“I wouldn't say I was the best manager in the business. But I was in the top one.”

[WITW]

Wood yew please stop with the atroakcious puns please?

Update coming tonight for realz! Just need to get my pictures uploaded.

[dap1987]

Are we driving you bark-ing mad? and look forward to the update

[HotChocolate]

Are we driving you bark-ing mad?

We've become a real pine in the bum I think.

[deltablue]

That's a good one HC.

[WITW]

Nottingham Forest - December 2015 & January 2016

December began with what, on paper, would appear to be two solid draws against established top half Premier League sides. However, we should have taken maximum points from both. We just couldn't find the net against Southampton, despite dominating for large periods. We then twice led at Stoke, only to concede sloppy goals. These results would have been fine, had we not then lost back to back home games against West Ham and Hull. We just didn't perform, and what made it worse was the run we had coming up.

We took a surprise early lead at Old Trafford, but an Ashley Young equaliser and two late goals from Mussachio and Herrera, gave United a deserved win. We briefly stopped the rot with an excellent home win against Liverpool, before a Roberto Soldado hat trick put paid to our challenge at Spurs, ending 2015 on a somewhat low note. Our new years hangover continued into January too, a loss at Fulham either side of two poor FA Cup displays against Cardiff, eventually being dumped out by the Championship side in a replay. We bounced back towards the end of the month, with 3 excellent displays and, more importantly, 3 wins. James Wilson hitting form with 5 in 3 games - including a hat trick in a crazy game against Leicester. Squad depth was already an issue, one that was only exacerbated with the news that Henri Lansbury faces a 3 month lay off, breaking his foot in the match at home to West Brom.

This left our treatment table rather full...

An emergency dip into the transfer market followed, and the signing of Thorgan Hazard, brother of Eden, on loan from Chelsea until the end of the season.

At the end of January, and the transfer window, the league table looks like this.

Can't really ask for much more than 8th at the moment, given our poor form over the last two months. We would happily take 8th at the end of the season, well within the board's expectations of a top half finish.

[WITW]

Nottingham Forest - End of 2015/16 Season

4 wins out of 4 in February, including a thoroughly deserved win at home to Manchester City, had us hopeful of big things for the end of the season. The City win was our seventh in a row and with winnable games left on our fixture list, a finish as high as 6th looked possible.

That wasn't to be however, as our form really deteriorated after defeats at Everton and Chelsea, conceding 14 goals in the process. The less said the better about this run really - 2 wins from our last 10 ending the season on a bit of a downer.

In fairness, we still finished 8th, which was way above my expectations (merely "on par" for the board though!).

73 goals conceded will give you an idea of why we weren't able to push for a European spot. 10 points of Europe in the end, but happy enough with the season as a whole. A solid, if unspectacular, return to the Premier League and something to build on next season.

I'll just leave you with another stonking Youth Intake...

[GDH38]

Yew've done well there!

[WITW]

Nottingham Forest - 2015/16 Season Review

Competitions

Barclays Premier League - 8th

FA Cup - Third Round - Eliminated by Cardiff

Capital One Cup - Fourth Round - Eliminated by West Brom

Final League Table/Statistics

Awards

None

Manager's Player of the Year

1 - Britt Asombalonga - 34(3) appearances, 23 goals, 4 assists, 7.08 average rating

That man again. Not quite as prolific as last season, but 22 goals in your first Premier League season is quite the achievement. Hopeful of even more from him next season.

2 - Kelvin Wilson - 37 appearances, 2 goals, 1 assist, 7.17 average rating

Fans player of the year for the second year running. It might seem strange to have a defender in here when we conceded so many goals, but the highest average rating in the squad and our captain, deserves some sort of recognition.

Other club news

Last season's work on the youth level & facilities has seen our youth category increase from 2 to 3. The board currently won't allow any further improvements, but hopefully the increased level will help with future youth intakes. Once again, our intake this year was poor, meaning that we'll have to spend well to improve the squad. Thankfully, the board have again been generous with their budgets.

Around Europe

England

Skybet Championship

Winners: Norwich City

Runners-Up: Queens Park Rangers

Play-off winners: Wigan Athletic

Relegated: Blackburn Rovers, Notts County, Rotherham

Three former Premiership sides returning to the top division, QPR at the first attempt.

FA Cup

Winners: Chelsea

Runners-Up: West Ham

Capital One Cup

Winners: Chelsea

Runners-Up: Arsenal

Chelsea become the first club in English history to achieve a domestic treble

France

Ligue 1

Winners: PSG

Runners-Up: Monaco

Relegated: Ajaccio, Valenciennes, Dijon

As per last season, the big money boys leading the way. Interesting to see tycoon-owned Rennes up to 4th, from 15th last season.

