The Marinakis Manifesto

[Uwantlee]

The club is in a far better place now than it was under fawaz I dont think anyone could argue with that fact.

Appointing ch is what we have been asking for, an experienced championship manager who knows English football. The signings have included championship experience which we have asked for. I did say most were not sabri choices. And whilst I still believe we have signed too many players and have an unbalanced squad, I also believe we have the best manager to deal with it.

Let the manager be the manager and work with the players. Back him with his signings in january. Stop bringing in overseas nobodies and olympiacos cast offs.

It's time for the people running the club to communicate with the fans on all things forest.

[Squarered]

I also think that we could do with better communication with fans. Are some key communication staff furloughed?
I read recently that Forza Garibaldi have had no recent contact from the club. Given the excellent work they have done this is sad to hear. I certainly thought this ownership had taken big strides in re-engaging with fan groups and supporters after Fawaz. I'm not asking for weekly statements, and obviously on the pitch takes priority but when did we last hear from Nick Randall or anyone?

[Widdow]

Now to be clear, this is the only interview that our owner has done for the club in England in 3.5 years of owning us.


 
Evangelos Marinakis has done one interview since taking over Forest, and that was back in 2017,  where he spelt out his vision for Nottingham Forest in his first Forest interview with BBC.

Marinakis told the BBC "We have a long-term plan and within this long-term plan we want to bring Nottingham to where it belongs. And of course, Nottingham belongs in the Premier League. And Nottingham belongs to the elite of the Premier League," he says "Furthermore the supporters of Nottingham have been tired all these years, they didn't have such good times. But they remained loyal and for us that's very important. "The potential is huge. The potential of this team is that when it will be very well organised, when it will achieve victories again, when it will have a better position in the Championship, when it will have a better position and we can look seriously at the Premier League, then we will be there to stay."

The Marinakis manifesto was……

1. Return "stability" to a club with "huge potential" which "belongs to the elite of the Premier League”!
   
2. Not make rash pledges, saying: "I never give promises - I deliver."
   
3. Back Mark Warburton and says he will work within EFL financial rules to support him in the transfer market.
   
4. Formulate a 'fans advisory body' and 'youth council' with a representative attending board meetings.
   
5. Reduce ticket prices to reward fan loyalty.
   
6. Improve the City Ground
   
   

Well after 3.5 years, what has been done?
 

1. 3 years in Championship, not even made play offs, and now in a relegation battle again.
   
2. He doesn’t make “official” promises but the club also hasn’t delivered yet – perhaps it’s time to make promises.
   

Of the “unofficial” promises that were made,  - new state-of-art training ground - Champs Lg facilities in 5 years - playing in Europe in 5 years - Miracle Gates (announced Sep ‘17) to do all you can to go up straight away - club would act in all cases ‘with values of old school Arsenal’ Then nothing can be further from the truth

1. 3. Well, he didn’t support Mark, he soon sacked him, and Sabri was certainly not supported, even from a position of strength like last January. During their tenure at the club, we have made more in transfer fees than we have spent, so yes worked within FFP, but the side is simply not good enough, and now we have Chris Hughton to please, and to me they are supporting him with signings like Knockeart, but other targets remain a worry IMO

1. 4.This didn’t happen, I for one would love to have a meeting with them.  

1. 5. Reduced ticket prices, then put them up, then messed up on refunds.

1. 6.Yes, tidied City Ground up, gave it a lick of paint renamed hospitality spots, but still waiting on the new stand, which seems a promise that won’t be fulfilled. To me a perfect time to build the new stand ready for when fans can return.

I am a worried supporter of Nottingham Forest, and fear the way the club is being run, means we won’t have a club in the future, and at the moment, not many fans (including me) are proud of how things are going on and off the pitch, and we are dangerously close to League one rather than Premier League.

When will more fans ask the CEO, why haven't you delivered on The Marinakis manifesto ?

[optimistic_red]

I haven't given up on Marinakis yet, and I still believe that we are in a better place than under Fawaz or many other club owners.
In 3.5 years he hasn't done everything he said, but that doesn't mean it won't happen.
I also think the job is harder than he expected, does that mean he has given up, I don't think so. There are signs he is learning. Sure it's not all perfect but it's far from doom and gloom.

[ThePromisedLand]

Now to be clear, this is the only interview that our owner has done for the club in England in 3.5 years of owning us.


 
Evangelos Marinakis has done one interview since taking over Forest, and that was back in 2017,  where he spelt out his vision for Nottingham Forest in his first Forest interview with BBC.

