It was great to see Nottingham Forest announce that their latest sponsorship deal with Football Index was the biggest yet for the football club.
I think it’s another sign of the great work being done at the club to make it more attractive to outside investment, and with the plans we’ve seen for the redevelopment of the City Ground, things are certainly heading in the right direction – there’s reason for us all to be excited.
If we think back a few years, Forest were unable to find a sponsor when Fawaz Al Hasawi owned the club because we had his named splashed across the shirts for quite a while, so you can see progress and very good progress is being made to drag it into the modern era.
That’s the case off the pitch, but really all that matters is what we see happen on it and those behind the scenes will be acutely aware of that.
At the moment, the squad we’ve got doesn’t contain enough players good enough to fill those shirts and that’s something I expect Martin O’Neill to try and remedy over the next few weeks.
In truth, it’s not just this season, is it?
For too long now, Forest have flattered to deceive and their squad hasn’t been good enough – if it was, we wouldn’t find ourselves in this situation time and time again.
Two decades without Premier League football tells its own story and the key now is to get the right players to wear the shirt.
That’s not an easy task, and there are some good players in the squad that Martin inherited from Aitor Karanka in January, but if the Reds are to end this desperate wait for top flight action, then the work the club does this summer has to be well thought out, smart and ultimately, provide quality players in key areas, to give us a better chance next term.