Coupe de France

Winners: Monaco

Runners-Up: PSG

Coupe de la Ligue

Winners: Caen

Runners-Up: PSG

Germany

Bundesliga

Winners: Bayern Munich

Runners-Up: Schalke

Relegated: Kaiserslautern, Mainz, Dusseldorf

Normal service resumed in Germany as Bayern cruise to the title. Last season's winners Gladbach, can only manage 6th.

DFB Pokal

Winners: Bayern Munich

Runners-Up: Paderborn

Holland

Eredivisie

Winners: Ajax

Runners-Up: PSV

Relegated: Willem II, Helmond Sport

Ajax back on top, finishing 18 clear of reigning champions PSV.

KNVB Beker

Winners: PSV

Runners-Up: Ajax

Italy

Serie A

Winners: Sampdoria

Runners-Up: Juventus

Relegated: Livorno, Cesena, Latina

A bit of a surprise here as last year's runners-up Sampdoria, pip holders Juventus to the title. Lazio, Inter and AC Milan all remain mid-table sides.

TIM Cup

Winners: Juventus

Runners-Up: Inter Milan

Portugal

Primeira Liga

Winners: Benfica

Runners-Up: Porto

Relegated: Penafiel, Olhanense

Taca de Portugal

Winners: Benfica

Runners-Up: Porto

Spain

La Liga

Winners: Barcelona

Runners-Up: Villareal

Relegated: Llagostera, Rayo, Racing

Barca win it again, 14 clear of Villareal. For a second successive season, Real Madrid are back in third.

Copa del Rey

Winners: Celta

Runners-Up: Eibar

Europe

UEFA Champions League

Winners: Barcelona

Runners-Up: Liverpool

UEFA Europa League

Winners: Bayern Munich

Runners-Up: Arsenal

UEFA European Championships 2016

Winners: Germany

Runners Up: Sweden

Best Player: Mario Mandzukic

Golden Boot: Mario Mandzukic (6 goals)

England and Portugal were the big under-performers here as both failed to make it out of the group stage. The winners of England's group, Germany, would go on to win the competition, beating surprise package Sweden 2-0 in the final.

[WITW]

Nottingham Forest - Season Preview - 2016/17

Board Expectations

Barclays Premier League - Qualify for Europa League

FA Cup - Sixth Round

Capital One Cup - Quarter Finals

Gee, thanks board! This is going to be a difficult one, but hopefully our summer business will help. Personally, I will take any sort of improvements on last season.

Again, at least the board are backing us financially...

Budgets

Transfer: £30,280,000

Wage: £1,000,000

Next up: Pre-Season

[WITW]

Nottingham Forest - Pre-Season - 2016/17

Transfers

We aren't producing much in the way of youth prospects at the moment, so again we needed to spend. And realistically, if we're going to qualify for Europe, we needed to spend big.

Stambouli, Ivan and Caner Erkin all come in for sums north of 10 million pounds, and will all go straight in and improve our first team. Alvaro Medran is a bargain at £4million, whilst Kasper Schmeichel will play back up to Guillermo Ochoa. Thorgan Hazard, released by Chelsea and impressive for us on loan last season, joins permanently on a free and Graziano Pelle joins on a season's loan from Southampton, to play the "James Wilson role" of back up to Britt Assombalonga.

Just the one major departure this summer, with Michael Antonio leaving for Fulham for £7.5m. I agonised over this one, as he's done pretty well for us in my two years here, but ultimately that's a decent chunk of money for a player who will only likely play a bit-part this season.

Fox, Reid, Lichaj, De Vries and McLaughlin were always on the fringes and move on to free up space on the wage bill.

(I managed to not take a screenshot of the squad here, but to give you an idea of what our starting 11 looks like at this point)

Pre-season friendlies were a standard affair, the highlights being a 0-0 draw with Real Madrid and a a narrow defeat to Atletico.

[deltablue]

Barclays Premier League

Winners: Norwich City

You mean the Championship surely!

[WITW]

You mean the Championship surely!

Ahem... no idea what you could be talking about...

[WITW]

Nottingham Forest - 2016/17 Season

August - December 2016

Barclays Premier League

A mixed bag in the first half of this season. For the most part, winning and losing where we would have expected to.

We started well, with 4 wins from our opening 5 games but that was as much as we managed to string together in this spell. Following a good draw at home to early leaders Man Utd, we met an in-form Chelsea, who gave us our annual hiding at Stamford Bridge. During this run, it seemed like every time we got some momentum, we would run into one of the big boys. Just 3 points from a possible 18 against last year's top 6 shows just how hard it will be to break in to the those European places.

