Nottingham Forest great Brian Laws says his former club must develop an identity if they are to ever get to the Premier League.
Laws spent six years at the City Ground as a player before venturing into management with Scunthorpe, Sheffield Wednesday and Burnley.
These days he is a co-commentator for BBC Radio Nottingham, watching regularly as Forest finished 17th in the Championship.
The former right-back says the club's problems on the pitch extend well beyond this season as he called for a period of consistency.
"Would you say Forest had an identity under Brian Clough? If you turned the volume off and didn't know who was playing, 99 percent of the time people would say that's a Clough team, that's a Forest team," he said on this week's Garibaldi Red podcast.
"Do that today and people wouldn't have a clue. They've not had an identity for a long, long time.
"That's the problem. The philosophy has not been allowed to evolve because the turnover in manager has been ridiculous. Ridiculous.
"Managers can't manage anymore. How can they put down their philosophy in a way you want the whole club to follow and you get sacked four months later?
"Unfortunately the game has changed so much. It's just about winning.
"If you win three in a row you're great. If you lose three you're out.
"They've lost an identity for sure. How do you get that back? Stability, trust in people at the club.
"Give ownership to the manager. No manager has had the chance to empower a team to go on.
"I'll give an example in Swansea. They've had an identity for a long time in that they play a set way for a long time, a decade or more.
"The ownership is the club's and they attract managers to fulfil that. That's why they're successful.
"Forest might have to go that way."
