What Posters Were Saying About Our Summer Signings

[Sniffer Dog (Admin)]

I think this is very interesting. It's a list of comments from posters of this forum that were made during the summer transfer window. There has been a lot of criticism of our owners and recruitement recently so this is just a reminder of what some were saying just a few weeks/months ago. I won't name the posters:

With this squad and manager now, if we aren't in the top 6 by Christmas, then the club is cursed.

Top 6 and have a good go at automatically going up.

Top 6 Bookies running scared already.

Great recruitment.

Wow. What a fab transfer window.

Forest really have put together an excellent squad of players.

Mckenna, Arter, Colback, Freeman, Grosicki (assuming ok), Knockaert, Taylor. I probably would've taken one of these before the window. What a fantastic window, best in my memory. 

Get this lot clicking and we could have a hell of a side at this level.

If someone said on this forum 2 months ago that we will have McKenna, Arter, Freeman and Knockaert in our team he would have been laughed off the forum.

It's clear the quality of the team/squad has increased following this window. 

Probably the best window we've had that I can remember, certainly in recent times.

Knockaert will do for me announce Hughtons promotion party.

Best chance of promotion in years.

This has been the most remarkable transfer window for a very long time.

Arter, Colback, Freeman, McKenna, Taylor, Christie, Blackett. If anyone had told me after the Stoke match we would sell Cash but get these I'd have said you are one step from the looney bin.

We are, in my opinion, a winger short of having the best team in the division by a mile. (Before the signing of Knockaert).

If Sabri can't get this squad firing on all cylinders then somebody else certainly will.

Colback and Arter have 300 prem appearances between them. That's the type of quality you need. This recruitment is far more encouraging.

Colback arter freeman and lolley name a better midfield in championship?

Harry Arter is a classy signing for us.

Arter is an excellent signing. Very happy about this.

This is the best squad we have had since the 90s now no question.

Could be one of our greatest seasons ever.

Personally I`d love to see the club sign Arter.

Excellent signing . Fair play to the owners and the manager , real statement of intent (Soh).

Really happy with the summer business. 

Im absolutely chuffed with our business so far.

Really pleased with this one. A very good summer in the transfer window so far (Freeman).

Silva can go for me... good player but we have better in Freeman when he arrives.

Surely Taylor freeman and colback are all upgrades.

Fouad I reckon is going to be decent.

Recruitment is starting to get boxing smart for this division. A much more robust and thoughtful approach. I like what I've seen so far.

Fingers crossed we get the Cypriot lad.

Happy with Freeman. Good signings so far.

Colback and freeman in midfield isnt bad at all!

Now were talking, Freeman and Taylor added to the final third, now were getting serious. 

[wassy04]

I thought no-one wanted these players though?

Clearly was a majority of people even if Username and widdow didn't want some of them.

[PsychoStanleyStone]

Get this lot clicking and we could have a hell of a side at this level.

[Sniffer Dog (Admin)]

To be fair to Widdow none of the comments were made by him.

However some of the comments were made by posters who are now slagging off our players and recruitment/owners.

[ThePromisedLand]

Ok. So where is the problem?
Cos something ain’t right!

[Sniffer Dog (Admin)]

Ok. So where is the problem?
Cos something ain’t right!

Yes, I saw you ask that on another thread TPL.

I'm sorry I can't answer that.

[Alf]

Folk got well carried away with the hype.

I wouldn't say I was in that bracket, I was chuffed with Taylor but didn't think we signed spectacularly.

Freeman & Colback are two players who I expected more from, but their fitness is well behind, and you could see that on Colback's gut when he signed & modelled the new shirt. I still wouldn't have let Watson go, even with Colback arriving. I'd see that as 2 players covering 1 position well.

The other side of the coin is the players we've let go, and the manager we've employed. e.g. Christie is a decent/good attacking fullback for a manager like Warbs. The quality of the squad has naturally dipped significantly because of the key players who were playing last year now not playing.

Ultimately the club should know more than the fans though Sniff. That's why people get paid fortunes to do a job there.

[Sniffer Dog (Admin)]

You see, there is something there I don't agree with Alf.

The players we let go. I presume you are talking about Cash and Watson right?

Well in my opinion we didn't 'let' any of them go. Once Cash reached PL standard and PL teams came sniffing there was absolutely no way that we could keep him, it was impossible. Watson, we offered him a deal but he wanted to go back to London to be with his family, he was out of contract and wouldn't sign another so how could we have kept him? We couldn't.

[ThePromisedLand]

Ok. So where is the problem?
Cos something ain’t right!

Yes, I saw you ask that on another thread TPL.

I'm sorry I can't answer that.

So Vrentzos could be part of the problem?

[Sniffer Dog (Admin)]

Ok. So where is the problem?
Cos something ain’t right!

Yes, I saw you ask that on another thread TPL.

I'm sorry I can't answer that.

So Vrentzos could be part of the problem?

No, sorry I wasn't very clear. I meant that I don't know. In my opinion everything is in place for us to be up there challenging but for some reason it's just not happening. It's a mystery to me.

[Alf]

You see, there is something there I don't agree with Alf.

The players we let go. I presume you are talking about Cash and Watson right?

Well in my opinion we didn't 'let' any of them go. Once Cash reached PL standard and PL teams came sniffing there was absolutely no way that we could keep him, it was impossible. Watson, we offered him a deal but he wanted to go back to London to be with his family, he was out of contract and wouldn't sign another so how could we have kept him? We couldn't.

I think we had a chance of keeping both, far less so with Cash obv, but my point was really that with all those players not available this year, we were a significantly weaker squad. So even if we'd made some great additions, we weren't gonna be particularly much strong.

My original assessment of this window was that it was more of a side-step than a step forward, but with undoubted MUCH needed progress & depth in the frontline.

The real crime for me was not capitalizing on the momentum we had last year, by signing well in Jan.

[Salvatore Matrecano]

I do like quoting myself! Here are my comments made back in the summer about our recruitment.

Its like the penny finally dropped we werent going to do it with Portuguese 19 Yr olds so everyone we sign now has to have bags of experience and be the wrong side of 30.

I worry about lack of pace too which was an issue last year and still to be addressed.

The only issue is collectively we are not investing in youth, the average age of the squad will be much higher and as has been said very little sell on opportunity so if we do need FFP help this time next year it will yet again be up to the academy to provide it.

just the 43 permanent and 18 loan signings for Nottingham Forest since June 2017.
I would say this is more of an issue than the manger. Changing manager in itself adds to this problem as they build their own teams and so this and the associated costs spiral. Yet still we think we need even more players.

I want to see some evidence of lessons being learned Sniffer. Granted we seem to have stopped getting kids from the Mendes stable and buying someone on the strength of knocking in a few goalsin Bulgaria. But in terms of the sheer turnover of playing staff it remains madness.

And when it doesnt work we will have a new manager inheriting a playing squad of 38, many over 30 Years old and past their best on big wages. New manager wants his own players, “Hey, Gary, who can we flog from academy to fund it all this year?”