It’s Half Time And It’s Not Looking Good

Forest may have been granted automatic promotion in fortuitous fashion on the last day of the 2007/8 campaign, but it was gratefully accepted by the club and supporters alike.

The summer was filled with a new sense of enthusiasm and excitement for all things Tricky and early signs were that the club meant business with the impressive signings of Earnshaw and Cole. We spent more money on players, than any other club in the division (despite most of them already being crocked) and looked to be on the up. The decent signings that were made though, were not added to or strengthened. By the time the season started, most fans realised the squad was paper thin and woefully short in major areas.

At the half way point in the season, our underfire manager can rightly claim that he has had the most dreadful luck with injuries to contend with and that he’s only been able to send out his preferred eleven on very few occasions. But he was the one who brought in most of them, in that state anyway and some fans have even questioned the training regime at the club, as an explanation for the plague of injuries we’ve had.

We do have a young squad and it does have promise, but it needs a good leader and a man who kows how to develop them further. It’s increasingly looking like Calderwood is not that man. In a results based business, they’re certainly not going for him this term. The buck must stop with him and after 23 games, it’s clear he’s not doing it right. It’s more than bad luck, bad injuries and bad refereeing decisions that sees any club bottom of the table at this stage of the season. It has to be the managers’ fault and to an equal extent, the players as well.

We took a gamble that failed, in hoping the defence would cope with the rigours of the Championship. It may have been the meanest in League 1, but it’s the weakest in the Championship. The strikeforce is firing blanks and has needed adding to since before the campaign began and the same can be said for the midfield. There are too many weak links in the side. Chambers, Wilson, Morgan and Perch simply aren’t good enough for this division. Tyson may not be either and there are question marks over Cohen and a few others. All in all, not a recipe for success.

Nigel Doughty should have acted before now in making a replacement at the helm. His faith in the manager though admirable, in this case is wrong. Waiting until Christmas to replace Calderwood could be too late and only hasten our return to League 1. Some will argue that it’s already too late and that there’s no one suitable to take over. We may have missed the boat as far as Sam Allardyce is concerned, only time will tell. Calderwood himself said that he should be judged after 10 games. It’s been 22 now and the jury says ‘not good enough.’ It’s time to go. For the love of God, go now.