This will be my first, and perhaps last, article for my beloved, adopted e-home LTLF this season. I will travel yonder with fond memories of coming second in the LTLF writers’ poll last season (I deny ALL accusations of cheating!) and of enriching this site with my writing. Oh what sweet delusion!

I can, of course, rest assured that the site is in capable hands during my absence. Reds will ramble on without me.

My absence is my GAP year to be spent in Zambia, conveniently arranged to miss potentially the best season of football at the City Ground since those long-forgotten days of "Nottingham Forest four, Middlesborough nil". Always prone to reminisce, us tricky trees, but it has been a long time since Forest were going anywhere. It is my profound belief that now we are actually heading in the right direction. I have managed only two games this season, but both have been utterly positive, hence this unduly optimistic hue I detect in my writing.

First was Sheffield Wednesday. We did what we were 'threatening' to do all of last season; absolutely whip the bastards’ asses until they turned Garibaldi. What a performance! I would hesitate before saying that that was promotion form, and then say “yes it was”. For starters, we have, as Mark Crossley recently pointed out, a fantastic keeper. His saves last season converted some. More of the same, and Ward will have converted many. Similar to Big Norm, the fella has difficulty with his crosses, but who cares when his shot stopping is better then the USA’s missile defence system?

Another huge positive that was presented at that match, and confirmed at Coventry - a crucial win I was lucky to witness (lucky because I walked through the Coventry equivalent of Brixton to get there) - was our defence. Not traditionally our strong point, in my opinion, yet since Hart’s arrival our defence has been very solid. Last season, the back four can rightly claim to have been one of the best in the league. Despite a few hairy moments, normal service appears to have been resumed this term.

This season promises even more. Dawson, Thompson, Doig and whichever young hopefuls I have missed out are there to supplement a unit that has grown into a well-cemented brick will. The form of Brennan, MLJ and Hjelde should see us through the season, with few worries of relegation. And who else to complete the string quartet than the bass of basses: Des Walker. Welcome back.

Naturally, this brings my assessment of the team into the Countdown conundrum that is the midfield. A host of options offering more in theory than in practice has always been available to us. Yet the formation, personel and application of the most complex unit the beautiful game has to offer has been the downfall or the making of many, otherwise talented teams, not to mention our own. Here, the real battle will be fought and eventually won.

Our midfield has taken a navy gang-bang of a buggering in recent times. Jenas, CBW, Taffy Twat Johnson and now, praise the heavens, Gary Jones have all departed to our loss. Route One football had stagnated this most vital of units during Platt’s Mugabian approach to our club, starving us of that most essential ingredient in football: passing.

Now, amen, the glorious blood of the beautiful game pumps through a revitalised midfield. Against Coventry, swift interchanges combined with movement off the ball to create a team equipped to overcome those away day Sky Blues.

Against Wednesday, the same formula allowed Riccy Scimeca, of all people, the opportunity to capitalise on defensive holes. The energy of an on-form Prutton, combined with the finesse of Williams and Scimeca, rounded by the offensive threat of either Jess or Lester seems to me to have created the nucleus of a team that can challenge most others.

I do not wish to claim here that we have a midfield to compare with Man U, Arsenal or even Portsmouth. But hell, it’s a start. Giving Prutton, the full-backs and the front three a license to roam has solved the imbalances on the wings. Williams has been used to plug the middle, again with support from Prutton and the attacking midfielder. This leaves our Riccy to make the whole thing tick. It reeks a bit of creative accounting, and I still feel the midfield is about as lightweight as an Eastern European economy, but with limited resources, Hart has done a sterling job.

This leaves the strike force. Sadly, this has too often been an area of difficulty for us. Under Platt, our ability to score goals had been comparable to the ability of an MP to appear trustworthy. Our front two have seemed as fluent as a pair of hapless Japanese tourists unsuccessfully asking intricate questions about the socio-political circumstances underpinning Edwardian architecture. In fact, fuck the analogies - our strikers had played like shit!

A fresh tide seems to have swept past the City Ground however. Afro in tow, DJ has played his bollocks off. Marlon is beginning to look like he actually has some idea of what to do with his prodigious talent. The two lack a little “je ne sais qua”, or “va va voom” as Thierry Henry calls it, but time must surely heal. And when you’re that bloody quick, it hardly matters. We even have options besides, in the form of Lester, Westcarr and perhaps even an aerial threat in Mickael Antoine-Curier. Either way, after six games, Forest are the joint 5th top scorers in Division One. I have no grumbles.

The sum of my rambling is this: we do have a decent side. Our top six placing is deserved. I also believe it can be retained.

Our problems continue to be financial. We can now feel a little more confidant in this respect, however. As always, Forest has been the first: we were the first club to face the realities of Nationwide football economics head on.

We ought to be the first to emerge from this as well. Eion Jess is an early sign of our upward prospects. Being able to offer decent wages at the end of the season to those who are shortly to be out of contract may also be a selling point. We will find out nearer the time, which of the existing squad this applies to and who will remain past next summer. A number of key players will find their contracts up at the end of this season, players who can justifiably say their career at Forest has delivered nothing that it ever promised.

Retaining these players will not be easy. Yet their continued association with the club is essential to our survival in Division One. If ever there was a time to spend, retaining a consistent backbone to the team must be that time. It is my hope that Forest will be an attractive team to remain in, come the summer of 2003.

There are other teams to scupper these aspirations, of course. There are many other teams laden with talent, but talent that will continue to be overpaid and disillusioned far beyond our own. At last there seems to be a sense of objective amongst our players. They are not the underdogs so much, more the sleeping giant that has begun to stir with something to prove.

Being in Zambia until April next year, I will miss our giant awaking from its Platt-induced slumber. I will miss the team establish itself as real contenders for promotion. And hopefully, I will miss that promotion.

As I sign off from LTLF for the coming season, I feel sadness at deserting Forest at a crucial time in its development. However, this is sated by the knowledge that on my return, I will find a club in a better position than it has been for many a moon. I will return to a club, neigh a city, with a team to talk about in glowing terms once more.

And here’s to dreaming.

Yours with optimism and false hope,
Alastair Gunn

PS. To follow the latest developments in Zambian football, in which I will be taking an interest, hopefully an active one, over the next few months, visit http://www.sports.coppernet.zm. Maybe an article of mine will appear there over time.