Tis like the Liverpool lads singing The Fields.
We sing what we want
That’s a fair amount of EPT
Welcome to the bigtime MGW
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Will they fit him and Johnson in the same team? This is a huge gamble
Depth 
Jlingz iz a liability out there
Was septic today
Also though, MGW cameo was other-worldly, a bargain at 25*
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Yates made a difference also could have won it at the end
Need Niakate back we’re short of pace at the back
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Steve Coopers Forest are ruffling a few feathers. Clough’s team did the same thing one time. The old fogies don’t like that
Henderson is quality though nothing easy will get past him
Best keeper in football
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Worrall didn’t have a great back end to last season, and his limitations at centre back were again exposed today. Decided not to track Gray for Everton equaliser and then gave Gordon a present of a chance only for Henderson to save his blushes. A couple of suicidal headers straight to Everton players in his own box in the first half too. It’s three poor performances from three games for our club captain. I’m not one for dropping players immediately, but Cooper defo needs to have a word and the work will have to be put in.
It was definitely two points dropped today. They were there for the taking. Their goal was schoolboy stuff from us. Hope Mangala’s injury isn’t severe cause he’s been a great find.
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An excellent article from The Athletic that I’ve copied and pasted for you all to read….a good explainer as to why we can get away with spending so much.
Why Nottingham Forest can spend more than most Premier League rivals this summer….
Nottingham Forest’s transfer spend this summer is, give or take the odd pound, now up in the region of £140million. Or, put another way, more than the entire expenditure of the Eredivisie, the Dutch top flight, in the same window.
Sixteen signings have been made following the addition of Morgan Gibbs-White from Wolverhampton Wanderers this week. The winger is the latest — and most costly — purchase in a deal potentially worth £42.5million ($50.3million) when including a series of add-ons.
Gibbs-White joins a small army of new signings sanctioned by Forest head coach Steve Cooper this summer. The squad that won promotion through the Championship play-offs in May has been overhauled, with sentiment as scarce as continuity. Only three of the starting XI that beat West Ham United last weekend have been with Forest for more than eight weeks.
Promotion-winning squads have been dismantled and rebuilt before, but rarely at this cost. Forest’s outlay is comfortably more than that of the other two newly promoted clubs — Fulham and Bournemouth — combined. Chelsea (for now, at least) are the only Premier League club to have spent more.
Barcelona, who keep finding new financial levers to pull, are broadly on a par with Forest’s summer spending, but Real Madrid, Paris Saint-Germain and Bayern Munich have all committed less money to strengthening their squads — now there is a sentence Forest fans might not have expected to read 12 months ago when preparing for a 23rd season outside of English football’s top flight.
The question is how, in an era of financial fair play (FFP) forcing deliberations upon Everton and Newcastle United this summer, Forest have been able to spend like few others.
It is an enormous investment signed off by Evangelos Marinakis, the club’s majority shareholder. Although the club’s turnover will be transformed by the Premier League’s riches, the money committed to signings alone has already accounted for the estimated TV income for 2022-23. A dramatic spike in wages, including the £110,000 a week paid to England international Jesse Lingard, will almost inevitably bring losses on the club’s return to the Premier League.
“As we seek to build a squad capable of competing at the highest level, (Marinakis’) commitment is evident for all to see,” said chairman Nicholas Randall in a letter to supporters before the City Ground’s first Premier League fixture since 1999 last weekend. “He has been a model owner of the club and has always supported us with the necessary resources and more to achieve our goals.”
Forest will say the latest spend is a necessary roll of the dice to secure the rewards that come with extended stays in the Premier League. Reaching the top flight has been estimated to be worth £170million when including the promise of parachute payments. Avoid relegation for a season and that climbs to £300million.
But this cavalier approach is understood to have upset some guests at the party they have finally joined.
The Athletic has heard concerns from the mid-table Premier League clubs that Nottingham Forest have distorted the market this summer. Wages have been driven up by this ambitious newcomer and targets have subsequently come up with greater demands. The signing of Gibbs-White on a lucrative five-year deal will have done little to redress the balance.
Forest have also cast the net far and wide in their recruitment. Even with the 16 new signings, there have been talks with representatives of plenty more. Premier League rivals have since found those players have skewed expectations when it comes to bargaining for a summer move.
Not that Forest will care. They are not here to make up the numbers. Like Aston Villa in the summer of 2019 and Leeds United a year later, vast sums are being spent to mitigate the risk of relegation.
“Forest had a lot of players who left and they’ve had to rebuild the squad,” says Dr Dan Plumley, a sports finance expert and lecturer at Sheffield Hallam University. “Their issue is not just being in the Premier League, but trying to compete and stay in it to guarantee themselves another £100million next year. That’s the risk and reward.
