Coaching our way forward
09/11/04 | by Daniel Hawkins

Over recent months I have debated with my colleagues and others alike on the LTLF Forums about the need for new coaches. My reasons for this are simple. In the past we have fallen foul of loyalty to staff at the club, coaching staff in particular. We allegedly lost out on Martin O’Neill because he wasn’t allowed to bring in his own backroom staff, and I would assume other managers have turned down the City Ground hot seat for the very same reason. 

Managers like to have someone they trust beside them, someone they can work with who shares the same ideals yet commands the respect of the manager enough to shout out and disagree with the ideas put forward. Hoddle always has Gorman in his wake, Keegan has Fazackerley, so why should Kinnear be any different? Managers need this support as much as teams need good managers.

Looking back over the years I can’t think of any manager that has been successful without a decent assistant: Clough was never the same after Taylor departed, Ferguson was not as successful once Kidd and McClaren left his side. A manager is only as good as his staff and the success that Harford and Kinnear have had in the past is second to none. 

So why should I question our backroom staff? Firstly, it is no coincidence that Ian Bowyer, after leaving Birmingham following many years of failed promotion challenges were suddenly promoted without him, a person who was sacked by Trevor Francis for not being good enough. Liam O’Kane, has been at the club for 30 years and is probably still sticking to the same methods from when he first started coaching. No offence to these guys, but we are in a new era – the game has changed and we need to change with it. Over the last five years we have blown games, some of which may have cost us promotion. The main problems is giving away goals that have come from basic schoolboy errors. We have changed the manager and most of the players, so why is this still happening? 

Most of the goals conceded this season have come from the kind of errors that can only be rectified by coaching. Poor performances can only be rectified by good coaching. We have been naïve in our decision makings on this. We as a club have been clinging on to the past glories in hope that they may come back with the help of people who were there at the time. We thank the guys that have been involved with this period of success for their efforts to help the club, but it has come to a point where change is needed. The coaching in the club has become stale, apathetic some might say. Mistakes are not being rectified, performances are not being improved on, so the news of Mick Harford’s appointment and the releases of Bowyer and O’Kane is the club’s intention of finally putting the past behind them and bringing it into the present.

I have seen the reactions of some fans who are outraged by this decision for many reasons. Quotes of “The man's Forest through and through” or “Nice one, replace one of the few guys at the club who has actually won something” to name a few – we are talking about the same coaches that have failed for the last five years. Why should we keep someone just because he is "Forest through and through" That’s like buying the most expensive washing powder because you always have. There are other soap powders that will make your clothes much cleaner, but you persist with this one because you hope the makers might improve it. Times have changed and football has changed, so the fans should change their attitudes with it.

Football nowadays has gone technical: clubs are concentrating their efforts on coaching. The Greece team didn’t win Euro 2004 because they had a team of world class players – with all due respect, on paper they were an average team – they won it because they played like a team and were coached as a team and coached on how to avoid silly mistakes. Arsene Wenger applies the same simple coaching with Arsenal. Gillingham have now gone three games unbeaten since employing Gorman as first team coach. So why should we be any different? 

Sometimes, however, it may not work. But where is the harm in trying? You look at Harford and Kinnear’s record and you can see that this is something special. Not many management teams gain promotion with 97 points. There are many games left for this season, and even a play-off place is still not out of the question. However, I appeal to the fans of Nottingham Forest, look to the future, the club have answered some of the cries from the fans, change has been made, let’s welcome this change with open arms and drive it forward. Let’s hope the players respond to this in a positive and professional manner. There are many problems within the club at present – thankfully one has been finally rectified.