Read this, then take a look at yourselves.

[weasel]

This actually stems from another thread where wanted to check the validity of Mr. Van Hooijdonk's (alleged) ridiculous real name. But after checking his wikipedia page I found this paragraph which couldn't possibly do more to illustrate the difference between a board deserving of criticism, ney contempt, and our current board who are trying their best for our club. Give it a read.

"After the World Cup had finished he discovered that the promised strengthening to the Forest squad to enable them to cope back in the Premier League had not transpired, indeed that his strike partner Campbell (who had an ongoing back injury) had been sold to Trabzonspor for £2.5m. The club had also announced that Scot Gemmill was dropped from the first team for refusing to sign a new contract, and that club captain and terrace hero Colin Cooper was being allowed to leave to the team promoted alongside them as runners up, Middlesbrough. Van Hooijdonk asked for a transfer. The club's new owners refused. Van Hooijdonk announced that he had been told previously that he could leave the club at the end of the 1997/1998 season if he so wished, that he felt betrayed by the club's owners who had failed to deliver on their promises to him regarding the strengthening of the team, and that he felt he could no longer play for his employers. His employers, desperate for a striker, refused to allow him to be transfer-listed again, so van Hooijdonk announced his intention to strike. He kept fit by training with his former club NAC Breda."

Now forget the actual strike action, thats old hat, but bear in mind the position that board allowed our club to reach. We had a record breaking, international class strike force, a team full of Premiership quality players and an overall excellent prospect of stopping up and doing well. Not only did the owners fail to make any signings of note whatsoever they SOLD one of the two star strikers and allowed our captain to leave due to fannying him around.

Can you imagine what people would do now if this happened again? The message boards would probably all crash. People talk about protests and the like towards our current club, can you not see the difference between those guys and Nigel Doughty? There's not a chance in hell that Doughty would have allowed Cooper or Campbell to leave under those circumstances if we'd just been promoted to the Premier League. He'd put his hand in his pocket like he always does and try to give this club a little chance of survival. He probably wouldn't risk his own financial security over it, and who could blame him, but he'd certainly give the club good backing and add to, not take away from, that squad. He also wouldn't allow Harry Bassett to find out he was being sacked without having the good grace to tell him so properly.

If that doesn't spell out the difference for you people, then nothing ever will and you are officially incapable of processing simple peices of information and forming a logical and reasoned conclusion.

So everyone cheer up, we might stop up this season, Doughty will back us again, Davies is more shrewd about what we need than Calderwood and we might all bloody well get back to winning often. Thankyou.

 

[clusternakker]

I never really blamed Pierre for what he did , the blame is solely that of the board, he was deceived.

 

[sedgred]

I cannot believe you are bad mouthing some one who just wanted to invest in the club. Despite being Chairman of Spurs for years, it was obvious that Irvine Scholars first love was Nottingham Forest, why else would he want to buy the club................I do hope it wasn't just to make money. These nice rich people who buy football clubs are all like Mr Doughty, do so because they are fans.

I am right, I do hope so ???.

Van Hooijdonk was an absolute w**ker, for what he did to the club, he was paid by Forest, under contract to Forest, wanted to leave for greener fields.

 

[WorcsRed]

Completely fair point and Doughty would put his hands in his pockets again if we got there.

However a near decade of mistakes later has proven his wisdom has at times been truly shocking and argurably even more frustrating than the PVH debacle.

1. Dismantling a chunk of the play-off team under Hart when two or three additions to the squad would have again seen us challenge
2. Offering Marlon a derisory contract offer the year after he had scored 21 goals and then selling him
3. We're serious about promotion are you- architect Arthur admittedly but he was still chairman-the ultimate insult to any true fan
4. And in more recent times, two complete f*ck ups of January transfer windows that did/ are doing everything possible to keep us in/ steer us back to League One.

You cannot argue with his investment to date, it's just the timing and manner of it has that has at times been baffling.

