Matters of the Hart
14/07/01 | by Alex Walker

Right, from now on, I’ll try my best to avoid Hart / Heart puns.

A football club without a manager is a strange beast. Like a Mercerdes-Benz without a badge or This Morning without Richard and Judy, it doesn’t quite fit. It seems awkward, unfinished and jars with your expectations. This is why I was so glad that Forest avoided the usual period of limbo and filled the management position as soon as possible.

My heart (I said ‘heart’!) sank when I saw the news of Platt’s departure on ceefax, on an otherwise quiet Thursday afternoon. I suddenly felt an indescribable feeling of helplessness and disappointment. The manager who was growing in my confidence every day, and who I was convinced could produce the goods next season was gone and the club seemed to be hanging in the balance. It was no great surprise, as the rumours had been doing the rounds for weeks, but I had persuaded myself not to believe them, and this previous denial made the final realisation all the more sickening. It was made even worse by the fact I knew that others would currently be leaping for joy having seen the same report.

But how my melancholy mood changed when an hour later I discovered that Paul Hart was to take over. To tell the truth, I was more surprised by this news (greeted with an air of cynicism as my only source was a one-line announcement at the foot of a teletext page) than that of Platt. It suddenly put a stop to my thoughts of a possible return for Nigel Clough to rest, creating an ambivalence with my relief that we weren’t to head down the same path that we have trod so many times before after Clark, Basset, Atkinson...

As I grew used to the idea, my hope was slowly restored from the shattered mess that Platt had left. I began to feel an excitement about the coming season that, despite my faith in Platt, hadn’t existed before, at least not in the same form. I was still sad about Platt’s premature exit, but felt that Forest had come off pretty much as well as possible from the emotional roller coaster which, thankfully, was made as short as possible and I was able to get a good night’s sleep.

The following morning I began to put my thoughts about the whole incident into order and this is how they panned out.

I was keen to start looking forward again, my excitement about Hart, who had always been near the top, and at some points, at the top, of my wish list (should Platt have gone of course), was still buzzing around my head, as was the relief of the way things had been handled (more kudos for the board). However, when I do take the time to look back at Platt and his stay with the Reds, it will be with a sense of disappointment. Not at his so-called failure, but at the way he never completed the job.

Many will see Platt as yet another who failed to live up to the expectations of a post-Clough Forest fan base, but I disagree. I think, given the circumstances, Platt never really had the chance to prove his worth as I fully expected next season to make or break him. Of course, it’s his own decision, which is where the disappointment lies. But he gave his best in my opinion over the past 2 years, and whether or not his best was good enough at the time, I think it would be sad to think of Platt’s reign with malice.

That said, one of the positives of the past few days is that we might finally be able to put a cap on the endless anti/pro-Platt arguments that have divided the supporters for so long. As much as I enjoyed the debates and found interest in the subject, at least now we can unite behind the new manager and give him our full support.

But how long will this last? Hart has at least got the advantage of being an old Forest boy which counted heavily against Platty, who was seen by some as an out-sider (though quite frankly this is a pathetic reason for disliking someone as manager - how much did Brian Clough, the former-Derby boss, care about the Reds before he joined?). He is also in the good books at the moment after his success with our Youth academy, which is the main reason he was considered. But other than that, I don’t see much advantage of having Hart over Platt, which breathes fears that if Hart doesn’t find success quickly, then he could also find himself the target of our boo-boys.

And Paul Hart getting success quickly is easier said than done. After all, Hart’s record with Chesterfield, his only previous first-team management experience, sees him playing a similar amount of games as Platt and producing a spookily familiar ratio of wins, draws and losses. Of course that was a long time ago, and he has since shown himself to excellent at working with youngsters, which is where the future of the club lies due a severe lack of cash. However, Platt has hardly been bad at coaching younger players, and look what his new job is....

Hart’s style of play which he employed with his championship winning U19 side is a more patient passing game, based around build-up work, as apposed to Platt’s pressure soaking counter-attack tactics, which should certainly please the fans (as long as it works, natch). However, any theories that the board knew Platt was leaving all along (if they knew that, then why did the try to sign him up on a new contract?) and kept some transfer money back are complete rubbish and belong nowhere else but back with the ‘everything Platt did was wrong, he is evil’ drivel that some will inevitably spout. This means that, unless Harty can sell anyone, then he won’t be able to bring in any new names apart from maybe the odd free or loan (time to ring up his old mates at Leeds perhaps?). However, this only highlights one of the main reasons why he was the right choice: he knows most of the players well, especially the most important ones, i.e. the youth. The question is will Hart be able to get the best out of the players that Platt left behind?

This means he’ll perhaps have to succeed where Platt failed as I still think Platt didn’t bring the full potential out of the squad. Hart’s past experience with man-management might help, but my prediction is that it will still take a while for him to get them playing at their best. Under Platt, I would have expected us to be in the play-offs at the end of the season with a shout at promotion. However, the change of managers has stunted my expectations and now feel that anything higher than midtable would not only be over-expectant, but a terrific achievement.

But it still remains, comparing Platt to Hart is an ultimately pointless exercise for two reasons: a) We will never know how Platt would have performed this coming season, and as of yet we haven’t seen how Hart will perform so nothing could be settled, and b) if we eventually decide that Platt was the right man after all, what can we do about it?

So with this in mind, I think we should all put our differing views on David Platt to the back of our minds and concentrate of giving the new boss all the backing we can. The chapter on Platt has closed and I would like to wish him the best of luck in the future. I don’t see any reason why Platt should become a new hate figure - we have enough already. He should be congratulated on giving his best to us for 2 difficult years and should not be criticised for leaving in order to forward his career, especially not by those who spent all year saying how he should leave anyway, as most of us would have done the same in his position. He is not a ‘Judas’ (and if he is, if Judas hadn’t have handed Jesus over to the Romans, he could never have died for all our sins) and should never be called such a despicable name. After all, had the England job been offered to Brian Clough, it is well documented that he would have walked as well.

Hart now needs the support that Platt so sorely missed. Perhaps the anti-Platters will support Hart as a matter of principal. At the other extreme, the pro-Platters will get behind Hart because we are obviously intelligent enough to see this is the right thing to do (joke). Whatever, let’s just wish both Hart and Platt all the best, but hope that in the near future, nobody else tries to steal the badge off our Mercedes.