Premier League 2024/25

[Fear Of The Fox]

6 minutes ago, Weller Wing said:

As much as I don't like spurs ( who does?)But I think Big Ange would be a bit of a laugh to go to the pub for a few.

 

Maybe worth a thread of which couple of prem managers would you like to have a laugh in a pub with, and who you think would be a right mardy tw£t?

 

 

Hurzeler, McKenna and Guardiola for me from the current PL managers. The rest are all boring characters except maybe Frank and Emery. 

[Miquel The Work Geordie]

1 hour ago, Samilktray said:

I find Ange Postecoglou a bit irritating even though a lot of people lap up his little schtick 

 

Considering he's from a nation of chilled out surf shack owners he's not half highly strung

[Nalis]

32 minutes ago, Weller Wing said:

As much as I don't like spurs ( who does?)But I think Big Ange would be a bit of a laugh to go to the pub for a few.

 

Maybe worth a thread of which couple of prem managers would you like to have a laugh in a pub with, and who you think would be a right mardy tw£t?

 

 

Ange and Dyche for me. 

 

There are some like Pep or Emery who would be fascinating to listen to from a footballing perspective but would probably be boring on anything non footballing related.

[UniFox21]

 

Can stand up when needed ey? 

Won't forget the "the lads are saying goodbye to each other" interview after relegation was confirmed. 

[foxile5]

1 hour ago, UniFox21 said:

 

Can stand up when needed ey? 

Won't forget the "the lads are saying goodbye to each other" interview after relegation was confirmed. 

Really disappointing end to his time here. Felt he was hiding a lot that season.

[PhillippaT]

1 hour ago, foxile5 said:

Really disappointing end to his time here. Felt he was hiding a lot that season.

Meh - he's not our problem anymore  

[South Notts NFFC]

13 hours ago, FoxOfMelton said:

Forest are going to batter us, aren't they?

I would doubt it to be honest. We've shown so far that nobody will get an easy game against us and I can't see us getting many hammerings but similarly I can't see us dishing out any big wins either. 

 

So far the stats show that we're one of the best defensive teams in the league but don't really score enough.

 

It'll be an interesting tactical battle actually as Nuno has looked to go low-block and counter away from home but might find it difficult if Cooper is doing the same.

[CrazyKopCorner]

6 minutes ago, South Notts NFFC said:

I would doubt it to be honest. We've shown so far that nobody will get an easy game against us and I can't see us getting many hammerings but similarly I can't see us dishing out any big wins either. 

 

So far the stats show that we're one of the best defensive teams in the league but don't really score enough.

 

It'll be an interesting tactical battle actually as Nuno has looked to go low-block and counter away from home but might find it difficult if Cooper is doing the same.

FM the thought of 2 Cooper teams playing against each other doesn't bear thinking about. 

 

Could I ask how the fuch did he get you lot promoted and then keep you up?  

 

I've been staggered by how clueless he is at literally everything about being a football manager. 

[South Notts NFFC]

12 hours ago, ForestAreMagic said:

Overall, second biggest/closest after Derby.

 

But South of Trent Bridge and in North Leics (where we have quite good support) it’s more about Leicester.  

 

One of our songs is usefully chronological: “We hate Derby County, we hate Leicester too, we hated Sheffield United but Forest we love you”

 

If we both stay in the Prem for a few years (assuming no Derby there) I can see Leicester becoming the bigger rival again.  

Yeah basically this, Nottinghamshire is a long county and the dynamic will change depending on your location in it.

 

I'd say the large majority 'hate' Derby the most followed by both Sheffield United and Leicester. The Sheffield United thing is mainly historical and it's been pretty tasty with them for years. There was a period when we came back out of League One and had Billy Davies as manager where the Derby rivalry went nuclear as well with both teams having players and managers with ties to the other side.

 

Contrary to what some think there's really no rivalry with Notts County, at least not from our side. They hate us and perhaps if they ever became decent enough to play us regularly something would develop but my view is I hope they do well, as it benefits the city. It's exactly that patronising attitude that they hate.

 

I also don't dislike Leicester at all, I wanted you to win the league in 16 and the cup a few years later. I would never be able to say that about Derby.

[South Notts NFFC]

21 minutes ago, CrazyKopCorner said:

Could I ask how the fuch did he get you lot promoted and then keep you up?  

