Great to see Adam Wharton back playing and James Trafford getting a name check too. There are lots of young, England qualified players to get excited about beyond the upper reaches of the Premier League.
I try to get to the u19 and u21 tournaments, Simon, partly because they are off the beaten track and because you get to know the players coming through (and agents and parents). There’s talent there. Southgate deserves credit as he was at the FA a decade ago pushing for smaller-sided games.
I was at the City Ground on Saturday, Henry. The atmosphere there is incredible with high expectations. Referee Hooper got quite a bit of stick from the crowd to start with until they realised he wasn’t Anthony Taylor; he was nearly a lookalike. He had a bit more fairness in his decision-making. Would you say he’s having a great season? But this counter-attacking team with the pace of Elanga and the creativity of Gibbs White is a danger to any team. Two big fixtures on the way against Man City and Arsenal, both at home, should see them either drop away or cement that place in the Champions League next season. And once again, Nottingham will be up there with the big city football teams. Incidentally, there’s a two season waiting list for season cards at the city ground although this should be alleviated if the redevelopment goes ahead over the next summer break
I’m glad Forest are staying at the City Ground. I got alarmed when I read Danny T’s story about possibly moving away. Special place although it needs some TLC possibly cantilevering over the main car park. You’ve got players coming back and a very good, calm manager who won’t get carried away either way. Good luck
I’m pleased to see Forest doing so well - despite that it’s two Newcastle ‘rejects’ keeping them above us! Also particularly pleased for Messrs Anderson and Wood - they deserve all the plaudits. As for the Willock abusers, they can go and rot somewhere.
As a Forest fan,I wish we had signed Garner after his loan and I'm really pleased to see him do well.
I'm 63 and I've been lucky enough to see Forest be the best but my 28 year old daughter is Forest mad,we have season tickets together,is so excited about this,she is moving to London but is insist that she will be coming every game.
Difficult for players to avoid social media. Some of it is in marketing contract posting a certain amount. Some of it is pure curiosity of what people posting about them.
Also I think the abuse given out to Joe Willock is a disgrace but they are not from New Aston fans who go to games. They just people sat behind a keyboard who read reports and have nothing better to do than abuse people because they can. It is a very small amount of people to and also if players are so concerned by what is written about them why do they go on social media. If you don’t read it you won’t see anything. Just stick to football. The world and their world will survive and carry on with X or Instagram posts.
Quality article as usual Henry. Lots of good points. I don’t agree with you on the regulator. I need more information on what they are actually going to do. I think Parish spoke a lot of sense personally yesterday in his column. We will see.
I love the way Forest are doing things. Bit of old school but they have quality front players. Gibbs-White is really producing on a constant basis and Elanga has been superb. A £15m bargain from Man Utd. Another good bit of business by them!!! As for Wood. Always been decent but is just on fire now. Solid at the back with a keeper playing well to and with a manager who is at his perfect size of club and just goes about his business quietly. Hope they get European football of some kind. Top 5 a bit of a stretch still I think.
James Gardner had always been a decent player when given the chance. Can’t believe Forest never resigned him when they went up. Just gets injured a lot.
Good pout on Trafford although how boring are Burnley to watch at moment. Great defense but a hard watch at times.
Can’t blame Carson for sitting on bench. Popular and I gets paid very well. That’s why he stays each year.
Hopefully Wharton is over his injury problems and can finish season well. Big talent.
Not blaming Carson at all, he’s important in training and popular in the dressing room. Hope Trafford continues to develop. England have to think of life after Pickford. Henderson?
With regards the independent regulatory, I wonder if the future of football regulations in England when it comes to club ownership & governance will be principle based or more bureaucratic than that.
Unfortunately, I feel it has to be the latter. Manchester City & Chelsea have seemingly exploited loopholes in this regard from a classic corporate law perspective.
On the social media ID verification point, sadly I don’t believe we will ever get there. When Elon Musk was purchasing Twitter, his due diligence uncovered the overwhelming amount of fake and even bot accounts. Users are valuable, even if they aren’t real apparently.
Great to see Adam Wharton back playing and James Trafford getting a name check too. There are lots of young, England qualified players to get excited about beyond the upper reaches of the Premier League.
