sport news Steve Cooper got Forest back into the top tier and should NOT be sacked trends now
'Twenty one players… they're all f****** s***' was the chant from Bournemouth's away fans when they came from behind to beat Nottingham Forest 3-2 last month.
Such has been the splurging of cash at the City Ground, that number's already out of date.
A total of 22 new players have walked through the doors since my club's return to the Premier League after an absence of more than a quarter of century.
Nottingham Forest sit bottom of the Premier League after losing 4-0 at rivals Leicester City
Pressure is mounting on Forest manager Steve Cooper after the club bought 22 new players
Jesse Lingard - one of the 22 new recruits - cuts a frustrated figure during Monday's thrashing
Twenty-two players in three months.
Supporters were gobsmacked at the level of spending … Forest spent more in those 12 weeks than they'd shelled out in their previous 157-year history.
The transfer-fee record was being smashed on a weekly basis as an array of talent arrived.
Some got carried away with it, which I guess was understandable given how alien this was to the majority of Forest fans. Talk of challenging for Europe, even top four being achievable … but amidst the hyperbole and hysteria, the voices of reason, those speaking common sense and advocating caution, a football reality check, were drowned out.
So, it's depressingly inevitable, yet hugely frustrating, that Forest now find themselves being crushed by a ludicrous expectation by some of the fanbase and, from all accounts, the current owners.
Make no mistake, Evangelos Marinakis has not only dipped into his sizeable pockets to invest in a Premier League squad, he's done the equivalent of Ebeneezer Scrooge on Christmas morning after his overnight epiphany - £140m and counting.
But when you're spending more than some of Europe's elite and you happen to be the new kid on the block (albeit with a rich and glorious history from a bygone age), you'd better hope results go your way.
Because as Steve Cooper's finding out, delivering Forest to the promised land arguably two or three years ahead of schedule, reuniting the club with its fanbase and leaving an indelible mark as the only Reds manager to come close to touching Clough's genius, probably counts for nothing when you lose five on the spin in the toughest league in the world.
Forest owner Evangelos Marinakis has spent lavishly and expected a better return on the pitch
Forget Forest are playing catch up … and I don't mean a couple of places off the grid after a slow start. I'm talking about being almost 25 years behind established Premier League clubs. Forest broke through the ceiling when they got promoted, they upset the established status quo of the yo-yo clubs who bounce up and down courtesy of the shamefully unfair parachute payments.
And they did it thanks to Steve Cooper.
But
