Doughty Speaks - But It's More Of The Same Old

Nottingham Forest Chairman Nigel Doughty has finally broken his silence and spoken for the first time about the clubs' lack of activity in the transfer market. It comes after weeks of criticism from many supporters, who feel the Chairman is not only failing to back the manager, but also scuppering any chances the club has of promotion this season.

Credit must be given to the Chairman for responding to supporters concerns and criticisms through an article in the NEP, where he admits to sharing the same frustrations felt by many of the fans. As is always the case, a man in Doughty's position is damned if he does and damned if he doesn't in these situations, because what he says will be seen as either making excuses or simply telling us the truth as to how things really are. It's also the case that many supporters will either view him as the saviour of the club, or the man who has held us back for 11 years.

I'm one of the people who has reluctantly fallen into the 'held us back for 11 years' camp, due to the failings of not only this summer, but many from the past as well. It's a fair criticism of the Chairman in my book, to say that he has always failed to back the right manager and build on progress made, when in a position of strength. It happened under Paul Hart and it's happening again under Billy Davies. Whilst Nigel Doughty might not be selling off the family silver as he did under Hart, he is failing to build on a similar success. Hart had narrowly missed out on promotion to the Premiership in 2003, when the following season he saw his prize assets sold off and not replaced. Fast forward to 2010 and it could be argued the same is happening to Davies. Maybe not the same fire sale of players, but the failure to strengthen at a crucial time, is all too reminiscent of 2003.

It would be remiss of me not to mention that we did add Ryan Bertrand to the squad, as a 6 month loan signing to fill the void at left back and we did eventually finalise the Majewski deal, even if that deal had been done the previous season during his year long loan spell. Both are welcome additions to the squad, but due to the fact that Garner and Bennett have gone out on loan and we sold James Perch to Newcastle, the squad is effectively weaker in terms of numbers at least than it was at the start of the last campaign. After finishing the season on a relative high, it was widely expected that we would make a serious challenge this year. Due to the ridiculously small size of the squad, that's highly unlikely to happen. All it will take is an injury or the odd suspension, to ensure it that any delusions of promotion are rapidly extinguished. No side can mount a serious promotion campaign with such a small squad.

I'm sure Nigel Doughty's words are well intended, I just can't believe them anymore. He has always said that he would only add to the squad from a position of strength. If finishing the last campaign in 3rd place and as beaten Playoff semi finalists wasn't a position of strength, could he kindly tell me what is? I've read the article in the NEP a few times now, but it just seems like the same old excuses to explain away the boards continued failings.

You may not agree with the views expressed in this article, as they are only my personal opinion. If you would like to give a more positive view of the Chairman and his comments in the NEP, you can email your views to forest@vitalfootball.co.uk and we will be more than happy to publish them on the front page.

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