Marinakis told the BBC "We have a long-term plan and within this long-term plan we want to bring Nottingham to where it belongs. And of course, Nottingham belongs in the Premier League. And Nottingham belongs to the elite of the Premier League," he says "Furthermore the supporters of Nottingham have been tired all these years, they didn't have such good times. But they remained loyal and for us that's very important. "The potential is huge. The potential of this team is that when it will be very well organised, when it will achieve victories again, when it will have a better position in the Championship, when it will have a better position and we can look seriously at the Premier League, then we will be there to stay."

The Marinakis manifesto was……

1. Return "stability" to a club with "huge potential" which "belongs to the elite of the Premier League”!
   
2. Not make rash pledges, saying: "I never give promises - I deliver."
   
3. Back Mark Warburton and says he will work within EFL financial rules to support him in the transfer market.
   
4. Formulate a 'fans advisory body' and 'youth council' with a representative attending board meetings.
   
5. Reduce ticket prices to reward fan loyalty.
   
6. Improve the City Ground
   
   

Well after 3.5 years, what has been done?
 

1. 3 years in Championship, not even made play offs, and now in a relegation battle again.
   
2. He doesn’t make “official” promises but the club also hasn’t delivered yet – perhaps it’s time to make promises.
   

Of the “unofficial” promises that were made,  - new state-of-art training ground - Champs Lg facilities in 5 years - playing in Europe in 5 years - Miracle Gates (announced Sep ‘17) to do all you can to go up straight away - club would act in all cases ‘with values of old school Arsenal’ Then nothing can be further from the truth

1. 3. Well, he didn’t support Mark, he soon sacked him, and Sabri was certainly not supported, even from a position of strength like last January. During their tenure at the club, we have made more in transfer fees than we have spent, so yes worked within FFP, but the side is simply not good enough, and now we have Chris Hughton to please, and to me they are supporting him with signings like Knockeart, but other targets remain a worry IMO

1. 4.This didn’t happen, I for one would love to have a meeting with them.  

1. 5. Reduced ticket prices, then put them up, then messed up on refunds.

1. 6.Yes, tidied City Ground up, gave it a lick of paint renamed hospitality spots, but still waiting on the new stand, which seems a promise that won’t be fulfilled. To me a perfect time to build the new stand ready for when fans can return.

I am a worried supporter of Nottingham Forest, and fear the way the club is being run, means we won’t have a club in the future, and at the moment, not many fans (including me) are proud of how things are going on and off the pitch, and we are dangerously close to League one rather than Premier League.

When will more fans ask the CEO, why haven't you delivered on The Marinakis manifesto ?

Gives me zero pleasure in agreeing with the above sentiments.

[ThePromisedLand]

I haven't given up on Marinakis yet, and I still believe that we are in a better place than under Fawaz or many other club owners.
In 3.5 years he hasn't done everything he said, but that doesn't mean it won't happen.
I also think the job is harder than he expected, does that mean he has given up, I don't think so. There are signs he is learning. Sure it's not all perfect but it's far from doom and gloom.

Where are the signs OR? Genuine question - I am genuinely, desperate for our owners to make a success of it. 

I’m just not seeing it.

Give me confidence - or at least something concrete to hang on to - that my fears are ill founded.

[Salvatore Matrecano]

Whilst I agree there has been much over promising and under delivering I think there is a real danger of being careful what you wish for. EM has invested millions and he wants a return which is PL football. If he thinks this is unachievable and that his efforts are increasingly unappreciated then could he walk away?

If that happens I genuinely think it could be a disaster, too many clubs are failing right now and in the current climate there is definitely not a queue of prospective owners wanting to take on such a project. These owners have to stay, i just hope they are belatedly starting to learn what is needed to succeed here.

[Paplane]

I haven't given up on Marinakis yet, and I still believe that we are in a better place than under Fawaz or many other club owners.
In 3.5 years he hasn't done everything he said, but that doesn't mean it won't happen.
I also think the job is harder than he expected, does that mean he has given up, I don't think so. There are signs he is learning. Sure it's not all perfect but it's far from doom and gloom.

Where are the signs OR? Genuine question - I am genuinely, desperate for our owners to make a success of it. 

I’m just not seeing it.

Give me confidence - or at least something concrete to hang on to - that my fears are ill founded.

