ForestFanBase
Well Aitor Karanka cannot complain that he hasn’t been backed in the transfer market this summer. Furthermore there is a distinct change in the way Forest have done business. They have identified problems, their targets and gone out and got them all without too much drama in a focused, determined fashion that shows we finally mean business. We’ve dumped players without hesitation and gone out and been able to convince the ones we’ve been after that Forest are a club on a mission and the place for them. There’s a ‘project’ they can believe in and the Forest way might once again have a real meaning as intended.
Karanka has enlisted the help of Guedioura, Lolley and others in his recruitment drive and their testimonies have gone a long way to enlist new recruits, totally overhauling the squad and transform the team that is likely to take to the field for the first game at Bristol City in a few days time. There might be very few familiar faces in that team after the axe has been swung so viciously by Karanka to make a team that is fit for purpose. Whilst shocking initially the supporters and hopefully the personnel involved can now feel a little more comfortable with how the cards have been played. Sometimes you have to be cruel to be kind and although Karanka said it at the time it was hard to accept. Time however is a great healer and now the dust has settled a little those decisions seem a little less brutal and reasoned than they might have done initially. Change, especially on the scale required at Forest, is never easy.
The truth is there’s only one person whose opinion matters and that is the managers. He has his vision, he has the inside track and all the info available to decide what is required to do the job and build the team he wants. It’s a jigsaw puzzle and the individual parts don’t really matter as long as everything fits together and the overall picture is what is expected. All the signs are he has the vision required and is making sense. You can never tell, momentum can change and it’s a vital part of every team but so far everything and everyone is pushing in the same direction and singing from the same hymn sheet.
I’ll cover the signings in another post but the most important thing for Forest supporters now is to remember that it won’t be easy. Nothing worth achieving ever is. Relish it though. Enjoy the battle because you cannot enjoy the victory if it is easy. Relish every bump and bruise we have to take and back the team with more resolution. The winners are the ones who respond best to adversity when it comes as it surely will. The supporters have to be the one player money cannot buy, the 12th man that will make The City Ground a fortress again and a team to be feared on the road. We have to be patient. Let’s treat this season as a warm up, expect nothing and hope we might be pleasantly surprised. See what comes but let’s just stretch our limbs ready for next season when we will only be better. Who knows what lies ahead of us. However good the signs might be things can turn out differently to what we expect as we should be only too aware. Let’s resolve to enjoy this season, recapture our love of not only the team but the whole club which we can now feel more genuinely proud of. Success will come if we keep making strides in the right direction but first and foremost we need to trust Karanka, have the patience of saints and give him all the time in the world to put his jigsaw together. By doing so we will be giving him the best chance to do his job and give us what we crave.
