vision. Or, at the very least, it brought into question the talk of the precious commodity of time and the need to be realistic in our ambitions as the club emerged from intensive care.

While I think it'd be wrong to state that no progress was made under Warburton, there was clearly a debate as to how much progress we were making under him. The answer to that question really depends on your expectations. The fact that Warburton has joined the long list of ex Nottingham Forest managers (imagine a meeting of that disparate group? What would Joe Kinnear and Billy Davies talk about?!) suggests that the new ownership wants promotion a lot quicker than I first thought.

Personally, I think it'd be crazy to expect Karanka to pull off an unlikely push at the top six this season (surely a dangerous overestimation of the quality of the squad) but I sense the regime would be disappointed not to see the club among the challengers this time next year. The former Boro boss has half of this transfer window and the summer to take the foundations laid by Warburton (and the academy) and build a challenge. It's a big ask, but it is one he managed in similar circumstances in the North East, where he took his charges to the play-off final in his first full campaign.

If the club has shown itself to be ambitious - and ruthless - in making this move, the fact that the hierarchy was able to persuade Karanka to come to Nottingham is impressive. The Spaniard is said to have turned down a number of opportunities to return to football management since he departed the Riverside. Indeed, it's thought Birmingham failed to offer the resources and assurances needed to secure his signature. Given that he's a man who has bided his time, you'd like to hope that the club must've presented an attractive and ambitious vision to attract him. Neither he nor his backroom team have been shy about talking of promotion upon arrival at the club. It'll certainly be interesting to see what sort of budget he has available given that the FFP constraints still make their presence felt.

Just arrived in Nottingham, can’t wait to get started! #NFFC pic.twitter.com/NTHn2MiwZn

— Aitor Karanka (@Karanka) January 9, 2018

In many respects, Karanka seems an ideal appointment. It avoided the head vs heart sentimentality of signing up an ex player and sidestepped the risk of an unknown manager (although I'd be open to snapping up a lower league manager on the up personally). If the Greeks - or anyone else for that matter - care about these things, he's a Champions League winning player in his Real Madrid days with a pedigree that deserves respect. As a coach, he's young and fresh while, at the same time, has invaluable experience with Middlesbrough and a promotion on his CV. He's certainly a lot less polarising than many of the names on the bookies' list and seems to still attract affection from many Boro fans. You'd also like to think he'll only tweak the style and shape Warburton favoured, avoiding the need for a long and expensive tactical overhaul.

Of course, he isn't perfect. There remains a question mark about his falling out with the Boro hierarchy for starters. Yet the other major criticism - that he was overly defensive - seems churlish. Firstly, we're desperate for defensive solidity after a season and a half of leaking goals far too readily. Secondly, this suggestion applies most clearly to the caution Boro' demonstrated in the top flight, where they failed to score enough goals to retain their Premier League status. Frankly, we're a long way off the luxury of worrying about that.

We have to hope that Karanka is smart enough to be able to quickly weigh up what's he's inherited. The Arsenal game - still scarcely believable - demonstrated the breadth of young talent coming through the ranks. These players need to be nurtured, not replaced with journeymen signings - something that short termist thinking has caused in the past. The need for greater strength and quality, especially in defence, should hopefully also be apparent as the clock ticks away on the January window. No-one wants to see a repeat of the shambles of last January's transfer window (has anyone found Joao Teixeira yet?).

Those journalists with close contact to the new regime have certainly argued that the Warburton era will end up being written off as a false start for the Marinakis era and, with hindsight, will prove the right move. Without evidence to the contrary myself I'm keen to retain an open - and sceptical - mind. I like the look of Karanka, but I've learned not to get too attached to managers over recent years. You never can quite tell if a boss will be able to replicate their success in another club either. Gary Megson, now rightly maligned by Forest fans, arrived having done a job at West Brom that we'd have loved him to repeat on Trentside. It'd be wholly unfair to tar anyone, least alone a brand new manager, with the Megson brush, but his memory serves as a warning not to get too carried away.

Still, I am happy that we've recruited a good manager. That's only part of the puzzle but it is a big one. The next step should be to appoint a Director of Football to replace Frank McParland. It would certainly be a lot healthier if the person filling this berth isn't as closely linked to the man in the dugout this time.

Aitor Karanka seems clear about the challenge and the expectation ahead. He now needs the support to deliver. I don't know about you, but I'd quite like it if the merry-go-round ended its annual visit to the City Ground from now on.

Marinakis makes postive impression with both actions and words

The bitter experience of the last five years has turned us into an odd bunch of fans hasn't it? Most sets of supporters who crave a takeover probably want to hear their new owners talk about spending big in the transfer market, with grand plans and big targets. We, on the other hand, went misty-eyed at the mention of a chief commercial officer, chairman and CEO.