Can I offer a few:

1) Desperately tried hard NOT to fire another coach in Sabri at the end of last season and only did so when it was clear to all that he had to go.
2) Took advice from Sabri in the summer and changed the approach to signings from cheap foreign players to british based ones.
3) Hired a new coach and appointed him the 'manager' and seems to have given him autonomy to make the decisions he feels is right
4) There's annecdotal evidence that Vrentzos was out of control and now annecdotal evidence that he seems to have been reigned in a bit
5) The talents of Gary Brazil have eventually been realised and he seems to have an influcne over much more than the academy these days

So Optimistic_red is right, we shouldn't blow Marinakis away yet. I too can see green shoots of positivity.

[wassy04]

I haven't given up on Marinakis yet, and I still believe that we are in a better place than under Fawaz or many other club owners.
In 3.5 years he hasn't done everything he said, but that doesn't mean it won't happen.
I also think the job is harder than he expected, does that mean he has given up, I don't think so. There are signs he is learning. Sure it's not all perfect but it's far from doom and gloom.

Where are the signs OR? Genuine question - I am genuinely, desperate for our owners to make a success of it. 

I’m just not seeing it.

Give me confidence - or at least something concrete to hang on to - that my fears are ill founded.

Can I offer a few:

1) Desperately tried hard NOT to fire another coach in Sabri at the end of last season and only did so when it was clear to all that he had to go.
2) Took advice from Sabri in the summer and changed the approach to signings from cheap foreign players to british based ones.
3) Hired a new coach and appointed him the 'manager' and seems to have given him autonomy to make the decisions he feels is right
4) There's annecdotal evidence that Vrentzos was out of control and now annecdotal evidence that he seems to have been reigned in a bit
5) The talents of Gary Brazil have eventually been realised and he seems to have an influcne over much more than the academy these days

So Optimistic_red is right, we shouldn't blow Marinakis away yet. I too can see green shoots of positivity.

I like this post, made me feel better. Worth pointing out the anecdotal evidence on Vrentzos even came from DT too.

I definitely agree it will be difficult to find replacement owners right now and with the pandemic they will be required to cover much higher losses so we need to keep them sweet!

[Paplane]

Whilst I agree there has been much over promising and under delivering I think there is a real danger of being careful what you wish for. EM has invested millions and he wants a return which is PL football. If he thinks this is unachievable and that his efforts are increasingly unappreciated then could he walk away?

If that happens I genuinely think it could be a disaster, too many clubs are failing right now and in the current climate there is definitely not a queue of prospective owners wanting to take on such a project. These owners have to stay, i just hope they are belatedly starting to learn what is needed to succeed here.

You only have to look down the road to see what happens when an owner gets fed up with pumping 30 million quid into a club every year. They come out with all the shite about doing the best for the club but at the end of the day they just want rid and sell to the first person that will pay them. As with Mad Mel, a Derby fan, Nigel Doughty had his fill too and walked from his own club, leaving us all in the shite before his sad and untimely demise.

So when talking about EM, ask yourself who is going to come in, take these massive costs on the chin, turn the club around and make life great again? It is a venture capitalist looking to make a few quid quickly, or a proven football man with experience of running a successful football club elswhere?

[Sniffer Dog (Admin)]

A venture capitalist just like those Yanks were who were interested.

[optimistic_red]

I haven't given up on Marinakis yet, and I still believe that we are in a better place than under Fawaz or many other club owners.
In 3.5 years he hasn't done everything he said, but that doesn't mean it won't happen.
I also think the job is harder than he expected, does that mean he has given up, I don't think so. There are signs he is learning. Sure it's not all perfect but it's far from doom and gloom.

Where are the signs OR? Genuine question - I am genuinely, desperate for our owners to make a success of it. 

I’m just not seeing it.

Give me confidence - or at least something concrete to hang on to - that my fears are ill founded.

Can I offer a few:

1) Desperately tried hard NOT to fire another coach in Sabri at the end of last season and only did so when it was clear to all that he had to go.
2) Took advice from Sabri in the summer and changed the approach to signings from cheap foreign players to british based ones.
3) Hired a new coach and appointed him the 'manager' and seems to have given him autonomy to make the decisions he feels is right
4) There's annecdotal evidence that Vrentzos was out of control and now annecdotal evidence that he seems to have been reigned in a bit
5) The talents of Gary Brazil have eventually been realised and he seems to have an influcne over much more than the academy these days

So Optimistic_red is right, we shouldn't blow Marinakis away yet. I too can see green shoots of positivity.

Thanks PAP, quicker at responding.

Things always feel bad after a big loss, made worse that we are all just stuck indoors and can't go to the game.