The promoted Forest and the survival Forest the next season were very different. Cooper actually showed a lot of tactical flexibility when we came up which is an example the likes of Martin at Southampton might want to follow. 

 

In our promotion season we had a squad of decent players but just had Chris Hughton killing any sort of spirit in the camp. One thing a lot of the players have said about Cooper is how good he is with man management. I just think he made them all believe again and even in our first season up with 30 odd players to try and keep happy there were never any rumours about unhappy players. Once we started winning again we just had momentum and it never really stopped.

 

Once up we became awful to watch frankly but the novelty of being back after so long away meant no Forest fan cared and we ground out a series of 1-0s. To be fair to Cooper again he had an owner who like a kid in a sweet shop just kept handing him new players to coach and we also had an absolutely horrific injury record too. Keeping us up was more of a feat than getting us up in my opinion. 

 

Cooper has his flaws of course but he'll never have to buy a drink in Nottingham again. Whoever was the one to finally take us up was always going to get hero worshipped. 

[Pliskin]

18 minutes ago, South Notts NFFC said:

The promoted Forest and the survival Forest the next season were very different. Cooper actually showed a lot of tactical flexibility when we came up which is an example the likes of Martin at Southampton might want to follow. 

 

In our promotion season we had a squad of decent players but just had Chris Hughton killing any sort of spirit in the camp. One thing a lot of the players have said about Cooper is how good he is with man management. I just think he made them all believe again and even in our first season up with 30 odd players to try and keep happy there were never any rumours about unhappy players. Once we started winning again we just had momentum and it never really stopped.

 

Once up we became awful to watch frankly but the novelty of being back after so long away meant no Forest fan cared and we ground out a series of 1-0s. To be fair to Cooper again he had an owner who like a kid in a sweet shop just kept handing him new players to coach and we also had an absolutely horrific injury record too. Keeping us up was more of a feat than getting us up in my opinion. 

 

Cooper has his flaws of course but he'll never have to buy a drink in Nottingham again. Whoever was the one to finally take us up was always going to get hero worshipped. 

There’s got to be something about Cooper,  he’s had success at academy levels albeit a very different standard, but he’s had some quality players under him when he’s had these stints. 
 

 

I can’t help but think part of the reason he’s stinking the place up, is his reluctance to take the hand break off. He's often spoken about learning from mistakes, and perhaps he’s just being over cautious because of his previous roles. 
 

What I can’t stand is the complete erosion of anything good from last season, the team is unrecognisable and that’s concerning. 

Edited 7 October 2024 by Pliskin

[South Notts NFFC]

9 minutes ago, Pliskin said:

There’s got to be something about Cooper,  he’s had success at academy levels albeit a very different standard, but he’s had some quality players under him when he’s had these stints. 
 

 

I can’t help but think part of the reason he’s stinking the place up, is his reluctance to take the hand break off. He's often spoken about learning from mistakes, and perhaps he’s just being over cautious because of his previous roles. 
 

What I can’t stand is the complete erosion of anything good from last season, the team is unrecognisable and that’s concerning. 

His managerial record is almost completely successful, relatively speaking. As you say he had success at youth level then in his first two seasons in senior football got Swansea into the playoffs twice. 

 

Then after that was his time here. He used to say with us that we were having to play in a way which wasn't how he wanted to ideally. Perhaps he feels that like his time here, he just doesn't have the players at Leicester to do much else in the Premier League, other than low-block and counter. 

[Lionator]

13 minutes ago, South Notts NFFC said:

His managerial record is almost completely successful, relatively speaking. As you say he had success at youth level then in his first two seasons in senior football got Swansea into the playoffs twice. 

 

Then after that was his time here. He used to say with us that we were having to play in a way which wasn't how he wanted to ideally. Perhaps he feels that like his time here, he just doesn't have the players at Leicester to do much else in the Premier League, other than low-block and counter. 

I think the frustration is that last season we played in a particular way, high possession, intricate set moves to open teams up, 5 or even 6 players going forward at all times (which incidentally a lot of our fans also found ‘boring’ so I wonder if it’s a them thing). 
 

There are small snippets where we play incredibly good football. The two I can think of both ended up in Vardy missing 1 on 1’s v Spurs and Bournemouth. Like you say though, he’s definitely got the handbrake on and I don’t think he trusts these players enough to fully take the handbrake off.

 

One thing I will give him credit for is that he’s made Wout Faes look like a world class defender which is no mean feat. 

