theBlackPrince

2024-25 Season Update - 1 The 4-4-2 base tactic was brought on a tough away game in Europe against Nice and much to my surprise, we took an early lead and managed to secure the victory. Maybe that Clough fella knew something about tactics and playing style?! I would like to get some more width, but it looks like we did focus play down the left with Anthony Elanga which is the right play with his pace and dribbling ability. A famous victory, making it 3 from 3 in Europe but much bigger games to come. Our hot start to the season puts us top of the pile with victories over Newcastle and Manchester United as the real good results to start the year. Our third game playing the 4-4-2 against Arsenal in the EFL Cup 4th Round brought us back down to earth as we were beaten badly 1-4 and out of the competition we won last year. The move of Ryan Yates out to the wide right role so far seems to be a good one as he leads the team in assists and had 2 player of the game awards. It's hard to take too much from the stats so far seems we have just changed formation. The pleasing one being Keeper Vlachodimos has the highest save percentage in the League whilst having few saves to make at the same time. Our tackling in midfield is lead by Danillo who is strong and often, but Morgan Gibbs-White and Ryan Yates are both strong on the tackle when needed. Our fullbacks lead the tackling in defence with Nico Williams and Josh Doig. Overall we are performing well and above all averages, which is expected when near the top. Now to see if we can maintain this and work on the 4-4-2 at the same time...

Thank you for checking in, yes it is all done with Canva! It does make the graphics side much easier and to keep things consistent!

We start season 6 with the shift away from the previous system to implement the Youth only and Lincolnshire born/trained system. As you can imagine, outside the youth side we have, it is slim pickings. We were able to bring in a few players to help bolster the ranks but we are now extremely un-prepared for this season and could be well out of our depth! With selling all our players and brining in a huge amount of money we did manage to get an upgrade on the Stadium by 2,551 seats but we share Lincoln City's ground this season, which doubles our capacity which will help!

“Players lose you games, not tactics. There’s so much crap talked about tactics by people who barely know how to win at dominoes.” It would not be a Nottingham Forest save without talking about Brian Clough. His famous quote above and him sticking to his 4-4-2, with everyone knowing their position and role and basically working their bloody socks off for the team. So, it's time to work on a 4-4-2 and make it work, I want to win Europe with a 4-4-2 in this save, now that might be a challenge! It seems to be behind the more modern 4-2-3-1 and other variations. So what was Cloughs tactical style and the basis for any DNA moving forward? "You get the ball, you pass it to a Red shirt" Well disciplined team. Demanded hard work and effort from everyone. Ball on the floor, passing to another man in a red shirt. He hated the long ball. Liked possession but loved to counter attack on the left. The main focus of the team. Goalkeeper - Commanding but technically astute. Right Full Back - Attacking, overlapping the winger and get forward. Left Full Back - Not as attacking as the right side, more supporting and defensive. Centre Backs - "Keep the ball away from the goal" was the main focus. Right Midfield - Sticking to the touchline, arrive late into box for crosses. Centre Midfield - One to hold and win the ball, one to get forward to support. Left Midfield - The plucky winger carving the opposition up. Strikers - One to link up play, one to be the focal point. The starting point of the tactic. Clean slate, picking the positions and minimal input. I am positive more will be added once we see how possession is controlled, do we break on the counter well enough and can we just make the 4-4-2 work? I have started to train Ryan Yates in the Wide Midfield Right role. He may not be the best player for the role, but I feel he is a player Clough would love and fits what he would want to do. I have others who can play there but I think Yates will be a success. Elanga on the left is the key along with Montiel on the right. Let's see how this develops over the season.

Nottingham Forest in Europe - Game 2 Our first away game would be against Red Bull Salzburg and after a slow 15 minutes, we came into the game and were able to get on the scoresheet first as Moussa Niakhate would power the head home at the near post from a corner. It would take a moment of individual brilliance to win the game as Morgan Gibbs-White from the left, took the ball inside and curled the ball home past the keeper to put Forest back ahead after Red Bull equalised on the 66th minute. A great away day victory and undefeated in Europe.

Breaking News - Impacting Boston United in the 2028/29 Season

End of Season 5 break

I thought I had done the stats and end of season report, looks like I had only done this. We ended up not able to sustain the levels and as the season dragged on, we would finish 10th, a good 12 points from the play-off spots. What a season to even have been up as high as 6th at one point. We made some fantastic signings and managed to keep working towards our aims. To top it off a takeover with a new local owner. Exciting times for Boston United. New direction coming shortly for the new season.....

