Victory over Bayern München in the Champions League Final saw Nottingham Forest wrap up a league, cup and European treble in our 13th season at the club. That moved us onto 22 trophies in charge at Forest, moving us 16 behind Sir Alex Ferguson’s tally at Man UFC.
Our work over the last 13 years has seen Forest become the most reputable team in the world, but we weren’t done there. Indeed, we’d built such a strong squad packed with potential that we didn’t sign any players in the summer of 2035. That fact was further portrayed by Luís Pereira winning his third successive Ballon d’Or with his teammates Markus Grimm and Filip Post in 2nd and 3rd.
Targeting 4 Titles In A Row
We began the season by claiming my 23rd trophy as Pereira and Benjamin Byrvang earned a 2-0 win over Spurs in the Community Shield. Ten days later we took on Saint-Etienne in the UEFA Super Cup and a hat-trick by the exciting Lautaro Arias led a 4-1 victory for trophy number 24.
Our title defence began at Fulham, who injured both Pereira and Grimm, but their replacements Byrvang and Arias earned a 3-2 victory. The same duo deputised and scored at Leeds before Arias’ replacement João Gabriel nicked the winner in injury time. Arias continued to excel, scoring twice in a 3-0 victory over Cardiff and another 3-2 win at home to Liverpool to win August Player and Young Player of the Month.
That began a superb start to the campaign, winning our first nine matches. The 9th was a 4-0 win over Sunderland, in which Pereira scored his 200th league goal for the club to become Forest’s all-time record goalscorer, surpassing Grenville Morris’ 199 scored between 1898 and 1913.
We breezed to a fourth successive title, wrapping it up with a 2-0 win at Arsenal in game 33, and eventually finished on 93 points with just 3 defeats. That wrapped up a domestic double, after Post, Grimm and Pereira strikes won the Carabao Cup Final 3-0 against Middlesbrough. Two months later, we beat Norwich to reach the FA Cup Final against West Ham for the second time in 12 months. We drew an entertaining game 3-3 then homegrown hero Johnny O’Hanlon came off the bench to score twice in extra-time and wrap up a domestic treble and quintuple for the season!
In Europe, we won a thrilling quarter-final with Real Madrid 6-4 on aggregate but lost Grimm and Pereira to injury and it showed as we drew 2-2 at home to Napoli then lost 1-0 away. In the final, Napoli lost 1-0 to West Ham, who became Champions of Europe under Jürgen Klopp!
Seeking Five In A Row
Last season saw the emergence of an exciting homegrown striker in Danny Farley, who scored 3 in 3 after coming through the most recent youth intake. That encouraged me to sell Byrvang, who had 12 months on his contract, to Spurs for £45m, alongside winger Francisco Montero going to Dortmund for £55m, midfielder Franco Pierce joining Juve for £23m, Elia Caprile moving to UAE after 428 league games for Forest and full-back Pablo going to Barcelona for £50m in January.
I finally gave in to the board’s demand for high-reputation players as, just like my Crazy Gang save, I snapped up Viní Jr. at the end of his Madrid contract. He was joined by another exciting attacker in Sporting’s Sebastião for £20m and homegrown Alaaeddine Beleid steps up as starting goalkeeper.
We began the season with my 28th trophy as Post and Grimm edged a 2-1 Community Shield win over Arsenal. Viní Jr. picked up an injury in pre-season but scored in his first two games then nicked the winner in a 3-2 victory over Brentford, which took us to 20 games unbeaten. But that streak ended on Boxing Day with a 2-1 defeat to West Ham, who trailed us by one point going into 2037.
That was due to a lack of goals, with Pereira short of form by his standards with 12 goals in 25 games. But that changed in the new year as he scored in 7 successive games and 12 in his next 9 games to move us 10 points clear by March. We stayed there and a fully rotated team beat Chelsea 2-0 to tie up an unprecedented five successive Premier League titles and 9 in 10 years! We finished on 96 points, 10 clear of West Ham, after losing 2 games all season. Pereira led the way with 27 goals in 35 games and a 7.69 average rating, Bedini got a league-high 11 assists and Beleid impressed as he led the league with 18 clean sheets, only conceding 24 in 34.
We again made it to the Carabao Cup Final, beating Spurs 5-1 on aggregate in the semis, and Pereira and Grimm strikes saw us easily retain it 2-0 against Arsenal. Our FA Cup defence was kickstarted by a 6-1 hammering of Man UFC before beating affiliate team Reading then edged past Spurs 2-1 in extra time in the semis. A final against Brighton followed, but we slipped to a 2-1 defeat to ruin a dream of consecutive domestic trebles.
