Davies vs the transfer panel, something’s gotta give
When Billy Davies arrived at the City Ground in January of last season, he inherited a side struggling for form and low on confidence.
However, the little Scot instilled a sense of belief and togetherness, which was absent from his predecessor Colin Calderwood’s talented but inexperienced side.
The former Preston boss ensured Championship football on Trentside for the following season, by creating a side that were no longer easy to beat.
And this season has been one of great, pleasant surprise as Nottingham Forest went 19 games unbeaten to occupy an automatic promotion place in the Championship for much of the season.
Davies was annoyed that Forest failed to land one of several targets during the January Transfer Window of last season and this campaign, and openly criticised the club’s Transfer Acquisition Panel. The panel, which is headed by David Pleat, give the green light or veto any potential signings put forward by Davies.
In all truth Davies does have strong reasons to question the validity of the panel, after again failing to land any of his targets.
Victor Moses chose Premiership football in the shape of Wigan, despite them being a small, relatively unambitious club, who have in hindsight reached the peak of their achievements by becoming a stabilised top flight club.
Swansea were unwilling to do business with the Reds over their midfielder Darren Pratley. Forest offered £2 million for the player they signed for just £100,000 from Brentford, but Chairman Huw Jenkins did not want to sell to a divisional rival, despite Pratley apparently being keen on a move to Nottingham.
And Forest were told that Gareth Bale was not for sale from Spurs, as Benoit Assou- Ekotto was due to go on African cup of Nations duty with Cameroon. The other left back target, Nicky Shorey, moved on loan to Fulham instead of extending his loan with Forest.
But the real pain for Davies in the January window was not seeing on loan midfielder Radoslaw Majewski sign a permanent deal with the club.
In fact Majewski had to be dropped for the last home game against Sheffield Wednesday, with Davies revealing that the Pole’s head was not ‘right’ after not receiving a permanent contract that he was told he would be offered.
It comes as no surprise that since Davies criticised the transfer panel, Forest’s form has suffered. After going 19 games unbeaten, Forest have only won one game since the Window shut.
And after a devastating defeat to rivals Derby County, whose tactics of ‘roughing’ up Forest by leaving their feet in and producing a number of bad tackles, that referee Neil Swarbrick failed to caution them for, seemed to be the catalyst for Forest’s previous unrivalled confidence to desert them at this moment in time.
Goals have dried up away from the City Ground after three consecutive 1-0 defeats away from home against Derby, Coventry City and Doncaster Rovers respectively.
The previously unflustered Billy Davies is no longer as ice cool as he was before the window, after seemingly being unnerved by the alleged ‘knee in the back’ from opposite number Nigel Clough.
The job done by Davies so far at Forest cannot be questioned, but with the ongoing dispute over Pleat’s role and the necessity of the Transfer Panel who knows what the future holds for Nottingham Forest and Billy Davies.
Let’s just hope that the row can be resolved, or Forest may find themselves losing one of the best managers they have had for a very long time, and losing one of the best teams they have had since the Championship winning team of 1997/98.
Billy Davies is right for Nottingham Forest, but the Transfer Panel is probably not.
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And this article is based on what Johnathon? Heresay from someone you know? Putting 2 + 2 together making 56? Or just utter tosh?
I know it been a little bleak the last few weeks but do we have to trott his endless guff out all the time?
Were on a bad run, for whatever reason we didn’t sign anyone in Jan. The players who got us to 2nd are still with us….lets get behind the lads tomorrow and make some NOISE FFS!!!!
We have not been in an automatic promotion spot for “much of the season”.
If what’s said about transfer targets is true, doesn’t sound like transfer panel can be blamed for missing out on any of the targets.
Who knows what is happening with Raddy – but given the contradictory info that’s been in the media ever since we signed him on loan (whatever happened to the fixed price we had supposedly agreed for a permanent signing?)- its not a straight forward situation.
What does seem clear is that Billy has lost his cool a little and it isn’t helping the team’s morale. The last thing those players need is to hear the manager venting about the need for new signings. That won’t help their confidence.
Losing Shorey was a real blow – the whole team will know that. But there’s no reason why our good run shouldn’t continue – the standard in this division is poor. Even with a thin squad, we can get out of this division.
Pleat will destroy Forest as Wise did to newcastle.
He has got to go !!! The david platt days have gone !! Billy Davies is bursting a gut to get us back in the premiership again.
Give him the support NOW !!
Sack pleat so he can go back to his boring comments on T:V Billy and his team can deal with Nigel directly…NO PROBLEM !!!!
You may have a point in this article jonathon There certainly seems to be conflict between davies and the panel.
Davies is a football man he knows his stuff, im an x player and i think reading between the lines it hasnt helped in recent weeks.We have gone off the boil big time but the players look jaded and tired we needed fresh legs for sure.
Newcastle and west brom will go up due to experience and squad size.Im with davies i would love to go up but i dont think we are ready.
I think ravin reg should stick to being a pongo you dont know football.
DP is the weak link for sure. Why on earth do Forest employ a man that time after time has a spanner at the ready to throw in the works? The old pensioner is a total waste of time, space and money. Do ND and MA want Prem football? to be honest I don’t think they have the balls to be with the big boys and are more than happy just to keep Forest breathing and nothing else. As long as 24,000+ go through the gates thats all they need to stock the wallet up……..and that will do.
Can’t really see what point your trying to make ravin reg?
The idea of my article was to highlight the fact that Davies is unhappy that he failed to land any players during the January Window, and has publicly stated previously that he is against the idea of a transfer panel but will try to work alongside it whilst it is in place.
I am just trying to argue that something has upset Billy about not getting in the players he wanted, and am presenting the arguement to readers that perhaps David Pleat and the transfer panel could be the reason for this. I am not saying I am right or wrong, it is a topic that is up for discussion.
I am behind the players 100% and believe the squad we have is good enough to be there or there abouts, afterall they did take us to 2nd place as you pointed out.But lets face facts, before the start of the season most realistic Forest fans would have been happy with a comfortable midtable finish, so to see us doing so well has been a pleasant surprise. The turnaround on the pitch has to be down to Billy Davies and his coaching staff so I believe we need to keep him on board for the foreseeable future.
Everyone is entitled to their opinion and if you think I am talking ‘utter tosh’ then so be it, I stand by article.
I agree the panel appears not be working, but Billy’s targets were to be honest hardly easy to get hold off.If folk won’t sell thats the end of things. As I understand it, none turned us down on personal terms or such like.
if you wanted to be entirely critical you could argue where was plan B should the initial targets fall by the way side. Is there not a good left sided defender in the lower divisions we should be looking at for instance.
Getting premier league players is not easy as they are on mega money. No good saying Wigan have reached their peak etc.and we should haved Moses. They are still in premier league have about god knows how many million from sky and only have to finish above cash struck pompey, woeful wolves and Hull to maintain their status and another £30 million. We still have a way to go to get there and cannot compete wage wise..yet.
In the meantime Billy should be allowed to control things as for one I am fed up of hearing him complain about the lack of players coming to the club.