This sweet sensation of structure, having been a rudderless ship in rocky waters for five long years, meant that Evangelos Marinakis and Sokratis Kominakis announced their arrival at the club this week with immediate action, not just words. With one statement they managed to put in place a professional-looking hierarchy for the club, something Fawaz and co never seriously managed.

While I'm not going to pretend I know Nicholas Randall, Ioannis Vrentzos or David Cook, their biographies show that they are people with real substance who know both how to run football clubs and how to run commercially successful operations. Both of these fundamental skills were completely absent under the old regime. In some respects this trio, alongside Sam Gordon, have a blank canvas on which to build a new business and, with their credentials, should quickly be able to make an impact.

In fact, in many ways, they already have. Remarkably we're heading into the summer with a shirt sponsor, a clear drive to sell season tickets (with a savvy discount for the existing supporters) and a new home shirt launched and up for sale. Again, fans of other clubs probably look on from afar with amazement that these things are such a big deal but, alas, that's where we're at. The tone and frequency of the promotional emails I began to receive after Gordon's appointment can only have helped to boost attendances and demonstrated a much-needed professionalism.

Marinakis' words were also encouraging. Yes, he clearly wants to get to the Premier League but he made no daft promises about when we might achieve a return to the top flight and he appeared to have understood the scale of the challenge if we're to match his ambitions.

On the playing side of things we have a manager and director of football in place who have a good understanding of the strengths and weaknesses of the current paying squad - as well as an appreciation of what is needed to succeed in this division. Both seem to have been drafted in with a fair bit of input from the new Greek ownership, meaning that we won't have to go through more managerial upheaval now that we're under new ownership (something that completely ruined Birmingham's 2016/17 campaign).

You only need to re-wind 12 months to appreciate what a difference this all makes. While we might have ended the campaign on a mild high - with a joyous returning goal from Britt Assombalonga - we went into the summer with no manager, no CEO, no scouting network and no plan to recruit new players as we emerged from a long transfer embargo. The summer was dominated by the attempted takeover - by Marinakis - and we were left with a slightly haphazard attempt to embrace a new continental style managerial structure with Philippe Montanier and Pedro Pereira, which was doomed to fail while Fawaz remained at the helm.

This time, we have a manager and director of football who don't need time to adjust to the division and the time and infrastructure required to have a more strategic approach to the transfer window. None of that means success is certain - but we've witnessed what happens without these foundations in place.

Indeed, we've all seen that the general off-field failure of the Fawaz era completely undermined any of his stated ambitions on the pitch. I've long thought that, no matter what we've seen in the last couple of seasons, we're further away from being a Premier League outfit off the field than we are on it.

Marinakis' statements seem to show that, while he knows he can't guarantee becoming a Premier League team next season, he can put in place the foundations that mean we start to look like a Premier League club in waiting off the field. He's reaching out to the wider community to listen to fans, businesses and academics in the city - rather than just seeing what people are saying on Twitter - and wants to bring former players 'into the tent'. You'd imagine that's not just a sop to the fans - but also a smart PR move to involve people with a big media profile who could otherwise end up being vocal critics.

Some fans, rightly, are nervous about the allegations previously levelled against Marinakis. Indeed, it does appear that questions about his activity in Greece got in the way of him buying the club last year. We shouldn't condemn someone who hasn't been, to my knowledge, found guilty of an offence but nor should we ignore the need for some caution amid the joy of Fawaz's departure.

The Fawaz years ought to have taught us not to take everything we're told at face value and to challenge the club to deliver on its promises. While what we've seen so far has undoubtedly been impressive, it's still worth being vigilant with the people in charge. Through the advisory council, fans have the opportunity to have a voice and this needs to be used in a constructive way. Fans can be critical where necessary while still being supportive of the club and treading this fine line well could be as key to the long-term success of this new regime as anything else.

Nottingham Forest have been bought by Evangelos Marinakis.

He has denied accusations of match-fixing in Greece.
➡ https://t.co/rE3PkEMFPv pic.twitter.com/LkB3p0lNLk

— BBC Sport (@BBCSport) May 18, 2017

Still, while we shouldn't allow ourselves to get completely carried away, there are plenty of reasons to feel positive. We have the right manager (who wants to play attractive football) and the beginnings of a good squad who, together, managed to just about secure our status in the second tier. They will be supported by a director of football with a track record for astute buys and a football club that looks set to be operating on a professional footing at long last.

Next season won't be easy. All three relegated clubs should be strong at this level, Sheffield United and Bolton should be better than Wigan and Rotherham and the likes of Villa, Derby, Leeds and Cardiff will all be expecting to come stronger. The target for the club, as Marinakis says, has to be to be better than last season. That means we're likely to need to improve substantially even to make modest gains in our league standing.

We've got a long way to go to get where we want to be but, for now at least, we should be buoyed by the fact that everything is in place to at least start the journey. Let's hope that this time next season we're even more optimistic about the future of the club.