That's really it for me...it signals the end of a developmental football project in that sense. What we will see now, I think, is the churn of players as part of a more global football project, without any real connection to the club as it was. Increasingly the match day fan, and their enjoyment, is not really the point. It's about creating an atmosphere that supports the brand, and beyond that it's maximising the income from football tourists and the global income streams. You see advertising on the laundry that has no relevance to the local market...and that's really at the root of where football is. The value and interest created by community clubs has been hijacked and sold on the international markets as a brand. Largely to facilitate the global movement of money, and to feed off the income from international gambling concerns. That a coach might have an appreciation of the clubs history and celebrate and embrace what it means to its local community, is neither here nor there, when weighed against the numbers.
The problem for some of us is that the real interest is in those little football stories...seeing development in players and playing patterns. Not in getting the next mendez property, and the one after that, until one works. But here we are.
A sad day...but an absolute tragedy for those who think they are watching the same thing that they used to, and think that the primary business activity of the game they've invested so much in, is actually football.
I assume that it has occurred to most people that the owner needs a new football vehicle to share out some FFP load, now that existing properties are gradually filling up?
None of that is remotely new, and none of that lived or died with Steve Cooper. We have in no way been a developmental football project with Cooper - no one has come through from the youth system under him (Brennan's trajectory was already established despite Hughton's best efforts, Worrall and Yates similarly albeit less stellar). I have no idea what is going on with our Academy right now, I saw Niakhate talking up Ateef Konate the other day but apart from that no one seems to be anywhere close to the first team. That might just be a function of it being exponentially more difficult to make the transition from Academy to Premier League, it might be because of the amount of players we've signed, it might be because of Brazil's departure, it might be that we're just going through a lean year or two until the next generation of Larsson, Osong and whoever else are ready, or it might be a combination of all of the above.
Also somewhat ironic that two of the clubs who are the epitome of globalisation and financial irregularity, Man City and Newcastle, seem to have more players coming through their academy than any others and manage to retain a local fan base.
The simple fact is that if the team is successful on then pitch, fans are fickle enough to forget anything.
My relationship with Forest right now is like the old Woody Allen joke- the food in this restaurant is terrible, and the portion sizes are too small.
However I am also having a proper mardy with Talkback. Loads of shite spoken by contributors deriding Cooper as a just a championship manager, leaving the club in such a state that even if we the new manager fucks it up further it’s still his fault, Yates mascarading as a prem footballer etc etc.
I am dipping out from here, as rather than being an interesting place to drop in, it’s making me angry. That’s not what it’s for for me.
I'm sorry that you find views on football that differ to yours to be so personally offensive. I apologise for my part in insufficiently validating your opinions as gospel, and I hope that better performances on the pitch help to make this trying time less emotionally damaging as it fades in the rear view mirror.