Sir Alex Ferguson Challenge | Part 9 | A Decade At Forest

The Nottingham Forest takeover of English football had seen our exciting young team rack up four consecutive Premier League titles – a feat the great man Sir Alex Ferguson never achieved at Man UFC – and reach a maiden Champions League Final in 2031.

Even more promising was our financial situation, as we finished the 2030/31 season with £373m in the bank. That was boosted as winger Chris Harris joined Marseille for £13m, underperforming Ivanildo Gomes moved to Napoli for £29m and backup goalkeeper Osman Royett joined Bayern for £35m. We boosted the squad with some much-needed English talent by signing winger Milo Bedini, who was born in Norwich but came through the Real Madrid academy, for £42m. He was joined by fellow 18-year-old midfielder Thiago for £12.5m from Sao Paulo. Off the field, club legend Stuart Pearce retired as my assistant manager, so I replaced him with former England assistant Steve Holland.

We’re sticking with the successful 4-2-4 approach. Versatile homegrown star Johnny O’Hanlon is the starter on the left wing, but will be out for the first four months with the broken leg PSG inflicted on him, so fellow academy product Kelvin Clay will get a huge opportunity. Bedini will backup the massively improving Filip Post on the right and the strikeforce of Markus Grimm and Luís Pereira, for whom we rejected a £150m bid from Bayern in the summer, is probably the most dangerous in the Premier League.

Seeking 5 Successive Titles

Despite winning four titles on the bounce, we’re still only fancied to finish 4th with title odds of 17/2. Man City are favourites at 13/5 followed by Chelsea (4/1) and Liverpool (13/2).

We began the season with Bedini coming on to create Pereira’s winner against Man UFC for our third successive Community Shield. And the league began with substitute striker Danilo Vilar’s late goal earning a 2-2 at Spurs. But we were superb in our first home game as Pereira scored four in a 5-1 hammering of Bournemouth. And we won the next five heading into a trip to Anfield, where we always lose, but this time Grimm’s opener and a Pereira brace led a superb 3-1 victory. However, we lost centre-back Rozemiro for seven months to a cruciate ligament injury on Brazil duty, and that showed in a 2-1 loss at Man City, who’d ridiculously won 10 out of 10.

We recovered from that first defeat by scoring five at Brighton led by a Pereira hat-trick. We got an extra fillip as, six months on from being crippled by PSG, O’Hanlon returned at home to Palace and created the opener for Pereira to inspire a 3-0 win. Back-to-back home defeats to Man UFC and Arsenal then at Newcastle saw our title hopes dashed as we fell 12 points behind City. But City’s form soon relented and wins at home to Liverpool and City over Christmas moved us three points back.

We did relatively well in the new year and just about kept ourselves in the title race. And a City loss at Arsenal in their penultimate game left us three points back with a better goal difference. But any hopes of a miracle died with City scoring inside four minutes and beating Bournemouth, so we settled for 2nd place. Pereira was again second-top scorer with 23 to Haaland’s 38 but Post led the way with 17 assists and Elia Caprile got a league-high 15 clean sheets.

Away from the league, we beat Chelsea and City to reach the FA Cup semi-finals, where homegrown heroes Clay and O’Hanlon scored in a 3-2 win over Fulham, and our second Final saw us take on Norwich. We got off to a flyer as Pereira made a brilliant run down the left then passed to O’Hanlon to tuck home. The winger then crossed to Grimm to double the lead inside 13 minutes and missed a penalty. We continued to dominate after the break and Dário Essugo’s superb pass sent Pereira through for the third and the striker added a late fourth. Nottingham Forest lifted the FA Cup!

Another Champions League PSG Clash

We got an easier set of fixtures starting with a draw at Celta Vigo before Post and Grimm secured a 2-0 win at home to Benfica. Post scored the only goal at Dortmund, Clay bagged twice in a 3-1 win at PSV in my 500th Forest match, and draws with Barcelona and Monaco were followed by a 4-1 thumping of Rennes and a 2-0 win over Galatasaray to secure 5th place in the league phase.

Our trend of playing English sides continued against Spurs in the last 16. Pereira nicked us a 1-1 away draw before a wild second leg finished 3-3 and Bedini bagged a 114th-minute winner. The quarter-finals teed up a repeat of last season’s Final as we faced PSG, who we hadn’t beaten in five meetings. That continued in the away leg as Pereira’s strike halved the deficit for a 2-1 loss then Mbappé scored twice in a 3-3 at the City Ground. So the European dream was over for another season.

Pereira led our goalscoring chart with 31 plus 11 assists followed by Grimm (23) and Benjamin Byrvang (12), while Post tied the club record with 25 assists plus 10 goals. And the club’s potential was proven by Post and Bedini coming 1st and 2nd in NxGn 2032 with Thiago in 7th and full-back Pablo in 9th. Post also won European Golden Boy and Grimm won U21 Footballer of the Year.

