By Michael Lynch
May 28 2010

Much like he did when first arriving from Derby, Billy Davies is currently dividing the opinions of Nottingham Forest fans. Trentside looks back on last season, and ahead to the next with Billy Davies at the helm.

Nottingham Forest fans are notoriously fickle creatures. Right up until the playoffs Billy Davies was seen as somewhat of a messiah. Following in the footsteps of another certain former Derby County boss, Billy was going to succeed where others had failed. He was to take us out of The Championship and onto the dizzy heights of the Premier League. Game after game his name would ring out from the stands. It would seem he could do no wrong. How quickly things change.

Championship Playoff Semi-Final Second Leg: Blackpool 3-4 Nottingham Forest.

The turning point. This is where everything changed. Suddenly Billy was no longer the man that could do no wrong. Suddenly his arrogant media personality and perceived short-man syndrome were the most annoying thing ever. The Preston fans, the Derby fans, the Motherwell fans. They were all right. Billy is an annoying man.

The important thing to remember here however is that Billy has always been an annoying man. It’s just that we notice it more in defeat. Indeed his arrogance and seemingly constant war of words with the transfer panel to smack of the late, great Brian Clough. And yes, as of yet Billy’s CV looks exceedingly pale when compared with Cloughie’s, but we must give him a chance. It is not him that’s changed, it is our attitude.

Now I am not for a second suggesting that Davies will lead us to back-to-back European successes, but at this level, he is our best option. A man with a proven record that since joining has transformed our team from relegation fodder to promotion battlers with the aid of only mediocre resources.

If it’s a trade off between nice man Calderwood/bad football and short-man syndrome, annoying, Scottish, brash (that’s enough - ed)/good football, I know which I would choose!

We must let the players know from next season’s off that we are behind them and that Nottingham Forest should once again be challenging for the top end of table. Yes, it has been disheartening, but we should dust ourselves off and move on.

Patronising as the clubs official “YOU make the difference” slogan may seem, it is true that our attendance and our voice can make a difference next season.

We created an electric atmosphere in the home leg of the playoffs and I for one hope it continues onto next season!

During the close-season it is easy to over-analyse every little scrap of a quote that the press feeds us with, and that is to be expected. We are Nottingham Forest fans, hungry for football and this time of the year is torturous but we must never underestimate the media’s ability to create a story out of nothing, to take a few words so massively out-of-context that an end of season meeting becomes a “crisis talk.”

Reds' manager BILLY DAVIES divides opinion amongst fans

Discussion started by Trentside (IP Logged), 28/05/2010 22:59

Trentside
28/05/2010 22:59

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