 

[RRRREDUN]

Weasel - you do have a point over Van Hooijdonk's own situation. However, the fans who have criticised the club recently do so because they despair of the position NFFC find themselves in ..........again. We face a fourth season in the third tier because of mistakes made at the top level. So, NG's intentions are good. Comparing him favourably to the regime in place for Harry Bassett may just be a case of standing in one dog turd is better than standing in two. The situation here is still not good. We need a professional approach. You can't change the 'laws' of football. To gain entry to the 'elite' group which is the prem requires not just investment to keep the bank-managers happy - it requires serious and sustained investment. I personally have no problem with ND's Intensions - I am grateful for his efforts, but if we go down again, or if we fail to reach the prem in a sensible time, how we look at him will get even worse. I do know that when Villa, Man City and Fulham found themselves in the 3rd tier, they made a very short term massive investment which has been proved to pay off. What fails in my view, is making piecemeal investments which leave the club out of debt but asset-poor. Result - you stagnate and stay where you are (at best). It's a risky strategy - I hope it doesn't fail.

 

[PsychosLeftFoot]

But Doughty did allow Commons and Clingan to leave this year after promotion as well as Agogo. Different level to the PVH case but does show us that Doughty and perfect at all.

 

[weasel]

Weasel why are you posting pre-emptive propaganda in defence of the current board? What are you frightened of?

For all the shower that were of the Scholar board. We had a team that got promoted to the premier league under them. Which was subsequently destroyed when we got promoted. Although can you not see the parallels with that and the Paul Hart play-off semi final squad that was decimated under Doughty? The Scholar board wasn't there for ten years overseeing the most unsuccessful decade in the clubs history with three season's spent in the third division.

What would your opinion be of the Scholar board if it was overseeing our current plight?

I'm not pre-empting anything. I saw the peice and it made a point, the point being that whatever anyone thinks about the way our club is run currently, you have to see that at least there are good intentions in comparison to what a really awful board is like, that it all.

Some of the points that have come out again though I still feel are inaccurate. The bit about 'one short term massive' investment being the way to go. We tried that already! We are currently backed as far as we can be without putting us into financial problems again and frankly it's not a risk worth taking or we might find our best players having to be sold again.

Anyway sod it, don't wanna go over old ground too much. Just wanted to make the comparison between the two regiemes so that even if people must insist on refusing to be positive about the club, they can at least see that these people aren't quite as bad as they could be.

 

[RICH1977]

dont forget we also sold rogers to our rivals when he said he didnt want to leave and was droped for refusing to do so, chris bart williams suffered a simular fate when he refused to discus terms with charlton as he wanted to stay at forest think he was dropped until he agreed to go.

 

[weasel]

dont forget we also sold rogers to our rivals when he said he didnt want to leave and was droped for refusing to do so, chris bart williams suffered a simular fate when he refused to discus terms with charlton as he wanted to stay at forest think he was dropped until he agreed to go.

Yes, due to our crippling debts, not helped by our overspending under Platt and having a wage bill that we couldn't afford. It tends to lead to these farsical situations. Not seen anything like that for a while tho have you? No, because we run a tight ship these days thankfully.

 

[Belfast Red]

I cannot believe you are bad mouthing some one who just wanted to invest in the club. Despite being Chairman of Spurs for years, it was obvious that Irvine Scholars first love was Nottingham Forest, why else would he want to buy the club................I do hope it wasn't just to make money. These nice rich people who buy football clubs are all like Mr Doughty, do so because they are fans.

I am right, I do hope so ???.

Van Hooijdonk was an absolute w**ker, for what he did to the club, he was paid by Forest, under contract to Forest, wanted to leave for greener fields.

Er, and who wouldn't? Van Hooijdonk was a top class international who single-handedly won Feyenoord a UEFA Cup. Anyone who doubts his commitment to football should see him in tears during his last game for Feyenoord as he watches his team defeated.

 

[Belfast Red]

Sedgred, would you want to stay in a crap job if you were offered a better one?

No, so wise the f*** up.

 

[weasel]

If we are comparing success on the pitch. Doughty's regime would be the least successful one.

We're not, that's the whole point. I can see as well as the next person that statistically Doughty's reign has been bad, but I was trying to point out that it wasn't from lack of trying or making usually sensible decisions.

 

[red_outlaw]

We're not, that's the whole point. I can see as well as the next person that statistically Doughty's reign has been bad, but I was trying to point out that it wasn't from lack of trying or making usually sensible decisions.