November was a highlight, with 3 wins out of 3 and my first Premier league manager of the month award. December quickly brought us back down to earth though, winless until the final game with QPR.

All of this left us lying in a reasonable 7th place at the turn of the new year, within touching distance of the teams above, but unlikely to really challenge unless we can start picking up points against the big guns.

Capital One Cup

We cruised through to the quarter finals, not conceding a goal in 3 games against lower league opposition. A weakened Man City came to town for the Quarter Final and we absolutely dominated, finally taking the lead through Graziano Pelle. We sat back though, and Christian Eriksen punished us five minutes from time. Again we dominated but just couldn't find a winner. I feared the worst going into penalties, but we eventually came through 7-6. Mangala missing the decisive spot kick form City.

So we have a Semi Final to look forward to, and a favourable against Wigan. We'll never have a better chance to reach a major final!

[WITW]

Nottingham Forest - 2016/17 Season

January - May 2017

Transfers

The board granted me another £15 million in transfer funds, as we looked to make some signings to help close the gap on the top 6.

Attacking midfielder Sergio Canales signed from Real Socided for £10.5m, whilst defensive midfielder Fernando came in on loan from Manchester City. Canales would go straight into the first team, with Fernando providing some back up for Benjamin Stambouli.

Michael Mancienne was the only player to leave the club in January. Having been wanting out for a while due to a lack of first team football, he proved difficult to offload, so we ended up selling him on the cheap. Leeds were the beneficiaries, acquiring Mancienne for £250k.

Barclays Premier League

More of the same I'm afraid. Winning the games we would be expected to, and dropping points against the big boys. Starting the year with just 1 win in 6 games did not leave us with much hope of qualifying for Europe. We recovered slightly with a win against Hull and a draw with Everton, before changing a change in formation - you'll see why shortly.

We switched from our 4-2-3-1, to a more defensively solid 4-1-4-1. Whilst admittedly risky to change formation mid way through a season, we were at a point whereby we had little to play for. Sitting in 10th spot, we were unlikely to make the top six, so I figured it was worth a shot. The experiment was successful too as we lost just two of our last 11 league games. Ultimately, our run of form came a bit too late though. We'd left ourselves with too much ground to make up, and ended up finishing 7th, 3 points behind Spurs and 1 place higher than last season. But no European place. Liverpool, meanwhile, strolled to the title, leading a very familiar top six.

FA Cup

We couldn't find a way into Europe through the FA Cup either, comfortably losing away at Chelsea after seeing off Middlesbrough in a replay.

Capital One Cup

One place where we exceeded expectations this season was in the League Cup. We comfortably overcame Wigan in the Semi Finals and went on to face Chelsea at Wembley.

Now, normally I would've put together a separate update for a cup final. But the way this one went, well, I just couldn't bring myself to do it. Remember I said I changed formation to 4-1-4-1? Well this is the match that caused it. Despite leading 1-0 through a Jack Hobbs header, we were absolutely trounced. It was only 1-2 at half time, but in the second half Chelsea just couldn't miss. Everything they did ended with a chance or a shot on target. Chelsea put 8 past us last season but, being a final, this one hurt way more. Our record against the big teams was pretty poor at this point - against Chelsea it was played 6, lost 6 - and so I decided that a formation change was needed.

At the time, I was really disappointed with this season - probably the only one where we haven't overachieved. The loss to Chelsea was a real de-motivator. Don't get me wrong, I expected to get beat, but the manner of it was terrible. Thankfully, the formation change seemed to help for the remainder of the season. Our form was pretty good, and we definitely got a lot closer to the bigger sides, beating Arsenal, drawing at City and running champions Liverpool close at Anfield. Looking back, we finished higher than we had done the season before, we won more games and lost less - so maybe not such a disappointment after all.

For a laugh, here's our record against Chelsea...

[Bilbo Baggins]

Ouch. Disappointing result in the final.

[Nobby_McDonald]

Chelsea definitely have your number.

[dap1987]

Ouch! Another good league season really, the boards expectation of Europa League is a little far-fetched and you've done well. The League Cup final defeat must have been painful, if that had happened to me, i'd have struggled to touch FM for a few days

Hopefully more backing from the board next season and you can make a real push for top 6, and maybe only lose 2-0 or 3-0 to Chelsea!

[HotChocolate]

Only a 3rd of your games against Chelsea were 3pm kick offs. Bleeding Sky.

