Our 2nd season at Nottingham Forest was an absolute dream as we ticked off the objective of winning a domestic cup within 4 seasons and finished in an incredible 5th in the Premier League. But could we build on that success in season 3?
Early in June, we got the announcement that our 5th-place finish would mean the two-times European champions would play in the new-look Champions League format! However, we were nowhere ready to compete in the Champions League.
The summer saw more transfer activity as Remo Freuler decided he wanted to move to a bigger club and joined… Championship side Sheffield United for £18m. We also moved on Morgan Gibbs-White for £16m to Everton, got rid of Chris Wood for £3.4m to Empoli and sold Jesse Lingard to Leeds for £2.8m on deadline day.
We set about strengthening the squad with a new club record signing of winger Ângelo for £20.5m from Santos and fellow wonderkid midfielder Oscar Gloukh for £10.5m from RB Salzburg. We couldn’t get Badiashile back from Chelsea so the priority was a replacement, and we got the ideal one in Ousmane Diomandé, for whom we swiftly rebroke the club record transfer by paying Sporting an initial £26.5m. We then pulled off a bit of a bargain, bringing in Yaser Asprilla for just £700k from Watford. We also had 2 players ready to step up to the first team as midfielder Jovan Sljivic and striker Jovan Mijatovic signed last season and then went back to Serbia on loan. And we added to the midfield with another big-name loanee in Ryan Gravenberch from Bayern.
I didn’t feel any need to change the tactical approach that worked superbly last season. Ângelo comes in on the right with Brennan Johnson moving over to an inverted winger on the left. Gloukh is the starting centre midfielder with Boubakary Soumaré and Gravenberch competing for the playmaker role. And Diomandé steps into Badiashile’s role as the left-sided centre-back next to Anthony Rouault. We also have the more defensive approach for trips to some of the bigger sides.
Tough Start To Season 3
The bookies and media now predicted us to finish 12th this season, with title odds of 200/1. But Man City were 13/8 favourites and we faced them away first up, and the defensive approach very much did not work as Haaland scored twice in a 5-1 hammering. We were much improved in our first game at the City Ground as Lucca, Johnson and substitute Reiss Nelson goals and 2 Ângelo assists on debut downed Bournemouth 3-1, before another poor away performance saw a 1-0 loss to Leicester. So I feared the worst as I selected our defensive approach for a trip to Liverpool, but new boy Gloukh scored his first goals for the club to inspire a shock 2-1 victory.
The start of European football caught up with us a little as players were exhausted, which saw us draw with Brighton, Stoke and Everton. But we got Man City in the Carabao Cup 3rd round, which meant our cup defence was already over, so I threw in the reserves (who only lost 2-1) to rest the first team. And that worked a treat as we thumped Brentford 5-0 led by a Lucca hat-trick and Ângelo’s first goal for the club.
More goals flowed in a wild 5-3 victory at home to West Ham, in which Ângelo racked up a ridiculous 4 assists! The results were a little up and down with a 2-2 draw at home to bottom-side Fulham followed by Gravenberch’s first Forest goal earning a draw with Spurs and a better 2-2 at home to Man UFC. We then trailed 2-0 at half-time at Leeds but a thrown water bottle woke the lads up, Ângelo got us back into it and from 2-1 down after 80 minutes substitutes Cher Ndour and Soumaré then Ângelo’s 2nd sealed a crazy 4-2 win.
That kicked off another tricky December in which Lucca nicked us a point against Newcastle, our first-ever win against Man City then scored twice as a sub as a heavily rotated side somehow scored 6 (SIX!) at mid-table Chelsea! Lucca scored both in a 2-0 win over Brentford but a rotated side lost 3-0 at Stoke. That took us into the new year in 6th place, but only 6 points separate 4th from 10th!
First Taste of the Champions League
Our first Champions League league phase teed up a few tasty fixtures, including trips to Celtic, Napoli, Dortmund and Real Madrid and hosting Barcelona and Monaco.
Forest’s first game in the new-look Champions League format took us north of the border to Celtic. It didn’t start well as Gloukh got injured but a superb counter-attack led to Johnson poking us in front 3 minutes later. And another good move ended with Neco Williams crossing for Lucca to double the lead. Celtic scored their first shot on target but we held on for a big 3 points.
We were away again next as we went to Napoli and conceded twice to Osimhen. However, he was no match for Lucca, who scored a brilliant hat-trick including a 95th-minute penalty to win it! But there was no such luck in the first Champions League match at the City Ground as Lewandowski and Raphinha gained Barca a 2-0 win before a slightly unlucky 2-1 defeat at Dortmund.