Congratulations on the Double and the way you destroyed everyone, was a joy to see. And then, oh you know the vultures circle around and just come in and snap up all the players you dont want to sell! However, looks like the reinforcements and the team are going to be strong enough to perform well this season!

Nottingham Forest - Back in Europe - Game 1 vs Anderlecht In what has been an eternity, Nottingham forest are back in Europe and have 8 games to show they belong. With a game against Wolves the Saturday before and Newcastle the Saturday after, this will test the team to see if they have enough depth to take on League and Europe. Glory is not on the cards but putting a decent show and gaining at least 2 or 3 wins must be the minimum objectives for this years campaign. Getting the win over Anderlecht will really help the cause.

Transfer Business It started back in June with a flurry of activity leading up to a huge bid for Sangare, who had only joined the previous year for around half of that. That is good business, even if he was probably the best player on paper. With well over £100,000,000 coming in, we could use the money on British talent that we had been scouting for a while. For me, most excited about Josh Doig at that left wing-back role and the long term future of former Ajax Keeper Tommy Setford. Playing in Europe this season certainly helped get some of these over the line. Looking back at the Clough squads in the glory days, and I know times have changed, but he always had a very Great British look to his teams, and where is the fun in just keep buying cheap South American Wonderkids? Will touch more on this later I'm sure as is it possible to win it all with just British players, it would probably be hard and expensive now!

Nottingham Forest - Season 2 We head into the second season with more than we thought we would get, a trophy and a European spot. It will be wonderful to have the City Ground hosting a European game once more. As in real life, the Forest squad is bloated with over paid bit part players who have not helped with FFP (Still waiting on points deduction in real life) so the first order or business is once everyone is back off loan, decide who is staying and who is off. I will entertain offers for most players but we need to get the wages down, money in the bank and look to build a DNA and style that is fit for Forest. Do we look to the past and the brilliance that was Brian Clough, or do we need something new for a new era of footballer?

Takeover - Completed it! 3 days from rumours to new owners and £8,250,000 invested. Not a sugar daddy or big investment but it will all help. Asked straight away about building a new stadium, no wonder the previous owner had not given me an answer all season! Least he was a local investor....

Garang Koul SIgned - Huge Signing for Boston United Wow, what a shock signing for Boston United as highly rated Australian International Garang Koul signs on a 4 year deal with a £25,000,000 release clause. After coming to England with Newcastle he has struggled to make an impact with his last real playing time with Lincoln City in the Championship in 2024/25. A fresh start and a new focus will hopefully bring the best out of him.

I was really excited by Ola Aina coming in, game 1 and out with a hamstring injury for 2 months! Ouch.

Transfer Window - 6 in 6 out Extremely annoyed we lost Jelle Debey as he was a first team regular, but he would only sign with a small release clause to higher division clubs, so we got £875,000 for him 6 months after signing for free and we get him back on loan for the season. Vivinho was unsettled after Fulham came in for him and we decided to cash in with a £2,000,000 up front and another £1,650,000 in possible additional fees and 50% of any future transfer. Again, not bad for a free transfer. Madani Diagouraga was another Malian who came in, o work permit on a free so another free sold to make money. We spent a little money on Ashton Muir from Celtic (Man City academy) and then landed a big free agency signing of Goncalo Bourges from Porto. The Portuguese player had been struggling to make an impact and short on confidence. He is on a high wage for us but he was worth taking a chance on as a top player for us and he may still be able to improve. Croatian Goalkeeper Emil Valentic looks to be a starter over Welsh international Eddie Beach who has been impressive over his 2.5 seasons with us. Robert Ramsak was a suggestion on Transfer deadline day from Bayern Munich and for a small wage contribution we took a late chance on a striker with Rees Gumbs struggling with injury once more and attracting offers from other clubs. Frederick Hogsholt would also come in for free from Esbjerg.

The run of games was impressive, but we played most of the teams at the foot of the table who cannot buy a win. Expect results to even out over the next few months but we head to the Transfer Period opening and expecting to lose a few players and a few more to come in. Fulham have upset my Brazilian Vivinho with a poor bid, so we may see him as a casualty, but they will be paying much more as we triggered the extension in his contract! Oh, and they don't want to downgrade facilities despite the losses each month!

Get news about Langstaff signing, that release clause may be an issue but lets hope not. Shame about Rodrigues and the work permit. Should be able to confirm the title soon and still in the hunt for silverware in the FA Trophy, could be one hell of a season!