[Nobby_McDonald]

And BT Sport.

[WITW]

Chelsea definitely have your number.

They are quickly becoming my most hated team on FM. They've already surpassed Spurs and Erik Lamela on FM 2014!

Only a 3rd of your games against Chelsea were 3pm kick offs. Bleeding Sky.

To be fair, they are guarenteed goals!

[WITW]

Nottingham Forest - 2016/17 Season Review

Competitions

Barclays Premier League - 7th

FA Cup - Fourth Round - Eliminated by Chelsea

Capital One Cup - Runners Up - Eliminated by Chelsea

Final League Table

Awards

None

Around Europe

England

Skybet Championship

Winners: West Brom

Runners-Up: Leicester City

Play-off winners: Cardiff

Relegated: Millwall, Reading, Walsall

FA Cup

Winners: Chelsea

Runners-Up: Aston Villa

Capital One Cup

Winners: Chelsea

Runners-Up: Nottingham Forest

France

Ligue 1

Winners: PSG

Runners-Up: Monaco

Relegated: Stade Reims, Nantes, Guingamp

A repeat of last season, PSG narrowly taking the title from Monaco. Their fifth in a row.

Coupe de France

Winners: Toulouse

Runners-Up: Monaco

Coupe de la Ligue

Winners: Monaco

Runners-Up: Toulouse

Germany

Bundesliga

Winners: Bayern Munich

Runners-Up: Wolfsburg

Relegated: Hertha BSC, Augsburg

Another cruise for Bayern, winning the title by 14 points. Dortmund finish third.

DFB Pokal

Winners: Bayern Munich

Runners-Up: Leverkusen

Holland

Eredivisie

Winners: Ajax

Runners-Up: Feyenoord

Relegated: AZ, Sparta, Excelsior

Two in a row for Ajax in Holland.

KNVB Beker

Winners: Vitesse

Runners-Up: Groningen

Italy

Serie A

Winners: Juventus

Runners-Up: Roma

Relegated: Catania, Perugia, Pescara

Juve back on top, taking the title by 3 points from Roma. Last year's winners Sampdoria finish third.

TIM Cup

Winners: Juventus

Runners-Up: Sassuolo

Portugal

Primeira Liga

Winners: Benfica

Runners-Up: Porto

Relegated: Atletico CP, Boavista

A Benfica/Porto 1-2, for the third year in a row.

Taca de Portugal

Winners: Porto

Runners-Up: Moreirense

Spain

La Liga

Winners: Real Madrid

Runners-Up: Atletico Madrid

Relegated: Almeria, Real Betis, Elche

Real win their first title in 5 years. Holders Barcelona can only manage third.

Copa del Rey

Winners: Barcelona

Runners-Up: Eibar

Eibar runners up for the second year running, this time losing on penalties to Barcelona.

Europe

UEFA Champions League

Winners: Barcelona

Runners-Up: Liverpool

For the second year running, Barcelona defeat Liverpool in the final. Liverpool miss out on a double, going down 3-2 at Wembley. English sides havenow lost in the last three finals.

UEFA Europa League

Winners: Sampdoria

Runners-Up: Celta

[deltablue]

Hopefully you're on the verge of Europe now.

[WITW]

Nottingham Forest - Season Preview - 2017/18

Board Expectations

Barclays Premier League - Qualify for Europa League

FA Cup - Sixth Round

Capital One Cup - Quarter Finals

Despite not meeting the board's expectation of a Europa League place last season, my job hasn't come under threat at all. In fact, my board confidence review screen even said, "The board are satisfied that the team has reached the Europa League via their league finish". A bug perhaps, or does Europa League finish just mean a certain position in the table. Who knows, maybe our League Cup run saved me? I'm certainly not complaining anyway.

Still, I'd rather not risk missing the expectations two seasons in a row, so important that we make it into Europe this year. A tough task when you consider we finished 17 points off fifth place last season. Hopefully we will be able to rely on the sides above us winning the cups, making sixth in the league enough.

We continue to have no youth coming through whatsoever, so another summer of buying lies ahead. I'm now fully committed to the 4-1-4-1 and will be looking to buy players who suit that system.

Budgets

Transfer: £32,000,000

Wage: £1,300,00

Next up: Pre-Season

[WITW]

Hopefully you're on the verge of Europe now.

It's tough because, for once in my games, the big boys all seem to be performing. Usually, one or two of them drop away a bit, but I'm finding it hard just to stay with them at times.

Still, I'll be disappointed if we don't make it - I'm very happy with the summer transfer business, and the season has started pretty well. Posts will be up shortly!

