The need for experience at the back

[matt1982]

As we all know we need a left back, but apart from that I still feel we could really do with a big, nasty experienced head in the heart of the back four as well, to complement the younger Morgan, Wilson and Chambers. You might say, well Wes is 27 next year, he may well develop into that player anyway given another couple of years (and he may well do). But in the meantime, the second leg (and arguably the first aswell) against Blackpool exposed frailities (not seen for really the whole season admittedly) when the pressure was on, in the heart of that area, and you can't help but think a more experienced, calmer but still tough as nails head (a la Ian Evatt for Blackpool) in that defence would have made a difference. It might not have saved the game on the night, and you could argue Blackpool were just our nemesis but I just FEEL it would have helped, especially with our only other experienced player McKenna not being fit on the night either. Gunter is another young defender, which is why I feel it's also important we get a fairly experienced, older left back.

Still Billy has talked about all this, so we wait and see I guess....

 

[Anatoli]

I am happy to join with you today in what will go down in history as the greatest demonstration for freedom in the history of our team.

In 1898, a great City Ground team, in whose symbolic shadow we stand today, won the FA cup. This momentous decree came as a great beacon light of hope to millions of Forest fans who had been seared in the flames of withering injustice. It came as a joyous daybreak to end the long night of their captivity.

But one hundred and ten years later, the Forest fan still is not free. One hundred years and ten later, the life of the Forest fan is still sadly crippled by the manacles of Championship football. One hundred and ten years later, the Forest fan lives on a lonely island of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of Premiership prosperity. One hundred years later, the Forest fan is still languishing in the corners of City Ground society and finds himself an exile in his own land. So we have come here today to dramatize a shameful condition.

In a sense we have come to our team's stadium to cash a check. When Brian Clough and Peter Taylor wrote the magnificent words of the programme notes for the European Cup final, they were signing a promissory note to which every City Ground fan was to fall heir. This note was a promise that all fans, yes, County fans as well as Forest fans, would be guaranteed the unalienable rights of life, liberty, and Premiership football.
It is obvious today that City Ground has defaulted on this promissory note insofar as the playoffs are concerned. Instead of honouring this sacred obligation, The City Ground has given the Forest fan a bad check, a check which has come back marked "insufficient funds." But we refuse to believe that the bank of justice is bankrupt. We refuse to believe that there are insufficient funds in the great vaults of opportunity of this team. So we have come to cash this check — a check that will give us upon demand the riches of Premiership football. We have also come to this hallowed spot to remind the City Ground of the fierce urgency of now. This is no time to engage in the luxury of cooling off or to take the tranquillizing drug of gradualism. Now is the time to make real the promises of Nigel Doughty. Now is the time to rise from the dark and desolate valley of League One to the sunlit path of the Premiership. Now is the time to lift our team from the quick sands of Kinnear to the solid rock of Billy Davies. Now is the time to make winning a reality for all of Cloughie's children.

It would be fatal for the team to overlook the urgency of the moment. This sweltering summer of the Forest fan's legitimate discontent will not pass until there is an invigorating autumn of winning a world cup. Two thousand and ten is not an end, but a beginning. Those who hope that the Forest fan needed to blow off steam and will now be content will have a rude awakening if the team returns to business as usual. There will be neither rest nor tranquillity in the City Ground until the Forest fan is granted his Premiership rights. The whirlwinds of revolt will continue to shake the foundations of our team until the bright day of justice emerges.

But there is something that I must say to my people who stand on the warm threshold which leads into the palace of justice. In the process of gaining our rightful place we must not be guilty of wrongful deeds. Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom by drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred.

We must forever conduct our struggle on the high plane of dignity and discipline. We must not allow our creative protest to degenerate into physical violence. Again and again we must rise to the majestic heights of meeting physical force with soul force. The marvellous new militancy which has engulfed the Forum must not lead us to a distrust of all Derby Fans, for many of our white shirted brothers, as evidenced by their presence here today, have come to realize that their destiny is tied up with our destiny. They have come to realize that their freedom is inextricably bound to our freedom. We cannot walk alone.

