Dishing out the blame
24/07/05 | by Richard Freeman

Recent taunts from my sheep-loving chums have included the chant “Port Vale, on a Wednesday night!” This once again proves the imprudent ways of Derby fans – we are playing Port Vale on a Tuesday night and a Saturday afternoon! Unfortunately for us, however, is that the fact we are playing Port Vale at this league level and, as arrogant as this may seem, a club of our stature and significance should not be doing this. But, admittedly, we did deserve relegation.

For the remainder of this article, I shall assess the people who I consider are to blame for the relegation; they may carry a little of the blame, they may carry a lot of the blame, and I shall issue each person with a “blame rating” out of 10.

David Platt
Brought four Italians (Scimeca, Matrecano, Mannini and Petrachi) and only Scimeca turned out to be good, but all of the Italians still must have cost the club a lot of money. In Platt’s time at the helm, Forest’s finances were wrecked and this led the future managers – especially Hart – to struggle. 8/10

Paul Hart
He tried very hard, sold Jenas to Newcastle to save the club from bankruptcy and steered us to the play-offs in 2002/03. But unfortunately, Hart also sold off some of that squad and replaced them with inferior players, leading to a slide down the table until he was sacked. Also, he made the stupid mistake of selling Harewood for £500k, and replacing him with the second-rate Marlon King for £900k. This cost the club £400k, excluding King’s wages, which could have been used to give Harewood a decent contract. 6/10

Joe Kinnear
Saved the club from relegation in 2003/04 and, at the end of the season, many fans proclaimed him to be the best thing to happen to the club since Cloughie. Kinnear promised many “sexy” signings and only delivered Gerrard and Commons, who was rarely played until the sale of Reid. He let the players’ fitness drop to an unacceptable level and he made the mistake of buying Rogers and Impey, both of whom were useless. Kinnear laid the foundations in the season of our relegation. 8.5/10

Gary Megson
Tried his hardest to save Forest from relegation, but the absolutely appalling performances against Ipswich and Plymouth did not help. Maybe this could have been remnants from the Kinnear era, though. 2.5/10

Nigel Doughty
He has a huge personal fortune of over £100 million and only recently began injecting cash into the club. He should have released more transfer funds to the managers over the years. 7/10

And finally, four players who I believe were the main under-performers last season:

Alan Rogers
Fat, lazy, and rarely performed. He was replaced by the superior Melville towards the end of the season. 7.5/10

Andy Impey
Lazy, and again he rarely performed. Luckily, Megson will sell him. 5/10

Marlon King
One of the worst strikers at this level; he makes some good runs, but his finishing is woeful and has been a huge disappointment after the way he played at Gillingham. 7.5/10

David Johnson
His fitness dropped after such a promising end to 2003/04. He still has his skill, but not the energy to put his skill into practice. What has happened to the man who scored 27 league goals in 2002/03? 4.5/10