Nottingham Forest are set for a £50 million takeover by a consortium from the United States.
Former Nottingham Forest midfielder David Prutton has a warning for his old side ahead of their imminent takeover by a United States consortium led by John Jay Moores.
Moores, the former San Diego Padres owner, is expected to acquire a 100 per cent stake in the Championship club, spelling the end of Fawaz Al-Hasawi’s four-year reign.
On Wednesday, Al-Hasawi posted a series of tweets in which he appeared to bid farewell to Forest, who finished eighth in the Kuwaiti’s first season but have regressed in each of the past three campaigns.
Al-Hasawi’s leadership has drawn protests from the Forest support in recent weeks, with August’s sale of star man Oliver Burke to Red Bull Leipzig with no sell-on fee proving the final straw for many.
Speaking to Sky Sports’ EFL Weekly podcast on Thursday, Prutton suggested, like most Reds fans, he would welcome a change of ownership at the City Ground.
However, the 35-year-old warned that the arrival of a new regime will not necessarily improve Forest’s fortunes.
“First and foremost, it starts from the top,” Prutton said. “And if you get that direct, straightforward leadership, which with the greatest of respect hasn’t always been the case in the last few years, then hopefully you get some sort of consistent output, which again we’ve not seen.
“They were under an embargo, which has led to them treading water for too long – and getting away with treading water – for a club of that saize and stature. Now it’s time, if this does happen, for it to be taken forward but as we’ve seen, injections of money do not success equate.”
Prutton began his career at the City Ground but left for Southampton in 2003, before returning on loan four years later.
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