As we walk, we must make the pledge that we shall always march ahead. We cannot turn back. There are those who are asking the devotees of civil rights, "When will you be satisfied?" We can never be satisfied as long as the Forest fan is the victim of the unspeakable horrors of police brutality. We can never be satisfied, as long as our bodies, heavy with the fatigue of travel, cannot gain lodging in the motels of the highways and the hotels of the cities. We cannot be satisfied as long as the Forest fan's basic mobility is from West Bridgford to Beeston. We can never be satisfied as long as our children are stripped of their selfhood and robbed of their dignity by signs stating "We Support Man Utd". We cannot be satisfied as long as a Forest fan in Strelley cannot vote and a Forest fan in Clifton believes he has nothing for which to vote. No, no, we are not satisfied, and we will not be satisfied until justice rolls down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream.

I am not unmindful that some of you have come here out of great trials and tribulations. Some of you have come fresh from the Meadows. Some of you have come from areas where your quest for freedom left you battered by the storms of persecution and staggered by the winds of police brutality. You have been the veterans of creative suffering. Continue to work with the faith that unearned suffering is redemptive.
Go back to Hockley, go back to Radcliffe, go back to West Bridgford, go back to Edwalton, go back to Hyson Green, go back to the slums and ghettos of Nottingham knowing that somehow this situation can and will be changed. Let us not wallow in the valley of despair.

I say to you today, my friends, so even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the City Ground dream.
I have a dream that one day this team will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: "We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all fans are created equal."
I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Ruddington the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood.

I have a dream that one day even the county of Nottinghamshire, a county sweltering with the heat of injustice, sweltering with the heat of oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice.

I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a team where they will not be judged by the colour of their scarves but by the content of their character.
I have a dream today.

I have a dream that one day, down in Sedgebrook, with its vicious racists, with its governor having his lips dripping with the words of interposition and nullification; one day right there in Gotham, little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers.

I have a dream today.

I have a dream that Michael Dawson will lift the World Cup.

This is our hope. This is the faith that I go back to South Africa with. With this faith we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope. With this faith we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our team into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood. With this faith we will be able to work together, to pray together, to struggle together, to go to jail together, to stand up for freedom together, knowing that we will be free one day.

This will be the day when all of God's children will be able to sing with a new meaning, "Mull of Kintyre, Oh mists rolling in from the Trent"

And if Nottingham Forest is to be a great team this must become true. So let freedom ring from the prodigious hilltops of Wilford. Let freedom ring from the mighty mountains of Lowdham. Let freedom ring from the Broadmarsh Centre!
Let freedom ring from the snowcapped Rockies of Sneinton!
Let freedom ring from the curvaceous slopes of Cotgrave!
But not only that; let freedom ring from Stone Mountain of Saxondale!
Let freedom ring from Lookout Mountain of Mapperley!
Let freedom ring from every hill and molehill of Ilkeston. From every mountainside, let freedom ring.

And when this happens, when we allow freedom to ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God's children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Forest fan spiritual, "Premiership at last! Premiership at last! thank God Almighty, we are Premiership at last!"

 

[Rich565]

As we all know we need a left back, but apart from that I still feel we could really do with a big, nasty experienced head in the heart of the back four as well, to complement the younger Morgan, Wilson and Chambers. You might say, well Wes is 27 next year, he may well develop into that player anyway given another couple of years (and he may well do). But in the meantime, the second leg (and arguably the first aswell) against Blackpool exposed frailities (not seen for really the whole season admittedly) when the pressure was on, in the heart of that area, and you can't help but think a more experienced, calmer but still tough as nails head (a la Ian Evatt for Blackpool) in that defence would have made a difference. It might not have saved the game on the night, and you could argue Blackpool were just our nemesis but I just FEEL it would have helped, especially with our only other experienced player McKenna not being fit on the night either. Gunter is another young defender, which is why I feel it's also important we get a fairly experienced, older left back.