Celebrating A Decade At Forest

I celebrated 10 years at Forest in the summer of 2032, and decided to move on the only original player still at the club. Captain Danilo made 338 league appearances for us but wanted a ridiculous £250k a week to extend his contract aged 31. So we released him then replaced him with a potential superstar in Aymeric Vandendriessche for £36m from Genk. We also added defensive prospects in Maxime Dubuc for £23.5m from Saint Etienne and Vélez duo Luca Fernández and Franco Pierce for a combined £11.5m.

We began the season at home to rivals Leicester and goals from Grimm, Nathan Zeze and O’Hanlon earned a dominant 3-1 win. Pereira scored five in two games to down Middlesbrough and Sunderland and consecutive hat-tricks to defeat Danilo’s Man UFC 3-0 and West Ham 4-1 – which moved him past 100 league goals for Forest. That took us to seven wins out of seven before a trip to champions City, where Pereira’s brace earned a point.

A strong December ended with Grimm’s hat-trick leading a 3-2 win at home to City then a 1-0 defeat at West Ham, in which both Post and Pereira suffered injuries, which took us eight points clear heading into 2033. The good form continued into a 3-2 win at Liverpool thanks to a Grimm brace, which took us 11 points clear with 10 games remaining. The run-in began with a 7-2 battering of Brighton, in which Byrvang bagged four, and, despite a 2-0 defeat at Spurs, another Pereira hat-trick in a 5-3 win over Sunderland sealed our fifth title.

We eventually won it by 7 points from Liverpool, scoring 92 goals and conceding more than usual with 46. Pereira was the Premier League top scorer for the first time with 33 goals on 27 games with Grimm in third on 21. Pereira also set new league records for average rating (8.17) and player of the match awards (16), while Grimm and Post topped the assists chart with 14 and 13.

Alongside the league run, we breezed through to the FA Cup Final with a chance to defend our title against Man UFC in my 600th match as Forest manager. We started brightly as Post hit the post after 3 minutes but nothing else happened until UFC nicked an undeserved win in extra-time.

Champions League

Our Champions League campaign started very well as Pereira scored both in a 2-1 win at home to Real Madrid. Wins over Monaco, Frankfurt and Sporting were followed by a wild 3-3 at PSG and a fully rotated side lost 2-0 at Nice. But easy wins over Malmö and København took us to another 5th-place finish.

We took on Inter in the last 16, won 2-1 away then Post bagged four as we smashed them 7-1 at home! A clash with City was up next and we lost 1-0 away then Pereira’s goal earned a 1-0 home win. Rodrygo put City back in front on 117 minutes but holding midfielder Guillaume Esnault took it to penalties. We scored all five but Caprile saved Rodrygo’s to send us through. Another English team followed against Arsenal in the semis and Pereira’s late goal halved the first-leg defeat to 2-1. Grimm put us ahead early at home, Martinelli got them level, but O’Hanlon’s late brace sent us to our second Final!

Our opponent in the Final was Real Madrid, who beat reigning champions PSG on penalties in the semis, at San Siro. We had no injury concerns, so lined up:

Caprile; Pavas, Essugo, Rozemiro, Ortiz; Esnault, Vandendriessche; Bedini, Post; Grimm, Pereira

Both sides started cagily but we landed the first punch as Post’s corner was headed home by Rozemiro. And three minutes later, Post was at it again as his superb crossfield pass was taken down and drilled home by Bedini. Madrid didn’t even have a shot on target until the 65th-minute, but by then they were 3-0 down as Vandendriessche sent Pereira through to smash the ball past Trubin. Their second shot directly led to our 4th goal as Caprile launched the ball downfield to Post, who crossed for Bedini to double his tally. Madrid came back into it with two late goals but the damage was done.

Nottingham Forest won the Champions League!!

Stunning 10th Season At Forest

We came very close to beating Sir Alex Ferguson’s record of a treble in 13 seasons, only missing out on the FA Cup in the Final while claiming a league and continental double. But this Forest squad is now a massive force to be reckoned with.

Pereira was our main man again, scoring 41 in 42 with 11 assists in all competitions. He came third in the World Player of the Year and World Footballer of the Year behind Mbappé and Haaland, but won Best Player in Europe ahead of Endrick and Vini Jr. and the European Golden Shoe, and became the second Forest player ever to win English Footballer of the Year and Players’ Player of the Year (after Kenny Burns and Peter Shilton in 1978).

However, I think Post pushes him close for our best player, as he got a club-high 20 assists and 8 goals in just 34 games and won Champions League Player of the Season. Grimm was also fantastic with 31 goals and 17 assists, O’Hanlon scored 13 and got 14 assists and Byrvang scored 13 with 7 assists. Bedini, who also won European Golden Boy, chipped in with 10 goals and 6 assists.