Sir Alex Ferguson Challenge | Part 8 | Building A Forest Dynasty

Nottingham Forest bagged back-to-back Premier League titles in what was probably one of the worst seasons in terms of quality but certainly delivered final-day excitement. That said, I was worried about a lack of attacking threat, which I prioritised addressing in the summer of 2029.

My solution to our attacking challenge was to… go more attacking… not exactly groundbreaking! I firmly believed we already had the potential talent within our ranks, so we only brought in a couple of young prospects after I decided to sell last season’s top scorer Amílcar Silva to Brighton for £25m.

In his place, we’re going to two up front with Luís Pereira leading the line alongside Benjamin Byrvang with backup from Bastian Ayala. Lassaad Kadri is moving from left-back to left-wing, where he’ll compete with Ivanildo Gomes and Reiss Nelson, with Danilo, who’s the only player still at the club from the first season, and Dário Essugo controlling the midfield. And the attack was further boosted by the arrival of striker Markus Grimm for £58m from Dortmund in January.

2nd Title Defence

We’re still only predicted to finish 8th in the Premier League with title odds of 25/1. European champions Chelsea remain favourites at just 10/11 followed by Man City (13/2), Newcastle (11/1), Liverpool and Arsenal (13/1) and Man UFC (14/1). The new formation got its first outing in the Community Shield against FA Cup winners Fulham. And it began well as Pereira scored twice between Gomes and Jevon Simons goals in a 4-0 victory.

Our league campaign began at home to Southampton and we looked again in a 3-0 win with goals from Byrvang, Simons and Pereira, who then bagged a hat-trick in our first away day at rivals Leicester and another in a 6-2 thumping of Brighton. So it looked like the more offensive approach was working.

That kicked off an impressive run of form through to December, in which our only dropped points were a defeat at Liverpool and a draw at home to Chelsea. That included the improving Gomes scoring his first career hat-trick in a 4-1 win at Norwich and Pereira scoring twice to match last season’s top scorer Amílcar’s 20 goals for the season in a 4-0 win over Sheffield United in late November. A 3-2 loss at undefeated Man City saw us 2nd but a strong December, which finished with Pereira scoring twice in a 3-1 at Man UFC, took us two points clear going into 2030.

We started the new year well, including Grimm scoring a debut hat-trick in a 4-1 hammering of Man UFC then a brace in a 4-2 win over Leicester, to move seven points clear. A Byrvang hat-trick led a 5-3 win at Sheff U before Gomes and Grimm earned a 2-1 win over City. But our nearest challenger was Liverpool, who moved within two points – despite us surpassing last season’s title-winning tally of last season with six games remaining. A Pereira double led a 3-0 win over Newcastle and moved us seven points clear of Liverpool, whose 2-0 defeat at Arsenal saw the Gunners hand us the title again!

We finished the season with 92 points and 94 goals, which was 15 and 31 more than last season. Pereira scored an impressive 37 league goals, which was ridiculously bettered by Haaland’s 44! Johnny O’Hanlon topped the assists chart with 16 followed by Byrvang’s 11.

2nd Carabao Cup Final

We also saw improved performances in the cups, including reaching the Carabao Cup semi-finals. We took on Villa and Byrvang’s brace inspired a 4-1 away win in the first leg before a 0-0 at home sent us into our second Carabao Final. Our opponent there was Fulham, who beat League 1 Bolton 3-1 on aggregate in the semis. Fulham started brighter but Grimm won a penalty that O’Hanlon converted and we kept them at arm’s length for an easy and very dull 1-0 win.

Seeking Champions League Improvement

We got an interesting set of Champions League games, which began by beating Real Madrid 3-1 with goals from Pereira, Byrvang and homegrown star Johnny O’Hanlon, who scored the only goal at home to Juventus next up. We drew at Barcelona and lost at Villarreal but an easy 3-1 win over Rosenborg and Pereira’s hat-trick in a 5-0 thumping of Braga took us into the top eight.

The last 16 served up a clash with Juventus, which we took full control of thanks to Simons, Gomes and Grimm then rotated for a 2-1 home defeat to ease through. A trickier challenge saw Bayern up next but we were excellent again in the away leg as Grimm and Lenny Yoro’s late header earned a 2-1 win. But Bayern were much better in the second leg and beat us 1-0 then scored twice in extra-time.

Despite that, it’s clear the more attacking approach worked nicely as we wrapped up a league and cup double in our seventh season – which is one season before Sir Alex Ferguson managed it. We now have six seasons to try and win a league, cup and Champions League treble.

Mini-Rebuild For Season 8

I’d been very careful with money along this journey, only for the board to completely wipe out my efforts in one fell swoop – as they announced plans for the Brian Clough Arena at the cost of £246m! That left us with just £30m in the bank, but that boosted to £140m as the new season ticked over.