Still Billy has talked about all this, so we wait and see I guess....

Whether we need that in a CB or not, i'm not too sure.
But the collapses in playoffs and other big games are concerning.......hopefully we'll learn for next season. McKenna being only half fit I think was crucial

 

[Itsy-bitsy Bonatini Yellow Polkadot Bikini]

I am happy to join with you today in what will go down in history as the greatest demonstration for freedom in the history of our team.

In 1898, a great City Ground team, in whose symbolic shadow we stand today, won the FA cup. This momentous decree came as a great beacon light of hope to millions of Forest fans who had been seared in the flames of withering injustice. It came as a joyous daybreak to end the long night of their captivity.

But one hundred and ten years later, the Forest fan still is not free. One hundred years and ten later, the life of the Forest fan is still sadly crippled by the manacles of Championship football. One hundred and ten years later, the Forest fan lives on a lonely island of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of Premiership prosperity. One hundred years later, the Forest fan is still languishing in the corners of City Ground society and finds himself an exile in his own land. So we have come here today to dramatize a shameful condition.

In a sense we have come to our team's stadium to cash a check. When Brian Clough and Peter Taylor wrote the magnificent words of the programme notes for the European Cup final, they were signing a promissory note to which every City Ground fan was to fall heir. This note was a promise that all fans, yes, County fans as well as Forest fans, would be guaranteed the unalienable rights of life, liberty, and Premiership football.
It is obvious today that City Ground has defaulted on this promissory note insofar as the playoffs are concerned. Instead of honouring this sacred obligation, The City Ground has given the Forest fan a bad check, a check which has come back marked "insufficient funds." But we refuse to believe that the bank of justice is bankrupt. We refuse to believe that there are insufficient funds in the great vaults of opportunity of this team. So we have come to cash this check — a check that will give us upon demand the riches of Premiership football. We have also come to this hallowed spot to remind the City Ground of the fierce urgency of now. This is no time to engage in the luxury of cooling off or to take the tranquillizing drug of gradualism. Now is the time to make real the promises of Nigel Doughty. Now is the time to rise from the dark and desolate valley of League One to the sunlit path of the Premiership. Now is the time to lift our team from the quick sands of Kinnear to the solid rock of Billy Davies. Now is the time to make winning a reality for all of Cloughie's children.

It would be fatal for the team to overlook the urgency of the moment. This sweltering summer of the Forest fan's legitimate discontent will not pass until there is an invigorating autumn of winning a world cup. Two thousand and ten is not an end, but a beginning. Those who hope that the Forest fan needed to blow off steam and will now be content will have a rude awakening if the team returns to business as usual. There will be neither rest nor tranquillity in the City Ground until the Forest fan is granted his Premiership rights. The whirlwinds of revolt will continue to shake the foundations of our team until the bright day of justice emerges.

But there is something that I must say to my people who stand on the warm threshold which leads into the palace of justice. In the process of gaining our rightful place we must not be guilty of wrongful deeds. Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom by drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred.

We must forever conduct our struggle on the high plane of dignity and discipline. We must not allow our creative protest to degenerate into physical violence. Again and again we must rise to the majestic heights of meeting physical force with soul force. The marvellous new militancy which has engulfed the Forum must not lead us to a distrust of all Derby Fans, for many of our white shirted brothers, as evidenced by their presence here today, have come to realize that their destiny is tied up with our destiny. They have come to realize that their freedom is inextricably bound to our freedom. We cannot walk alone.

As we walk, we must make the pledge that we shall always march ahead. We cannot turn back. There are those who are asking the devotees of civil rights, "When will you be satisfied?" We can never be satisfied as long as the Forest fan is the victim of the unspeakable horrors of police brutality. We can never be satisfied, as long as our bodies, heavy with the fatigue of travel, cannot gain lodging in the motels of the highways and the hotels of the cities. We cannot be satisfied as long as the Forest fan's basic mobility is from West Bridgford to Beeston. We can never be satisfied as long as our children are stripped of their selfhood and robbed of their dignity by signs stating "We Support Man Utd". We cannot be satisfied as long as a Forest fan in Strelley cannot vote and a Forest fan in Clifton believes he has nothing for which to vote. No, no, we are not satisfied, and we will not be satisfied until justice rolls down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream.