Viní Jr. scored on his debut to earn a 2-2 at Barca in our Champions League opener and he scored 3 more as we finished top of the league phase. We beat Hertha 6-1 on aggregate then edged past Atlético 2-1 at home before a wild game in Spain, in which Vitor Roque scored 4 for the hosts but we kept pace and Viní Jr.’s injury time streak sealed a 5-4 win. Their city rivals followed and an edgy 1-1 in Spain was followed by a strong 3-1 home win with goals by Post, centre-back Maxime Dubuc and Arias.
That took us into an all-English Champions League Final against Man UFC at NSC Olimpiyski. The game started brightly and we made the breakthrough as Pereira’s pass put Post through to deliciously chip the keeper. UFC missed a decent chance and we made them pay as Bedini slid Grimm through to coolly double the lead. We looked to be dominating but lost Agustín Cicchetti, Rozemiro and Pereira to injury and fell apart, allowing UFC to level before giving away a disappointing last-minute winner.
Six Successive Premier Leagues?
We came into 2037/38 with 30 trophies as Forest manager. I firmly pinned last season’s Final defeats on Beleid, so splurged a club-record £84m on Mainz’s Tom Ritzy Gilcher. That was countered by homegrown full-backs Mavrick Mérabli and Anton Warner going to Arsenal and Dortmund for £80m and £25m. Then in January, we signed 6ft 6in striker Jean-Pierre Sauvage for £33m from Brighton, who I’m a little disappointed discovered him in Belgium ahead of my army of scouts.
The new season began with the Club World Cup, which began with a mass of players on international duty, including Gilcher. We beat Al-Masry 5-0 then Palmeiras 6-1 with braces by Gabriel, Arias and Grimm but a tired team lost 3-2 to West Ham in the quarter-final, with Beleid having another shocker.
Gilcher made his debut in the Community Shield and his presence made a difference as we got revenge on Brighton with a 5-0 thumping led by an Arias hat-trick and Pereira brace. His league debut was at home to Arsenal and the same result followed with Grimm scoring twice but he couldn’t prevent a 1-0 defeat at Liverpool. But we still started strongly, including Pereira moving past 250 Forest league goals in a 5-0 hammering of Brentford.
That good start was tested by festive away days at West Ham and Man UFC, which we drew 1-1 to stay well clear. Sauvage scored on his debut as a sub at home to his former club Brighton, which crowned a 4-0 win to take us 16 points clear in mid-January. We maintained that into March, when a Pereira hat-trick and Grimm brace demolished Man UFC 6-1, moving us 19 points clear with 8 games remaining. A 2-0 defeat at home to West Ham made things slightly interesting but we wrapped up a 6th successive title as Sebastião scored four on his debut in a 4-1 thumping of Sunderland.
We finished the season with 92 points, 98 goals and conceded just 21, matching our defensive record of 2028. Pereira was yet again top scorer with 33 in 33 and Gilcher led the way with 20 clean sheets.
We went out early in the Carabao Cup but a backup XI hammered non-league Chippenham Town 6-0, Derby 3-0, Brentford 5-0 and Stoke 4-2 to reach the FA Cup semis. We took on Spurs and an exciting game looked to be ending 2-2 until substitute Arias nicked the win in injury time. Their North London rivals awaited us as we faced Arsenal in our fourth successive FA Cup Final. We started poorly and deservedly went into the break a goal behind. But a triple sub worked wonders as O’Hanlon’s free-kick fell to Bedini to finish from close range and force extra time. We had the better of things in the extra period and eventually took advantage as O’Hanlon’s pass teed up Bedini’s second for the winner.
The Champions League began with two tough games but we beat Inter 3-1 then Grimm’s hat-trick led a 5-1 thumping of Barcelona. Sauvage bagged twice as a rotated side thrashed Salzburg 6-1 and we qualified in 4th. We got a tough draw in the last 16 up against PSG, but Aymeric Vandendriessche’s strike earned a point in France but Bedini, Grimm and a Pereira brace saw us thrash them 4-0 at home. Another tough test against Real followed and Pereira and Post strikes cancelled out Endrick’s double in Madrid before a 3-2 home loss saw us disappointingly knocked out.
We finished the season with easily our best squad so far, led by the ever-impressive Pereira scoring 47 in 49 with 12 assists, which won him Footballer and Players’ Player of the Year and Best Player in Europe for the 6th successive season. Grimm scored 29 with 16 assists, Arias 22 with 12 assists and Bedini 14 with 10 assists and Post and Vandendriessche topped the assists with 20. While Viní Jr. signed off in style, getting 5 goals and 14 assists before he retires to become our under 18s assistant.
The continued success over the last three seasons takes me to 33 trophies in 16 seasons at Forest, just five short of SAF’s haul at Man UFC. So could we surpass the great man in 2038/39? Join us next Wednesday to find out!
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