lost that loving feeling

Nottingham Forest has a proud history. Often we fans are denounced as "living in a past", and a past that lasted three years at that. To the first charge, I suppose I must plead guilty, yet our history does extend beyond the glorious confines of the late 1970's.

Our first success, and a success that I would rather have witnessed than Munich or Madrid, in fact occurred many, many years ago. Back in the tactical dark ages of the 2-3-5 formation - the mystical "MW" I think its called.

Our first success was to beat the scum (who even then were known to be uncivilised, bestial primitive creatures who turned to animals before their lady folk); Derby in the FA Cup final. What glorious jubilation must have swept industrial Nottingham in 1898, as our 11 heroes (no subs back then) were paraded through the streets of NG1 and Gedling Borough atop a double-decker cabbage cart. The travelling fans would have recalled to their mates down the pub the wondrous sites of the metropolis, the crisp turf of Wembley (Crystal Palace - Alex), the chic designer numbers the urban intelligentsia wore upon their well fed bodies, those elegant ladies, and that FOOTBALL! Wow! Forest splaying 50 yarders out to the wings, nutmegging sheep for shits and giggles, and destructive finishing to bring the illustrious FA Cup to Nottingham!

So where has it all gone wrong? I ask myself, where has it all gone? Forest have been producing England internationals since time began, playing top draw football for most of the 137 years of our existence, challenging for honours for large parts of our proud past. But now we are enduring a slump in our fortunes that we have not known for about 25 years. Not one of our players looks like challenging for a place in a top international side. Our football is exciting at times yes, but it's not quite top drawer now is it? Tony Vaughan lumping it forwards to that colossus of talent Gary Jones, who flicks the ball elegantly on for that prolific striker, Marlon Harewood to run on to is not, in my mind, the sort of thing I think of when I try to depict Roy Dwight thundering in a vital goal in 1959 at Wembley. And as for challenging for honours... we are challenging for points and pounds at the moment, trying desperately to avoid bankruptcy and mid-table obscurity. Never mind the FA Cup final, it’s an achievement to get to the fourth round. How did it happen?

It seems to have been fashionable recently to place the blame on the managers and the board members. Some, however, prefer a more balanced approach. A collective underachieving perhaps? How 21st Century PC that sounds! The bloke who sits too close for comfort, and near to us all I suspect, is all too quick to blame the players:

"You' re crap! Get 'im off"

"He's F*ckin' useless, £3m for THAT!"

We all know the people who say it, and I dare say have at least an iota of sympathy for those who say it. Frankly, our players, much as we love em, never boo em, blah blah, have not done the club proud. Shock horror, heresy, cannot say, taboooooooo!

So there. I have blamed the players. Nothing new, we all know certain players limitations. Some are so limited we have been glad to see the back of them. Every single Italian player who has ever graced our training ground seems to amongst that list. Maybe we've been buying the Sicilians or something, because any nation that gave Silenzi a cap can't be the three times World Cup winner that we all know and envy.

Yet I do not want to leave it here. Players have limitations, yes. Even Roy Keane missed and misses passes (or so I am told, I've never seen it happen). Even the very best players, can play badly (Veron). Bad players can do well, if they are playing in team that is cohesive.

And here is the failure of the Forest team over the past few years. 11 players, playing as less than 1 team. The Brazilian side of 1970 may have been loaded with individual talent, but it succeeded in the way that the current Brazilian side has not by playing as a team and half. Manchester United are doing well now because that team element has been recovered.

It is the reason that our strikers, by no means bad players, have not done well. They have not had a cohesive side behind them, with whom they can interact and score goals with. Frank Clark did it, with a midfield that hung together with a balance that allowed Stan Collymore to work his wonders. David Phillips was understated in his role, yet crucial in his interaction with the wingers, Stone and Woan, and the other midfielders, Bohinen and Gemmill. Yet he did not possess any outstanding qualities.

The same is probably true of John McGovern and is true of Dietmar Hamann. Liverpool's success is that play better than the sum of their parts. Owen playing up front certainly helps matters, but his success is dependant on the players behind him functioning together. The England side may do well in the World Cup despite a lack of talent, because of the team spirit and cohesion that Eriksson is trying to create. Paul Hart is trying to do the same.

Scimeca failed as a captain and a central midfielder under Platt because he came into a dysfunctional side, not because it lacked talent, though certainly, it did lack talent. David Johnson only scored a handful of goals for us because he had to compensate for the dysfunctional four behind him. Money was wasted in individuals, when it should have spent on the team, that is, on a player who could bring together the talents within the side.

It is this that makes our current side a disgrace to the achievements of the sides that have gone before them. Nottingham Forest have made good out of players who have famously failed elsewhere - Nigel Clough for one - because our football was conducive to team players. I hope it will be soon, because the talent that is being introduced into our team now runs the risk of being isolated in the way that David Johnson was. Gareth Williams will only play to his best when he is operating with three other team players in midfield, who can play around him, running, crossing and scoring. Craig Westcarr and Andy Reid and Marlon Harewood will never score goals for the club if they are playing behind the sort of unattractive, dysfunctional side that Platt created.

It would at this point seem obvious to look to Paul Hart and the youth team, as one tends to do after having bemoaned Forest and is in need of a boost. It is my ever increasing fear that all that potential will be wasted if it is put into our side before the side is ready to accommodate individual talent. I fear that more good players will be lost to us, and our embarrassment of a team. In Paul Hart, I do see a manger who can solve the problem. In Nicky Summerbee, I see one vital component of an effective midfield. Yet I do not see the player who can bring it all together. Who shall be our Roy Keane? Who shall play the role of David Phillips or John McGovern? Who can be the adhesive around whom the team will stick? I beg our youngsters, David Prutton, Gareth Williams, maybe Riccy Scimeca, to mature now, so that Nottingham Forest can once again become what it needs to be.

We need to be a team. Not 11, but one. In this way, the stadium shall be filled, the game shall be won and glory ours once more.