Scholar and his cronies were indeed far worse... they invested in the club for purely financial reasons. Whilst Doughty isn't the 'dark force' that many sections of our fanbase portray him as, he is certainly not blameless. I continue to believe that the most significant turning point in our recent history under Doughty was his refusal to allow David Platt to sign Robbie Blake permanently (from what I recall for a fee of around £500,000). Blake and Lester struck up an almost instant understanding on the pitch, proving to be a formidable partnership and elevating us into the play-offs. As soon as Blake left us we began to drop points once again, slipping back into mid-table obscurity and leading to the impulse purchase of David Johnson for a staggering £3 million. Yes, Johnson had one decent season when we reached the play-offs under Paul Hart but one decent season is a poor return for such a large amount of money.

Platt wasted vast amounts of Doughty's money and I don't think anybody will ever be able to comprehend Doughty's reasons for even considering him for the job. The point is, however, that somehow (after costly error upon costly error) Platt had crafted a starting line-up that, left untouched, I firmly believe would have got us promoted. I have never liked the man and he deserves all the vitriol that he receives but every successful manager needs their slice of luck. It seems like heresy to mention Clough and Platt in the same sentence but even the genius himself had his own fair share in the form of the wizardry of John Robertson.

I am certain Platt had no idea how well Blake and Lester would play together. The fact is, he stumbled upon a formula that worked and Mr Doughty refused to let him run with it. Where we might be now had we got promoted we will never know. The prospect of being managed by Platt in the Premiership is a terrifying one and we may well have ended up with the record that the inhabitants of Prideless Park now possess. Then again, it might just have been the start of something good.

 

[Anatoli]

I read somewhere that Nigel Doughty fought for Germany during the second world war. He had this idea for a concentration camp. Thanks to him Auschwitz was born. After that, he assembled a bomb and dropped it on Hiroshima.

He had tea with Mark Arthur then invaded Vietnam.

Grow up.

 

[Annesley Red]

we are only the supporters of the club, how dare we question the management or mismanagement.
Top businessmen get to the top by cutting wages in case you didnt know

 

[sedgred]

Was the Scholar board worse than Doughty regime? How long was the Scholar board here? 2 seasons? (can't quite remember exactly) it that time we suffered 1 Promotion (to the Premier league) and one relegation. Doughty has been here 9 years and we have spent a third of that time in the 3rd division. If we are comparing success on the pitch. Doughty's regime would be the least successful one.

I admire your stance Weasel, but I do rest my case, Non so blind as those who do not wish to see

 

[sedgred]

Sedgred, would you want to stay in a crap job if you were offered a better one?

No, so wise the f**k up.

When I answer your post's in such a manner, I will expect some of the same in return, until them either be a little more courteous or ignore me.

 

[sedgred]

When I answer your post's in such a manner, I will expect some of the same in return, until them either be a little more courteous or ignore me. Does the fact like Contractual Obligations pass you by ?

 

[the mask of zorro]

But Doughty did allow Commons and Clingan to leave this year after promotion as well as Agogo. Different level to the PVH case but does show us that Doughty and perfect at all.

Commons wanted to leave, and nothing would have stopped him (well maybe a change of manager from what i was told), Calderwood was happy to let Clingan go as he didn't rate him highly, and Agogo had off pitch issues that meant Forest were happy to get rid, so none of them can be put down to Doughty.

Try again

 

[Beasty]

Off pitch issues that have reared their head again, so it was a wise move to get rid of him, probably wouldn't have cutted it in this division behaving like that.

 

[clusternakker]

Commons wanted to leave, and nothing would have stopped him (well maybe a change of manager from what i was told), Calderwood was happy to let Clingan go as he didn't rate him highly, and Agogo had off pitch issues that meant Forest were happy to get rid, so none of them can be put down to Doughty.

Try again

Commons didnt want to leave, he said that in an interview before the fa cup game, the simple offer of another contract on top of the one due to expire would have been sufficient.

 

[yam]

Calderwood said different. He said that Commons told him that he wouldn't stay at Forest under any circumstances which is why they never offered a contract.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/teams/n/nottm_forest/7412793.stm

One of them is lying but which one?