Lay off Nigel Doughty
08/10/04 | by Kier Gough

I am hearing more and more negative comments about Nigel Doughty from Forest fans on various internet message boards and local radio phone-ins, and I am absolutely horrified by some of the attitudes that many supporters are displaying towards him. Without his financial input over the last five years, we’d probably all be supporting the ‘Notts Reds’ in the Nationwide Conference - the guy has put in £25-30m out of his own pocket, which he is unlikely to ever see again. Does this sound like, as some have suggested, the actions of someone who bought the club to make a quick buck? No it doesn’t, he has put in the money because first and foremost he is a fan and wants NFFC to be successful as much as any of us do.

Some people seem to forget the financial position that NFFC is in - we are still approximately £15m in the red and losing money hand over fist every week. It would be suicidal for a club in this position to start splashing cash around like we did in the dark days of Platt. Joe Kinnear has a budget. In a recent interview in Blooming Forest, Mark Arthur said that Kinnear was "content" with the amounts at his disposal. Just because it hasn’t been spent yet doesn’t mean it isn’t there for when the right player(s) comes along. There is absolutely no point in spending it for the sake of it just to keep the fans happy.

A lot of fans are also accusing Mr Doughty of false promises, which frankly is complete and utter rubbish. When has Doughty ever come out and promised us anything? People who actually listened to his side of the story will know that the stupid "serious about promotion" campaign was absolutely nothing to do with him. The term "sexy signings" was also nothing to do with him - it was Kinnear who used that phrase not Nigel Doughty. So suggesting that Doughty has let us down/broken promises is ridiculous. 

I can fully see why Doughty doesn’t want to keep on pouring money into the bottomless pit of NFFC – as has been previously, mentioned the guy has put in millions out of his own pocket, he can’t keep on bank-rolling the club forever. It’s all too easy for us to say keep on investing, but if I were in his shoes and I think I would feel the same way that he does.

It has also been suggested that Doughty has blocked investment from outside. Again, if you have actually bothered to listen to his side then there has been no interest in investment from outside parties in investment in NFFC. He has also publicly stated that he would not stand in the way of investment. Why would he? It wouldn’t be in his interest to block such investment.

However, I do not think the man is some sort of saint or beyond criticism. He deserves all the stick he gets with regards to the club's debt from the mad-spending days of Platt. But this was the club showing some ambition and, even though Platt turned out to be an incompetent fool, the concept of getting in a bright young manager with the perfect pedigree for the job, and giving him wads of money to spend was fair enough.

What do you think will happen if we spend extortionate amounts of money and don't get promotion? I'll tell you what would happen: the club would go into administration and I shudder to think where we would end up then. As I far as I can see, there wouldn't be all the talented youngsters from the academy to call on when the experienced players would leave for nothing.

Don’t get me wrong - I don’t like seeing the likes of Brighton (with respect) coming to the City Ground and winning, something that would have been unthinkable a few short years ago. But Nigel Doughty has done absolutely nothing wrong and to want the only solid guarantee of our debts to pull out is sheer madness.