lost that loving feeling - The Young Ones

When half the Forest team are younger than you, it’s time to release your grasp on the childhood dreams you once had of playing for your beloved team and resign yourself to watching in awe from the stands for the rest of your days. Paul Hart seems to be doing his best to crush these dreams prematurely in my case judging by the amount of youth team players he is pushing into the team for his pre-season games. Not that this is a bad thing, as it seems to be fuelling my other Forest fantasy, which is to see the Reds playing decent, exciting football and winning things.

In Saturday’s ‘exhibition’ game against India, the stars of the show were the youngest players on the pitch: Jermaine Jenas (18) and Eugen Bopp (17). I’ve always been a fan of ‘JJ’ and he’s impressed me on every occasion of seen him play for both the youth and senior sides. Bopp’s reputation proceeds him and his goal speaks for itself. It was so refreshing to see this pair add an element of creativity to the Forest midfield which has been much missed for many years now. It can be no coincidence that when they left the pitch, the goals dried up. However, the main stumbling block is that both are built like racing snakes. It’s all very well being able to compete in friendly games against the Indian national side (hardly world-beaters by any stretch of the imagination) and Barnet, but in the school of hard knocks that is the first division, they could well find themselves out of their depth. Of course, the only way the young players will gain the experience to adapt to this level of play is if they get games.

The question is, will Paul Hart go down this avenue and rely on youth or will he try and get the best out of the senior pros already at the club? So far the evidence points to the former. In the two games so far that Hart has controlled, he has qualified the saying ‘a game of two halves’ by playing two very different Forest teams. On both occasions it has been the younger, more inexperienced 11 that has come off better than the side made of up of Forest’s more veteran players. Of course, this could just be a case of the youth team players wanting to make the most of their chance and the regular first teamers not being too enthralled by meaningless friendly games, but the rumour mill would suggest otherwise. Andy Johnson was quoted in some papers last week saying that he, Alan Rogers and Chris Bart-Williams would be leaving the club in the summer unless they were offered better contracts and there were reports of senior players bitching about younger ones taking their places. This may all be paper talk, but smoke without fire and all that.

It would seem that Hart will be only too pleased to accept offers for some of the older players if they are not giving 100%, as he wants to give the youth players he knows well a chance and it would also loosen the purse strings and perhaps give him a bit of spending money. However, if Hart is planning to build a team around young players, then we could face the problem of it taking a long time for them to finally reach their full potential. Forest fans are already frustrated after Platt’s failed attempts to get us up, and if Hart is going to make us wait even longer then they could lose patience yet again.

This is a shame, as I fully believe that we have a squad good enough to get out of this league (the right way). But they are still Platt’s players, and if he couldn’t get them to do it, then Hart might not be able to either, despite his greater experience. I know it’s far too early to judge anyone yet, but when the regular first teamers were on the pitch on Saturday, they looked exactly the same as they did last year, despite the new manager. I get the feeling that Hart is not going to tolerate wasters in his side and may use any chance he gets to bring through more rookies. This could have a short term effect of kicking some of the complacency out of our current players leading to better performances to keep their places, and in the long run it could help Hart bring his youth players to their full potential. Either way, those are the good points.

However, I get the feeling that with probably the youngest squad in the league, Forest may not be as competitive as would be liked this season. But if we get to see more of the delightful skill of Bopp and Jenas and their ilk, then it could still be a very interesting and enjoyable year.