It’s all in the game yo

By: Tim | January 2nd, 2009

Well, it finally happened. After weeks of speculation that axe has been wielded, and, like Stevie GBH at the Lounge Inn earlier this week, Calderwood has been shown the door marked ‘exit’.

In some ways I feel for him, the timing could have been better (surely no-one wants to get the boot on Boxing Day?) and we had just beaten Southampton away in the first of four relegation six-pointers. His commitment to bringing youth players through was also laudable.

However, I don’t think many Forest fans who witnessed the Doncaster match (and there were a few, it was our highest attendance all season at 26,501) would disagree with the decision. We were 3-0 down at half-time to a side who hadn’t scored more than once in any match this season, clearly Calderwood wasn’t able to motivate the players either, as Doncaster made it four shortly after the break.

If Calderwood was already skating on thin ice then the abject Doncaster performance made his position untenable really, considering our situation and the fact that it was against a fellow struggler. I am pleased to see the back of him to be honest, he displayed his tactical naivety all too often, and some of his comments in the media are a little bizarre frankly. Take this beauty for example, on Joe Garner’s wonderful goal against Southampton: ‘If you saw that goal scored in La Liga, everyone would be talking about it. Because it came from a spotty, ginger-haired striker who plays for Forest, it will probably not get that much attention’. Nice one Colin, great way to motivate your players there.

Caretaker manager John Pemberton will remain in charge for this Saturday’s FA Cup match against Man City, but yesterday we formally announced what some fans have been dreading, that Billy Davies will take over the reigns from next Monday onwards. Opinion has been divided on this one, possibly because his last club was Derby, but also because his teams have a fairly dour reputation. He is known to be uncompromising, too, but he can be a good motivator and his record at both Preston and Derby is impressive – he guided both to the play-offs in recent years.

I’m fairly happy about his appointment, he seems ambitious but realistic, and I’m sure he will get us organised and motivated. We still need that extra cover in defence, hopefully something will happen during the transfer window, but one way he could ingratiate himself with the fans would be to sign Lee Camp on a more permanent basis, currently his future is undecided although Joel Lynch will be staying for the rest of the season.

There aren’t many transfer rumours doing the rounds at the moment, for now we can concentrate on the FA Cup and our first trip to the City of Manchester Stadium. While Mark Hughes is giving it big about playing a full-strength side, City might be without in-form midfielder Stephen Ireland, and possibly Robinho too. Nedum Onuoha is already ruled out for them. We’ve got a few worries of our own (Bennett and Wilson) but, unlike the Chelsea game a few years ago, I’m hoping that we attack them, and that we’re not scared of big reputations. As Omar once said in The Wire, ‘it’s all in the game, it’s either play or get played’.