[Richmondfox]

4 minutes ago, South Notts NFFC said:

His managerial record is almost completely successful, relatively speaking. As you say he had success at youth level then in his first two seasons in senior football got Swansea into the playoffs twice. 

 

Then after that was his time here. He used to say with us that we were having to play in a way which wasn't how he wanted to ideally. Perhaps he feels that like his time here, he just doesn't have the players at Leicester to do much else in the Premier League, other than low-block and counter. 

He isn’t even setting us up to counter attack, his insistence of Ayew who falls over when he gets the ball puts an end to that idea.
 

It’s all down to him being not very good at his job, whether it’s confidence, ability or intelligence, I think it’s a mix of all 3. 
 

He does have the players, he is the one choosing to not play them.  It feels like the team is having to battle his player and tactic choices as well as the opposition. 

 

People keep using the word pragmatic to describe him but he is anything but, it seems the word has changed its meaning. To me he is hardly inspiring on and off the pitch. 

 

 

[Pliskin]

31 minutes ago, South Notts NFFC said:

His managerial record is almost completely successful, relatively speaking. As you say he had success at youth level then in his first two seasons in senior football got Swansea into the playoffs twice. 

 

Then after that was his time here. He used to say with us that we were having to play in a way which wasn't how he wanted to ideally. Perhaps he feels that like his time here, he just doesn't have the players at Leicester to do much else in the Premier League, other than low-block and counter. 

This is the thing, is his style more akin to Brendan or Tony Pulis? Thinking back to his time at Swansea he was very similar to Brendan. They were a methodically progressive side who played out from the back, had that deep lying ball playing CDM who was the heartbeat of the team. How much of this was following Graham Potter, I don’t know. But there was a definite way Swansea played. Now, last season Enzo managed to achieve this, yes with some question marks, largely we achieved it. 
 

We do have the players to achieve this, probably not to the level required in the premier league, but enough for Cooper to come up with a hybrid of what we saw last season….. which I will admit at times in the first half we saw at times. 
 

I just feel Cooper is stuck between two ideas, I don’t think he knows what he wants to do with this team, so he has reverted to a more battle like idea, to make us as horrible to play against as he possibly can. 
 

There are some murmurings albeit not corroborated about some of the players not being happy with him. He’s got the win, so he now has two weeks to build on this and hopefully trust the players a bit more to play more like he really wants us too. 

[Aus Fox]

11 hours ago, Miquel The Work Geordie said:

 

Considering he's from a nation of chilled out surf shack owners he's not half highly strung

Greece? 

[CosbehFox]

Forest are very much in the build of Nuno now. They will have some spells this season where they are mind numbing to watch but consistently give the big clubs a run for their money 

[CrazyKopCorner]

2 hours ago, South Notts NFFC said:

The promoted Forest and the survival Forest the next season were very different. Cooper actually showed a lot of tactical flexibility when we came up which is an example the likes of Martin at Southampton might want to follow. 

 

In our promotion season we had a squad of decent players but just had Chris Hughton killing any sort of spirit in the camp. One thing a lot of the players have said about Cooper is how good he is with man management. I just think he made them all believe again and even in our first season up with 30 odd players to try and keep happy there were never any rumours about unhappy players. Once we started winning again we just had momentum and it never really stopped.

 

Once up we became awful to watch frankly but the novelty of being back after so long away meant no Forest fan cared and we ground out a series of 1-0s. To be fair to Cooper again he had an owner who like a kid in a sweet shop just kept handing him new players to coach and we also had an absolutely horrific injury record too. Keeping us up was more of a feat than getting us up in my opinion. 

 

Cooper has his flaws of course but he'll never have to buy a drink in Nottingham again. Whoever was the one to finally take us up was always going to get hero worshipped. 

FM - any chance you can take him back & / or we could do a swap with Nuno because he's absolutely crap - His flexibility with us is making a crap team selection and then followed by a too late and equally crap substitution. 

 

We won on Saturday despite his 'best' efforts 

[Nalis]

11 hours ago, UniFox21 said:

 

Can stand up when needed ey? 

Won't forget the "the lads are saying goodbye to each other" interview after relegation was confirmed. 

 

9 hours ago, foxile5 said:

Really disappointing end to his time here. Felt he was hiding a lot that season.

Many of that squad did so well over the years but left a bad taste in the mouth for their apathetic attitude in the relegation season. Evans, who was supposed to be our fvcking captain, and Youri both being two of the biggest standouts.

