Sir Alex Ferguson Challenge | Part 10 | Brian Clough Arena Era Begins With A Bang

Having passed a decade in charge of Nottingham Forest, we marked the club’s rise with a first Champions League success in our 11th season. That took us to a grand total of 15 trophies – 5 Premier Leagues, 1 Champions League, 1 Europa League, 2 FA Cups, 2 Carabao Cups, 1 UEFA Super Cup and 3 Community Shields – which is nearly halfway to Sir Alex Ferguson’s haul of 38.

That success saw Forest become the third most reputable team in the world, only behind PSG and Bayern. While myself and striker Luís Pereira became club legends alongside Brian Clough, Peter Taylor and Stuart Pearce.

There were more exciting times at Forest in the summer of 2033 as the board’s long-planned vision of a new stadium came to reality. The 61,155-capacity Brian Clough Arena, which has an expansion capacity of 73,703, was officially completed on 26 June 2033 and puts us in a really strong position alongside perfect facilities and a bank balance over £500m for the first time.

We continued to strengthen in the summer, starting by selling backup right-back Hernán Moreno to West Ham for £45m, centre-back Rafael Tabares to Atlético for £14.75m and striker James Taylor to Sporting for £15m. We added wonderkid winger Lautaro Arias, who scored his first goal for Argentina on the day we signed him, for £14.5m from Lanús and holding midfielder Giuliano Mignemi for £14.75m from Milan.

However, the main target of the summer was to lockdown a host of key players who had 2 years remaining on their contracts. And, having passed a decade at the club, I thought this would be a good time to show just how good this Forest squad has become.

Goalkeepers: Elia Caprile has racked up 352 league appearances since signing in the second season, only conceding 311 goals. He’s backed up by 18-year-old academy product Alaaeddine Beleid.

Full-backs: Colombian Jorge Pavas has established himself at right-back, with support from 21-year-old Pablo. At left-back, I’ve decided to play Rozemiro, who’s played predominantly at centre-back in his first two seasons, with backup from Salvador Ortiz, who’s made 225 league appearances since 2025.

Centre-backs: Long-serving vice-captain Dário Essugo, who has 276 league appearances since signing in 2025, will drop back into defence this season alongside 22-year-old Joshua Weeghmans. We have lots of exciting support options led by 19-year-olds Maxime Dubuc and Luca Fernández.

Midfield: Agustín Cicchetti has stepped up as first choice in the anchor role with Aymeric Vandendriessche as the playmaker. They’re supported by homegrown hero Johnny O’Hanlon, who’s made 242 league appearances since coming through our first youth intake and also covers both wings and up front, Guillaume Esnault and Franco Pierce, who’s moved up to the first team over the summer.

Wingers: Arguably the best player at the club is 21-year-old Filip Post on the left with Milo Bedini, who has 13 goals in 21 caps for England at the age of 20, on the right. We have two more homegrown products supporting them in Kelvin Clay and 2032 intake star Mavrick Mérabli plus new boy Arias.

Strikers: Club captain Pereira would attest Post’s claim to being our best player and with good reason. The Portuguese striker has 126 goals in 159 league games since signing in 2028, is already one of the best players in the world, and signed a new five-year deal on £300k a week in the summer. He starts alongside equally strong German and £58m record signing Markus Grimm, with support from Benjamin Byrvang and the likes of Bedini and O’Hanlon.

The formation remains the same 4-2-4 approach we’ve used over the last few seasons, largely taking a more positive approach.

Maiden Club World Cup

Our two Champions League Final appearances saw us make the Club World Cup. We got an easy group and Pereira bagged a hat-trick in a 7-0 hammering of Toluca then four as we smashed Al-Gharafa 9-0, in which Post got five assists and scored two! Things got a lot more difficult as we faced PSG two days later (ridiculous) but Pereira was at it again, scoring twice before Vandendriessche and Grimm sealed a 4-0 win. And he repeated the feat against Napoli before Grimm’s winner edged a 3-2 victory.

That set up a final against Bayern. We started brightly and got our reward as a superb counter ended up with Pereira, who slotted in Post to coolly finish. And Post turned creator for his opposite winger Bedini to score a carbon copy 10 minutes later. Caprile pulled off a few huge saves after the break as Bayern took control and eventually got a goal back but we held on for a 2-1 win.

Nottingham Forest were Champions of the World!

Two more finals followed, starting with losing the Community Shield 2-1 to Man UFC then Grimm’s late goal nicked a 1-0 win over Juventus to lift our second UEFA Super Cup. And that saw me move into the worldwide Hall of Fame for the first time.

Brian Clough Arena Era Begins

The bookies and media finally fancy us as favourites for the Premier League with title odds of 6/4, well ahead of Man City (4/1), Liverpool (17/2) and Man UFC (9/1). The season began with a 4-1 in at Sheffield United led by a Pereira double before Post and Bedini strikes.