“The risk is that if you get relegated, you’re left with parachute payments back in the Championship. It’s a risk clubs are willing to take and that’s what’s happening at Forest this summer.”
For all Forest have invited accusations of recklessness with their spending this summer, they will maintain they have come this far without jeopardising the club’s financial well-being.
“It is a matter of pride that promotion was achieved without the benefit of parachute payments and after full compliance with all FFP rules in the Championship,” said Randall.
It will be the Premier League’s financial regulations that Forest must now satisfy come spring.
As an EFL club in 2020-21 and 2021-22, Forest will not be able to exceed permitted losses of £61million for the latest three-year accounting period. Clubs that have been in the Premier League for three seasons are allowed losses of up to £105million — or £35million per year — but for both of Forest’s past two years as a Championship club, that is reduced by £22million.
The huge investment of this summer could bring losses once the accounts for 2022-23 are published, but FFP calculations are far more nuanced. Clubs are permitted to exclude infrastructure costs and academy costs when filing FFP numbers, meaning Forest could lose far more than £61million in their accounts yet still comfortably comply.
Fees for this season’s recruits will also not appear nearly as bold when their transfer fees are amortised (spread over the number of years in the player’s contract).
Take the £17million fee paid to sign Neco Williams from Liverpool. That will be spread out across the duration of his four-year contract, ensuring that only £4.25million of that fee appears in the 2022-23 FFP calculations. The same will apply to Gibbs-White, Taiwo Awoniyi and Emmanuel Dennis, all signed on long-term deals.
By spreading the cost of the players they’ve signed over a long period, with long contracts, that’s one way of addressing FFP,” says Kieran Maguire, co-host of the Price of Football podcast.
“They’ll probably have some losses this season, but if you look back at how much Villa spent in their first season back in the Premier League or how much Fulham (in 2018-19) spent or Leeds (in 2020-21), they were all huge spenders but it just wasn’t spread over 16 players.
“Next summer, you’d think it would be a lot quieter for Forest. There was an element of necessity in the Forest squad with the number out of contract or on loan deals.
“They had to increase the size of the squad and there’s no point going for a load of free transfers because you’ll end up like Norwich and back in the Championship.”
COVID-19 also plays its part in Forest’s ability to spend. The Premier League allows any losses directly caused by the pandemic to be discounted from FFP calculations. Forest have previously said that the adverse impact of COVID-19 was £16.7million across 2019-20 and 2020-21.
Those two campaigns are also considered one big season for FFP purposes to account for the cost of COVID-19, with the financial result being an average of the two. Forest’s accounts showed an average pre-tax loss of £15.7million for 2019-20 and 2020-21, an improvement on the £25million lost in 2018-19.
By the time the Premier League assesses Forest’s FFP status at the end of this season, it will be considering the 2019-20 and 2020-21 seasons as one, as well as the 2021-22 Championship campaign and the one that has just begun in the Premier League. Forest’s financial performances for those are not yet known, but the revenue of £18.4million for their last set of accounts in 2020-21 will likely increase by seven- or eight-fold, with broadcast revenue alone topping £100million this season.
Forest’s wage bill — £37million for 2020-21 — will have soared this summer. Lingard alone is thought to be commanding an annual salary of about £6million on his one-year deal.
The hope will be that some of that increase is soon offset by a lucrative shirt sponsorship deal that is still being negotiated. Forest’s total commercial revenue in 2020-21 was just £5.6million, but the income from a new sponsor — which will replace BOXT — could exceed that on its own now they have a Premier League audience. Never has so much money left the club, but nor have such numbers come in.
Before Marinakis’ arrival, Forest had found themselves in hot water for breaking FFP regulations. They, along with Fulham and Bolton Wanderers, were given a transfer embargo for breaches of the EFL’s FFP rules in 2014-15. That was when Forest were toiling in their attempts to escape the Championship under Fawaz Al-Hasawi. Marinakis has provided a new direction, but it has needed hefty financial support. Losses of £62million have been incurred since the Greek shipping magnate took charge, with loans written off to stem those.
“He’s underwritten losses of about £400,000 a week, year in and year out,” says Maguire. “He’s built up the squad over that period and that has allowed them to get into this position in the first place. The owner does not want guaranteed relegation now.”
Marinakis’ financial support has been crucial in Forest coming this far and this record-breaking summer underlines there is no intention from the owner to stop now.
“If Forest have spent £100million, then that’s effectively their TV money for the season covered,” says Plumley.
“You would imagine at some stage they’ll have to reassess that strategy and if they do stay up, with another £100million coming in, you could shape it from there. I’m sure they’re planning for all scenarios but it’s unlikely that they’d be looking to spend so heavily again in the next three years, even if they do stay up.”
Bullet Points?
Bullet points are for primary school teachers.
Correct