Nigel Doughty – New Stadium And The Premiership

Nottingham Forest Chairman Nigel Doughty has spoken about the clubs’ plans for the new stadium and his desire to get back to the Premiership.

Although he could be accused of just giving us a sales pitch and spinning us a yarn about how good things are at Fortress City Ground these days, he is quite revealing and honest in what he says.

Speaking to the official site, he revealed how the clubs’ plans for the new stadium were going and what they were dependant on. ‘Plans for our new stadium are progressing, though this will always be dependent on the World Cup being held in England in 2008. If this is not the case, then it is probable that we will rebuild the Main Stand and refurbish the City Ground to give us all a stadium we can be proud of in the coming decades.’

That will come as either good or bad news to the fans, depending what side of the fence you sit on regarding our potential new home.

Doughty almost admits that things haven’t always been done the way they should have been in the past and says the club has revised the wage structure for players. ‘Contracts are linked to the potential of our playing staff, with an incentive structure that anticipates success.’ That sounds like an end to the crazy salaries that some players were rumoured to be on and has to be the way forward for football in general. The more success the club achieves, the more the players earn. I can’t see many fans arguing with that.


He says he has plans to get us back in the Premiership, but fortunately avoids any direct mention of a ‘5 year plan.’ He confirmed what we already know about the acquisitions team we now have in place for transfers when he said. ‘No longer do we buy on the hunch or intuition of one person. Our transfer process is as thoroughly researched and analysed as any business decision would be.’

All in all, it’s the usual positive rhetoric, that any club Chairman would come out with at this time of year, in the hope of selling a few more season tickets. But reading between the lines, you get the feeling that he genuinely feels the club is now on the up and that maybe the bad times are behind us.

What do you think about what Doughty has to say? Have your say on the forum today.