Why Hart must go
02/01/04 | by Ludo Wallace

It pains me to say this, and I am loath to criticise anyone connected with NFFC, but I have no reached the end of my tether with Paul Hart and he has to go!

We are in an extremely disturbing 20th position in the table and are staring relegation to Division Two in the face. At present the situation shows no sign of easing with no wins in the last 10 games in the First Division. What's more, since David Johnson's broken leg on September 13, Forest's form has been nothing short of abysmal with the only wins coming against sides in the bottom four of the league.

People may criticise Nigel Doughty for not backing Hart, but I can't agree with this stance at all. Hart has spent £1.7m since last season, plus brought in McPhail for three months from Leeds. This £1.7m has been spent badly with £500k on Taylor who looks an absolute donkey with an appalling record of two goals since his arrival from Burnley.

In his six appearances Marlon King has done little to show why Hart spent £950,000 on him. (However, it is early days, and he deserves a fair chance to get fit, settle in etc.) Furthermore money was made available in the summer to sign Danny Webber, Shaun Goater and David Connolly - it was failure on Hart's part to attract these potential signings to the club.

Quality players that could have been kept have also been let go for nothing - due to Hart - namely Jack Lester and Jon Olav Hjelde.

Lester has scored 10 goals for Sheffield United this season and created a fair few for others - he could and should be doing this for Forest. He is reportedly being paid £2k a week, easily within our price range. It was Hart's dislike for him personally and his poor disciplinary record that was the deciding factor in Hart's decision.

At this time our defence is leaking goals like there's no tomorrow, and we could do with Hjelde now. I think he was let go because of his poor ball skills, which Hart requires. He was rock solid at the back, rarely let us down and was good partner for Dawson. If these two players had been kept I'm sure we'd be further up the league.

Hart has also shown himself to be tactically naïve this season, persisting with his beloved diamond midfield. This merely makes us play too narrow. Some people may point out that it worked last season. Fair enough, but last season we had Brennan bombing down the left and Scimeca plugging the gap between defence and midfield. Hart clearly doesn't know how to play any other way - either that or he is just too stubborn to admit that his tactics are wrong.

Worst of all though, according to the Guardian on Tuesday, Hart was secretly interviewed for the West Ham job before Pardew go it, behind Doughty's back. This shows the man has no loyalty and, furthermore, ever since the speculation started about the Leeds job, results have gone done. He is letting his own little personal fantasy of managing Leeds get in the way of his judgement of managing NFFC.

Hart is surely on borrowed time now - the fans are rapidly loosing patience, his relationship with Doughty appears to have gone completely and his heart (ignore the pun) seems to be no longer in the job. Expect little more than 14,000 fans on Saturday as fans show their true feelings to the man. (Personally I am going, but to support the team, not Paul Hart). If Forest win on Saturday expect him to buy himself a couple more games, but a defeat will surely mean Bye-Bye to Paul Hart.