København at home was a must-win and our two wonderkids Ângelo and Gloukh delivered a comfortable 2-0 success. And a more impressive performance saw a rotated side beat Monaco 4-1 with Diamondé, Mijatovic and Asprilla scoring their first Forest goals. The first game in the new year was a trip to Santiago Bernabéu, where our defensive approach worked bar a Valverde screamer and injury-time header. The group finished by hosting Benfica and Diomandé, Ângelo and an out-of-form Gloukh sealed an impressive 3-0 win.
Some impressive performances saw us finish 12th in the league phase, only 1 point outside the automatic places, and qualify for the last playoff round.
The playoff round gave us a favourable draw against Shakhtar. The Ukrainians had the better of their home leg but couldn’t find a way bast Elia Caprile and Ângelo headed home the only goal. Shakhtar scored after half an hour in the return leg but then scored an own goal before substitute Asprilla sealed progression late on.
The round of 16 served up possibly the best draw available against Atlético. We started the home leg poorly as Griezmann scored after 7 minutes but Nelson scored 6 minutes later, only for Depay to put them back in front on half an hour. But we played superbly in the 2nd half and got a deserved equaliser as Nelson doubled his tally with a back post header. And against all the odds, Nelson was the hero again in Spain as he scored after 5 minutes and we restricted Atlético to just 6 shots and 1 on target. And we again got the most favorable draw in the quarter-final.
We lost Ângelo to a knock the day before the trip to Italy but Atalanta had Hateboer sent off for a horrible challenge after 4 minutes. And we took full control, having 19 shots to 6 and eventually made it count as Gloukh scored the opener and then created the 2nd for Lucca. Atalanta started the 2nd leg better until we won a penalty that Gloukh missed, but the Israeli finished off a nice move 9 minutes later to make the tie comfortable. And that proved enough to send Nottingham Forest into the Champions League semi-finals!
Things got a lot trickier now as we took on Liverpool. The away leg was up first so we adopted our defensive approach and just about held on as they dominated us by 25 shots to 7. They scored 3 through Salah, En-Nesyri and Gakpo but Lucca got a goal back to give us some hope at home. Liverpool struck twice in the first 20 minutes of the 2nd leg to kill the tie off. But we showed plenty of fight after the break as we came back to earn a 3-3 draw on the night, including Lucca notching his 50th goal for Forest. So the dream ended there, but what a run this has been!
Targeting More European Football
We began 2025 with yet another impressive result against a “top six” side as Mijatiivic scored 14 minutes into a home game against Arsenal, who eventually equalised in injury time. The big man Lucca scored the only goal at Everton then picked up an injury, but his replacement Mijatovic took full advantage with a hat-trick as we thumped Villa 4-1 then the only goal at 2nd-place Newcastle. And that saw Mijatovic become the first Forest player to win Player of the Month in February!
We came into the final 6 games in 6th place, with just 5 points separating 2nd from 7th. But we had an exhausted squad and injuries beginning to stack up, so I had to rotate for a trip to Spurs between the Atalanta games and we got thumped 7-1! Left-back Emanuele Valeri’s first goal for the club nicked a 1-0 win at West Ham and a rotated team beat Leicester 2-0 led by an excellent Sljivic performance.
Johnson and Lucca led a 2-0 win at Brighton, which took us back up to 5th and just 3 points off 2nd-place Newcastle with 2 games to go. We conceded after 25 seconds at Villa but Nelson earned us a point after the break. That took us 4th heading into an exciting final day top 4 fight, in which we could still finish 3rd or 7th! However, we had to play Liverpool at home.
We again got dominated by Liverpool, who strolled to a 2-0 win through Caicedo and Salah. While Chelsea, Spurs and Arsenal all won so we dropped from 4th to 7th on the final day! But this was still a great effort by the lads, finishing in the top 7 above Man UFC despite the European commitments.
Reflecting On Another Season Of Overperformance
I didn’t really expect us to get through the Champions League league phase let alone make it all the way to the semis, although we did get a fair amount of luck with the draw. And we again overperformed all the pre-season predictions in the league.
Our key player was Ângelo, who had a great debut season with 10 goals and a club-high 16 assists and 7.26 average rating. And that won him the English Players’ Young Player of the Year award, as well as winning fans’ player and young player of the year. Lucca again led our scoring charts with 27 in 44, but worryingly only scored twice in the league in the new year, while Gloukh impressed with 11 goals and 5 assists, Nelson got 9 goals and 9 assists and Mijatovic scored 9 in 22. While Valeri was excellent at left-back, racking up 13 assists.
Crucially, the Champions League progression and league finish saw us massively improve the club’s financial position. We’d been in the red all season but finished the campaign with £86m in the bank.
Having completed 3 seasons of the SAF Challenge, we now have 4 seasons to win the Premier League. Could we build on this success again in season 4? Join us next Wednesday to find out!
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