But the season really began with the first match at the Brian Clough Arena. A new club record 61,155 people packed out the new stadium, smashing the previous record of 49,946 against Man UFC in 1967. It only took three minutes for us to give them something to cheer about as Post headed home from a free-kick. O’Hanlon sent Pereira through to hammer home a second before Post wrapped up a rapid-fire hat-trick and O’Hanlon scored twice to make it 6-0 at half-time! Grimm bagged his 100th goal for Forest and was replaced by Byrvang, who wrapped up an 8-1 thumping.

The stadium’s second game was equally thrilling as Pereira bagged all four in a 4-1 hammering of Spurs. That set the tone for an imperious start, only dropping points in a draw at Villa in the first 15 games before facing the other two sides in the top three. First was a trip to Liverpool and Grimm scored twice in a lively first half before Pereira nicked a 3-2 win. Then a week later, we hosted Man UGC and Post scored twice and created the other for Pereira to inspire a 3-1 victory that took us 12 points clear.

But we didn’t let up there, going unbeaten through our first 26 matches with Pereira absolutely on fire, scoring three consecutive braces in February, including scoring two and creating two in a 5-1 hammering of Sheffield United. We eventually lost at Leeds and at home to Everton and, despite a healthy lead, the title race went all the way to the 35th game. But a rotated side beat West Ham 1-0 to wrap up the title.

We eventually won the league by 11 points from Jürgen Klopp’s West Ham, who finished 3 points ahead of Man UFC and well clear of City, Chelsea and Leeds. We racked up a new club-record 95 points, which is second only to Liverpool’s 99 in the second season, scored 102 goals, which is a record-high in this save, and conceded 40.

Pereira scored 30 in 32 league games, which was second only to Haaland’s 32 in 38. But Post and Bedini led the assists chart with 17 and 16 and Pereira and Post topped the average ratings with 7.69 and 7.59.

Champions League Defence

We were now second favorites to win the Champions League at 4/1, only behind PSG at 3/1. We started our defence with a 2-0 loss at Napoli but Pereira scored twice in a 3-0 win over Juventus in the first European game at Brian Clough Arena, which set a new gate receipts record of £1.9m, beating the previous record of £1.2m.

The rest of the league phase was pretty easy as Grimm scored twice in a 5-0 romp of Celtic in Glasgow, Byrvang bagged a hat-trick in a 5-1 win at Salzburg then scored the opener in a 2-0 win over Dortmund, before a heavily rotated side lost 1-0 at Inter. But Byrvang’s brace led a 3-0 win over Werder Bremen then Pereira scored all four as we hammered Rennes 4-0 to qualify in 6th.

We breezed past Nice 4-1 on aggregate in the round of 16 then beat Ajax 3-2 in the quarters. The semis served up a repeat of last season’s Final as we took on Real Madrid. We were just as dominant in the first leg but didn’t get our reward until late on, when Grimm bagged a brace and O’Hanlon sealed a 4-0 victory six minutes into injury time. And a 2-0 defeat in Madrid, to goals by Endrick and Pino, saw us safely through to our third Champions League FInal in four years and gave us the opportunity to defend our crown!

Our opponent this season was Inter Milan, who were in the FInal for the first time since winning it 24 years ago. We had a clean bill of health, so I lined up:

Caprile; Pablo, Pavas, Weeghmans, Rozemiro; Cecchetti, Vandendriessche; Bedini, Post; Grimm, Pereira

Subs: Byrvang, Beleid, Essugo, O’Hanlon, Arias, Esnault, Ortiz, Mérabli, Fernández, Dubuc, Clay, Pierce

Inter started the better and got a deserved lead through Khvaratskhelia after 15 minutes. But we responded immediately as Post’s brilliant crossfield pass found Bedini, who cut inside and smashed it into the bottom corner. Inter then nicked a goal just before half-time, which was dubiously not ruled out for offside, and, despite throwing everything at it and having a late Pereira strike narrowly ruled out for offside, we couldn’t find the equaliser after the break.

Successful First Season At Brian Clough Arena

We had another great season at Forest, winning the Club World Cup before defending our league title and coming very close to another European crown.

Pereira again led our goalscoring chart with 46 goals plus 10 assists in 49 games. But he was pushed close by Grimm’s 30 goals and 13 assists in 54 games and Post’s 19 goals and new club-record 27 assists in 51 games. Byrvang scored 13, O’Hanlon scored 11 and got 14 assists, the increasingly impressive Bedini scored 10 and got 22 assists, and Vandendriessche scored 9 with 13 assists.

The quality in this Forest squad was proven by Pereira becoming the club’s first winner of the Ballon d’Or and Goal50. He also defended his Best Player in Europe, English Footballer of the Year and Players’ Player of the Year awards. Post defended his Players’ Young Player of the Year award, which Forest players have won the last seven seasons, while Pavas, Post, Vandendriessche, O’Hanlon and Pereira made the Premier League Team of the Year. While our U21 squad won the U21 International Cup, which was won by Liverpool, Real and Barca in the previous three seasons, led by the exciting Arias.