Aitor Karanka is the current Forest boss, but the former goalkeeper believes that an old concept should be used at the City Ground.
Mark Crossley of Nottingham Forest
It has been another tumultuous year at Nottingham Forest. Once again the club look like they could slip into a relegation battle and fans are again frustrated with the state of affairs at the City Ground.
They changed managers as well, a common occurrence at the club, with Mark Warburton heading out and Aitor Karanka getting the job in his place.
One former Forest legend believes that the club’s main problem stems from the people in power at the club not having any Forest connections.
Nottingham Forest’s manager Aitor Karanka
Former Forest goalkeeper Mark Crossley has been speaking to Football League World this week, and had this to say:
“(Brian) Clough left and he was replaced by a bloke who knew the history surrounding the club, had played under Brian and lived and breathed Nottingham Forest.
“Since then they seem to have largely done away with the concept of appointing people who hold the club close to their heart and that is a real shame.
“Forest is a special club and not everyone that isn’t, or hasn’t been, associated with it understands that bond. I don’t think it is any coincidence that the club has massively failed in recent years, given the lack of people with a large affinity to the club associated with it.”
Indeed Forest fans long for former players to be manager at the City Ground. Warburton and Karanka have no previous connection to the club and Philippe Montanier, the previous manager before that, was the club’s first ever foreign manager who also had no affiliation to Forest in the past.
Stuart Pearce manager of Nottingham Forest (R)
But being an ex-Forest player is certainly no prerequisite to success at the club. Dougie Freedman and Stuart Pearce have recently had spells as Forest manager, both failing to sustain bright starts in charge of the club.
Forest’s main problem does often tend to be a lack of patience with their managers and appointing the wrong men in the first place.
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