I am not unmindful that some of you have come here out of great trials and tribulations. Some of you have come fresh from the Meadows. Some of you have come from areas where your quest for freedom left you battered by the storms of persecution and staggered by the winds of police brutality. You have been the veterans of creative suffering. Continue to work with the faith that unearned suffering is redemptive.
Go back to Hockley, go back to Radcliffe, go back to West Bridgford, go back to Edwalton, go back to Hyson Green, go back to the slums and ghettos of Nottingham knowing that somehow this situation can and will be changed. Let us not wallow in the valley of despair.

I say to you today, my friends, so even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the City Ground dream.
I have a dream that one day this team will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: "We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all fans are created equal."
I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Ruddington the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood.

I have a dream that one day even the county of Nottinghamshire, a county sweltering with the heat of injustice, sweltering with the heat of oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice.

I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a team where they will not be judged by the colour of their scarves but by the content of their character.
I have a dream today.

I have a dream that one day, down in Sedgebrook, with its vicious racists, with its governor having his lips dripping with the words of interposition and nullification; one day right there in Gotham, little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers.

I have a dream today.

I have a dream that Michael Dawson will lift the World Cup.

This is our hope. This is the faith that I go back to South Africa with. With this faith we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope. With this faith we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our team into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood. With this faith we will be able to work together, to pray together, to struggle together, to go to jail together, to stand up for freedom together, knowing that we will be free one day.

This will be the day when all of God's children will be able to sing with a new meaning, "Mull of Kintyre, Oh mists rolling in from the Trent"

And if Nottingham Forest is to be a great team this must become true. So let freedom ring from the prodigious hilltops of Wilford. Let freedom ring from the mighty mountains of Lowdham. Let freedom ring from the Broadmarsh Centre!
Let freedom ring from the snowcapped Rockies of Sneinton!
Let freedom ring from the curvaceous slopes of Cotgrave!
But not only that; let freedom ring from Stone Mountain of Saxondale!
Let freedom ring from Lookout Mountain of Mapperley!
Let freedom ring from every hill and molehill of Ilkeston. From every mountainside, let freedom ring.

And when this happens, when we allow freedom to ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God's children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Forest fan spiritual, "Premiership at last! Premiership at last! thank God Almighty, we are Premiership at last!"

Friends, Romans, countrymen...lend me a tenner?

 

[lemonforest]

i see a player like danny shittu coming in to fill in the defence with experience, however wilson and morgan will always be first choice

 

[Anatoli]

Friends, Romans, countrymen...lend me a tenner?

I am so glad someone responded.
I wasted about twenty four hours of my life on that post.
It got to the point where I knew it wasn't funny at all, but I had to complete it.

I'm planning on doing Lady Di's brother's funeral speech next weekend.

It will be crap, but once you start something....

 

[marshal99]

Ibrahima Sonko & Danny Shittu perhaps ? Big strong defender at this level but sort of found wanting in the premiership.

 

[onlythetruth]

I am so glad someone responded.
I wasted about twenty four hours of my life on that post.
It got to the point where I knew it wasn't funny at all, but I had to complete it.

I'm planning on doing Lady Di's brother's funeral speech next weekend.

It will be crap, but once you start something....

Anatoli

It needs its own thread - you can't slip it in to a "we need a new defender" threadlol

 

[Stratty]

Ibrahima Sonko & Danny Shittu perhaps ? Big strong defender at this level but sort of found wanting in the premiership.

Signing Sonko isn't on the cards. He passes out through fear whenever he is within a 100mile radius of Guy Moussi.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8a_wLjb-mcg[/youtube]