The finances were boosted by selling Jovan Sljivic to West Ham for £50m, backup full-backs Kadri and Vinicius Gabriel to Man City and Sevilla for £55m and £10m and underperforming Simons to Chelsea for £37m. On deadline day, we sold Nelson after 218 league appearances to Sunderland for £14m, and in January we got £53m for fifth-choice striker Ayala, taking the season’s sales past £225m.

We invested some of that in København wonderkid Filip Post for £10.5m, Brazil under-20s captain Pablo for £15m from Criciuma and Porto defender Rozemiro, who’ll convert to a ball-playing defender, for £29m. On deadline day, we added 6ft 4in Joshua Weeghmans for £27.5m from Club Brugge.

We’re sticking with last season’s successful 4-2-4 approach. That saw us defend the Community Shield with O’Hanlon scoring the only goal against Spurs then begin our title defence with a 2-0 win at newly promoted Everton with goals by the star strikeforce of Pereira and Grimm. Both scored again in a 3-1 win over West Ham before Rozemiro got his first for the club in a wild 3-3 with Liverpool. Amd we started strongly with wins at home to Chelsea and Arsenal then a Pereira brace earned a 2-0 win at Man UFC.

That strong start continued, including a Pereira hat-tricking inspiring a 4-1 thumping of Newcastle that led to them sacking Pep Guardiola, all the way through to losing 2-0 at Brentford in mid-December. And a 0-0 at Man City, thanks to Elia Caprile’s nine saves, took us into 2031 with a 10-point lead over them. Five goals in three days by Pereira helped us dominate relegation-threatened Everton and Palace and 3-1 win over Man UFC moved us within touching distance of the title. And a 2-0 win at home to Leeds wrapped up four successive titles with four games remaining.

We eventually finished on 91 points, 15 clear of City, scoring 88 and conceding just 28. Pereira’s 28 goals was again runner-up to Haaland’s 38, with Grimm in third with 21, as well as being second to Haaland on average rating and player of the match awards, while Caprile got a league-high 21 clean sheets.

Tough Champions League Fixtures

A tough set of European games began with a 1-1 at home to Bayern before Post got his first goal for the club in a 3-0 win at home to Inter and Byrvang scored twice in a 3-0 win at Midtjylland. But we got thumped 5-1 at Real Madrid before Byrvang, Pereira and O’Hanlon earned a 3-1 win at Milan. A fully rotated side drew 0-0 with Dinamo, in which five youngsters made their debuts, before Pereira and Grimm goals led a 3-0 win over Lyon, which saw us finish 10th.

We took on Monaco in the playoff round and drew 4-4 on aggregate then won the penalty shootout. Next up was Arsenal and a 3-0 home win and a 0-0 away sent us through. Another English side followed in Man City and Grimm gave us the lead after half an hour in Manchester only to fall 3-1 behind but a Pereira brace and Gomes’ late strike earned a famous 4-3 win. And O’Hanlon’s late penalty earned a 1-1 at home to send us through to the semis.

Another English side followed as we faced Man UFC in the semis. We were at home first and a Pereira double and O’Hanlon’s strike put us in control but a late UFC goal saw them cut the deficit to 3-2. Grimm and Essugo goals put us 2-0 up at Old Trafford and, despite UFC getting back level, we held on to make our first Final! The Final took us to Santiago Bernabéu to face PSG, who thumped Barca 6-1 in the semis and have the likes of Musiala, Wanner, Leao, Rashford, Adeyemi, Moukoko and Mbappé. We lined up:

Caprile; Pavas, Rozemiro, Zeze, Ortiz; Danilo; Essugo; Post, O’Hanlon; Grimm, Pereira
Subs: Byrvang, Royett, Weeghmans, Volpi, Gomes, Esnault, Moreno, Vilar, Pablo, Clay, Tabares

We started well as Periera forced Donnarumma into two saves then Zeze missed a header from six yards out. And we took advantage as Post beat two men down the right and crossed for Grimm to tap in the opener. But PSG broke O’Hanlon’s leg then took control, levelled from a corner and Mbappé put them ahead just before half time then created the third for Leao. I was disappointed with the loss but impressed with out effort to largely outplay PSG.

Forest Dynasty Evolving

The quality in this Forest side now is unquestionable, as we’ve established ourselves as easily the best team in England. Pereira has come on leaps and bounds, again leading our goalscoring charts with 38 in 51 plus 10 assists. Grimm pushed him close with 28 goals and 10 assists, followed by O’Hanlon’s 12 goals and 10 assists, while Post led the way with 14 assists and Essugo got 13.

Our promising youth talent was proven by Byrvang winning U21 Footballer of the Year. And the potential was further boosted by a few promising talents coming through the last two youth intakes, including Irish/Libyan goalkeeper Alaaeddine Beleid, right-back Anton Warner and winger Kelvin Clay, who’s stepped up to the first-team this season and just made the England Under-21 squad.