I try to get to the u19 and u21 tournaments, Simon, partly because they are off the beaten track and because you get to know the players coming through (and agents and parents). There’s talent there. Southgate deserves credit as he was at the FA a decade ago pushing for smaller-sided games.
I was at the City Ground on Saturday, Henry. The atmosphere there is incredible with high expectations. Referee Hooper got quite a bit of stick from the crowd to start with until they realised he wasn’t Anthony Taylor; he was nearly a lookalike. He had a bit more fairness in his decision-making. Would you say he’s having a great season? But this counter-attacking team with the pace of Elanga and the creativity of Gibbs White is a danger to any team. Two big fixtures on the way against Man City and Arsenal, both at home, should see them either drop away or cement that place in the Champions League next season. And once again, Nottingham will be up there with the big city football teams. Incidentally, there’s a two season waiting list for season cards at the city ground although this should be alleviated if the redevelopment goes ahead over the next summer break
I’m glad Forest are staying at the City Ground. I got alarmed when I read Danny T’s story about possibly moving away. Special place although it needs some TLC possibly cantilevering over the main car park. You’ve got players coming back and a very good, calm manager who won’t get carried away either way. Good luck
I’m pleased to see Forest doing so well - despite that it’s two Newcastle ‘rejects’ keeping them above us! Also particularly pleased for Messrs Anderson and Wood - they deserve all the plaudits. As for the Willock abusers, they can go and rot somewhere.
As a Forest fan,I wish we had signed Garner after his loan and I'm really pleased to see him do well.
I'm 63 and I've been lucky enough to see Forest be the best but my 28 year old daughter is Forest mad,we have season tickets together,is so excited about this,she is moving to London but is insist that she will be coming every game.
Thanks for the insightful articles
That’s Newcastle fans by the way in first sentence.
Difficult for players to avoid social media. Some of it is in marketing contract posting a certain amount. Some of it is pure curiosity of what people posting about them.
Also I think the abuse given out to Joe Willock is a disgrace but they are not from New Aston fans who go to games. They just people sat behind a keyboard who read reports and have nothing better to do than abuse people because they can. It is a very small amount of people to and also if players are so concerned by what is written about them why do they go on social media. If you don’t read it you won’t see anything. Just stick to football. The world and their world will survive and carry on with X or Instagram posts.
Quality article as usual Henry. Lots of good points. I don’t agree with you on the regulator. I need more information on what they are actually going to do. I think Parish spoke a lot of sense personally yesterday in his column. We will see.
I love the way Forest are doing things. Bit of old school but they have quality front players. Gibbs-White is really producing on a constant basis and Elanga has been superb. A £15m bargain from Man Utd. Another good bit of business by them!!! As for Wood. Always been decent but is just on fire now. Solid at the back with a keeper playing well to and with a manager who is at his perfect size of club and just goes about his business quietly. Hope they get European football of some kind. Top 5 a bit of a stretch still I think.
James Gardner had always been a decent player when given the chance. Can’t believe Forest never resigned him when they went up. Just gets injured a lot.
Good pout on Trafford although how boring are Burnley to watch at moment. Great defense but a hard watch at times.
Can’t blame Carson for sitting on bench. Popular and I gets paid very well. That’s why he stays each year.
Hopefully Wharton is over his injury problems and can finish season well. Big talent.
Not blaming Carson at all, he’s important in training and popular in the dressing room. Hope Trafford continues to develop. England have to think of life after Pickford. Henderson?
With regards the independent regulatory, I wonder if the future of football regulations in England when it comes to club ownership & governance will be principle based or more bureaucratic than that.
Unfortunately, I feel it has to be the latter. Manchester City & Chelsea have seemingly exploited loopholes in this regard from a classic corporate law perspective.
On the social media ID verification point, sadly I don’t believe we will ever get there. When Elon Musk was purchasing Twitter, his due diligence uncovered the overwhelming amount of fake and even bot accounts. Users are valuable, even if they aren’t real apparently.
I asked Twitter (pre X) to clear out the bots on my Twitter and I lost 25,000 followers! Shows the amount out there.