[WITW]

Nottingham Forest - Pre-Season - 2017/18

Transfers

A very busy summer now that I had to buy to suit our 4141 formation. Finally, we invested in a striker to provide more permament backup to Britt Assombalonga with 19 year old Sergio Diaz joining from Rayo Vallecano. £5.25m looks an absolute steal as Diaz has the ability to become a key player for us in a few years, whilst being more than capable of playing in the first team right now.

Wingers Gokhan Tore and Takashi Inui also join from Everton and Frankfurt respectively. No surprises that we spent the most money on a ML and MR, the two positions we really needed to fill with the new formation. Daniel Ayala joins us from Championship side Middlesbrough to give us some more depth at the back, and Marwin Hitz replaces the outgoing Kasper Schmeichel as our number two goalkeeper.

Perhaps the biggest signing of the summer was Maraoune Fellaini from Manchester United, for the measly sum of £2.6m. Out of favour at Old Trafford, Fellaini will add some steel to our new look midfield.

Cristian Gomez, James Nixon, Jack Brown, Ali Naboue and Xabier Perez are all under the age of 19. Some of them will hopefully progress well enough to join the first team squad over the next few years. If you can't produce your own youngsters, better poach them from others (more commonly known as the Chelsea approach).

In terms of outgoings; Reid and Schmeichel had done nothing but complain throughout the latter half of last season, so they were sold to the first available bidders. Sergio Canales, only signed in January, also had his say about a lack of first team football. This, despite the fact he has spent more time injured than on the pitch. He's off to money-bags Rennes, allowing us to bring in Takashi Enui. Ultimately, Canales made just 7 starts for us.

Fixtures

I took the approach this season of playing some weaker sides, in order to build up the confidence ahead of the new season. It worked. Everyone heads into the new season happy and confident, but would that confidence translate into our opening game of the season, a trip to my nemesis Chelsea?

[WITW]

Nottingham Forest - 2017/18 Season

August 2017 - January 2018

Barclays Premier League

So did our pre-season confidence help us open the new season? Absolutely not.

Chelsea handed us our now customary hiding at Stamford Bridge, before a thoroughly disappointing display saw us beaten at home by Aston Villa. Played 2, lost 2 is not the ideal start when you are chasing Europe. Fortunately, we recovered, a wonderful win at Arsenal kicking off a 7 game unbeaten run with that man Assombalonga banging in the goals left, right and centre. With Gokhan Tore constantly injured, the loan signing of Jordan Ibe has also been key and the youngster has made himself first choice on the right wing. It also appears we've learned how to avoid a slump. A sticky early November once again led into an unbeaten run. 6 games this time, culminating in another great away win at the Etihad.

Putting winning runs together? Beating the big boys away from home? I was beginning to get excited here folks! Sadly, so where the players. December ended with two winnable home games against QPR and Everton - we took just two points. The New Year would begin the same way the season did, against Chelsea.

Imagine my astonishment as my players turn up! Finally we get the better of them. Finally I got the better of virtual Jose Mourinho! It's only taken 8 attempts, but two goals from youngster Sergio Diaz gave us victory over the leaders, leaving us fifth on New Year's Day.

The only minor disappointment is that. had we beaten QPR and Everton, we'd be right in the title mix. But we're well placed to have a good run at the top four, and have a nice 5 point cushion on the teams below us - gotta be happy with that!

Capital One Cup

There would be no repeat of last year's League Cup Final appearance. We beat Oxford and Everton on our way to a fourth round meeting against Arsenal. Both teams fielded weakened sides and, despite dominating the game, we couldn't find a winner in 120 minutes. Going to penalties against an Arsenal side filled with technically gifted players was always going to be dangerous, and it proved to be the case as they triumphed 6-5 in the shootout.

Transfers

The turn of the year also sees some transfer activity at the City Ground. Marcos Alonso leaving for West Brom, replaced by Eric Dier on-loan from Spurs. With Gokhan Tore continuing to struggle with injury, we splashed out £7million on 23 year old Argentinian, Luciano Acosta from Boca Juniors. Teenage left back Niels Heylen also arrives from Mechelen.

[DavidBeckham]

Decent half to the season! and some good signings there too! Fellaini \o/

[Northernpilgrim]

Well placed for a tilt at the top 4

[dap1987]

Solid first half of the season, hopefully you will continue to beat the teams u should beat and pick up points against those above you and can grab that Europa League place

Good luck mate!

[deltablue]

Good 6 point-margin over Norwich (!!!!) in race for a potential Europa spot.

[HotChocolate]

So far, so good.