[Wymsey]

Yes, he's popular and obviously has had the right qualities for the job - but is it time for someone younger to come in now?..

 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cnvdg9v7g13o

 

Just hope any potential replacements aren't the likes of Deeney etc.

 

 

Edited 7 October 2024 by Wymsey

[Footballwipe]

1 minute ago, Wymsey said:

Yes, he's popular and obviously has had the right qualities for the job - but is it time for someone younger to come in now?..

 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cnvdg9v7g13o

 

Just hope any potential replacements aren't the likes of Deeney etc.

 

 

Can I ask why someone younger is needed? Isn't this classic ageism?

 

Lineker hasn't shown any signs of mental or physical deterioration - he's not struggling with his health, so there's absolutely no reason why "someone younger" should take over. In fact what if he was replaced with someone who was actually older than him?

 

Mark Chapman is the obvious successor to Lineker, and I hope when he does finish that'll be the natural replacement, but I really think the someone younger line is so disrespectful.

 

One suspects his contract with the BBC will reduce in salary again, and it wouldn't surprise me if he bowed out at the end of Euro 2028. Home international tournament to close his BBC career out.

[Fox92]

13 hours ago, UniFox21 said:

 

Can stand up when needed ey? 

Won't forget the "the lads are saying goodbye to each other" interview after relegation was confirmed. 

I was disappointed how it ended here. I said many times Evans was the best centre half I'd seen here, he had everything, even at his old age then. Has more quality than any of our defenders now.

[Fox92]

5 hours ago, South Notts NFFC said:

The promoted Forest and the survival Forest the next season were very different. Cooper actually showed a lot of tactical flexibility when we came up which is an example the likes of Martin at Southampton might want to follow. 

 

In our promotion season we had a squad of decent players but just had Chris Hughton killing any sort of spirit in the camp. One thing a lot of the players have said about Cooper is how good he is with man management. I just think he made them all believe again and even in our first season up with 30 odd players to try and keep happy there were never any rumours about unhappy players. Once we started winning again we just had momentum and it never really stopped.

 

Once up we became awful to watch frankly but the novelty of being back after so long away meant no Forest fan cared and we ground out a series of 1-0s. To be fair to Cooper again he had an owner who like a kid in a sweet shop just kept handing him new players to coach and we also had an absolutely horrific injury record too. Keeping us up was more of a feat than getting us up in my opinion. 

 

Cooper has his flaws of course but he'll never have to buy a drink in Nottingham again. Whoever was the one to finally take us up was always going to get hero worshipped. 

It is so good to read about Cooper from someone who actually saw the games instead of the same people spouting the same "well, when Cooper was at Forest.." on here.

 

If he keeps us up then he's done his job and then in the summer I'd like to think we can move onto a better manager. It was always going to be a tough season with our manager walking out, it's a rare thing to happen when you've just been promoted to the top flight.

 

Anyone who gets a club promoted after so long is always going to be worshipped. It's similar to Pearson here. I completely understand why you lot love Cooper.

[Wymsey]

8 minutes ago, Footballwipe said:

Can I ask why someone younger is needed? Isn't this classic ageism?

 

Lineker hasn't shown any signs of mental or physical deterioration - he's not struggling with his health, so there's absolutely no reason why "someone younger" should take over. In fact what if he was replaced with someone who was actually older than him?

 

Mark Chapman is the obvious successor to Lineker, and I hope when he does finish that'll be the natural replacement, but I really think the someone younger line is so disrespectful.

 

One suspects his contract with the BBC will reduce in salary again, and it wouldn't surprise me if he bowed out at the end of Euro 2028. Home international tournament to close his BBC career out.

I get your point, but no it's not an ageism thing nor intentionally disrespectful.

 

Personally would rather any replacement be it a long-term choice, like Lineker has been for (what, around 20 years now?).

 

Micah Richards has been and Jermaine Jenas was tipped for the gong, obviously before the latter's texting incident, because they were more recently-retired from the game than Lineker.

[Sol thewall Bamba]

20 minutes ago, Footballwipe said:

Can I ask why someone younger is needed? Isn't this classic ageism?

When was the last time a longstanding host on a show like this was replaced by someone older when they retired/stepped down?

 

It's a completely normal pattern of succession. Someone gets the gig for decades and then passes the torch to someone younger. It's not offensive.