Has Doughty Given Andrew Cole The Boot ?

Nottingham Forest is in danger of becoming a shambolic laughing stock, if the latest rumours doing the rounds have any legs.

First up today, the internet is rife with news of players brawling, following a night out at the Gatecrasher nightclub. Choose anyone of the myriad of Forest forums for the latest on that one.

Secondly and with a bit more meat on the bone, The Guardian is claiming that Chairman Nigel Doughty has terminated the contract of star striker Andrew Cole. To say the former Man Utd player has been a bit of a disappointment, would be an understatement. But since his arrival in the summer, he's not exactly set the place alight. In 11 appearances for the club (5 as sub), he's not found the net once.

The worrying thing about the Cole incident, is why this has been done by Doughty and not Calderwood? The credit crunch must be hitting our benefactor a little harder than we think if that's the case. Maybe Doughty believes that the rumoured £15k per week paid to Cole, is better in the his pocket than the players.

If Doughty is now making these kind of decisions, then it doesn't look too good for Calderwood. His time is up, as far as many of the supporters are concerned, but the list of suitable and available replacements is short.

Hopefully this is all just wild speculation, but as the saying goes, there's no smoke without fire. That said, it wouldn't be the biggest surprise to hear that Cole's contract had been ended by mutual consent. As for the players brawling, rumours are that it will appear in the NEP tomorrow. With only 6 days to go to the showdown with the Sheep, this is not the news we need.

Click here to join in the debate on the club forum.