Approaching our 20th season at Nottingham Forest, we were now tied with the great man Sir Alex Ferguson’s 13 Premier League successes having won the last nine titles in succession.
But SAF may be more proud of our recent record of producing great homegrown talents, as the squad includes 7 academy products heading into the 2041/42 campaign. 18-year-old Harry Wilson is our starting left-back and trains like an absolute monster and Frank Wakaso and Brooklyn Ellender pushing to start down the right. Danny Farley, Jack Gorman and Michael Roper have returned from successful loan spells to cover in attack while Andrew Dorrian covers in midfield. We also promoted full-back Julinho Vaz, midfielder Lee Seung-Min and centre-back Giovanni Cannas, who joined last season.
Big sales saw striker Jean-Pierre Sauvage join Real Madrid for £61m, midfielder Jones to Leeds for £28m, defenders René Madsen and Myles Verrall joined Salzburg and Hertha for £11.75m and £32.5m and midfielder Jiah Conkleton joined Sheff United for £10.5m. But we renewed expiring deals of strikers Luís Pereira, who scored twice in his testimonial against Marseille in the summer, and Lautaro Arias, centre-back Luca Fernández and holding midfielder Vinícius. Off the field, my assistant Steve Holland retired, so I nicked Memphis Depay off Leverkusen and signed Zinedine Zidane as a Scout.
The 4-2-4 approach remains and has a fairly familiar look given 8 of the starting 11 have more than 200 league appearances for the club.
Club World Cup
The new season began with the World Club Cup. Pereira bagged two hat-tricks in the group as we thumped affiliate club Olympiacos 7-1 then Mexican side Cruz Azul 5-2. 2037 winners West Ham, who appointed Julian Nagelsmann after Jurgen Klopp retired, followed in the quarter-final and we dominated to lead 4-1 with an Arias brace, but conceded twice late on. A Real Madrid clash was tenser and Filip Post’s 71st-minute strike nicked the win.
That teed up a Final against Dortmund, in which we were awful in the first half and trailed 1-0. Ismael Reina came on at half-time and scored inside 45 seconds, but it drifted to extra time. We took the lead through Ellender only to immediately concede and Dortmund won a ridiculous penalty shootout 14-13.
Targeting 10 In A Row
We began the domestic season in style as Arias scored a hat-trick and Pereira bagged a brace as we battered Arsenal 5-1 to win our 10th Community Shield and 7th in a row. And that dominance leads to our prediction of Evens to win a 10th successive Premier League, followed by Man UFC (9/2), Arsenal (10/1), West Ham (12/1), Liverpool (16/1) and Spurs (18/1).
Our league defence also started well as Post bagged a hat-trick and made the other for Arias in a 4-1 win over Southampton. A trickier first away day took us to West Ham and Ellender scored but we lost 2-1. But we responded well as Pereira scored a hat-trick in a 4-0 win at Norwich then a brace as we dominated Man UFC 3-0. The good start continued and a 3-1 win over Spurs with Ellender scoring the 3rd took us top for the first time in late October.
Wilson and Roper scored their first league goals as we thumped Wolves 4-1 and a Pereira brace in a 2-1 win at Sunderland in late November took him to the unreal landmark of 400 Forest league goals in 431 appearances. We weren’t exactly blowing teams away but found a way to churn out victories until Pereira and Fernández braces led a 5-0 win at Sheff U, before an injury-hit side lost 2-1 at Newcastle. But we still enjoyed a 6-point lead over Arsenal.
Pereira’s incredible form of 57 goals in 54 games this year saw him win his 4th successive World Footballer of the Year and 8th successive World Player of the Year ahead of Endrick and Arias. While Wilson succeeded Ellender as European Golden Boy winner, which isn’t bad for a left-back!
Champions League Rivalries Renewed
We began the Champions League with 6 academy products starting in a trip to Basel and eventually won 1-0 with a late goal by centre-back Radek Stejskal. Arias scored twice as we won 4-0 at home to Napoli and the winner in a 2-1 success at Inter, before a superb 5-2 win over PSG with 5 different scorers. And late Arias and Roper goals completed an amazing second-half comeback to draw 3-3 at Bayern. We rotated to host Malmo but trashed them 9-0 led by Ellender’s brace, assist hat-trick and 17 key passes. And we eased through in 4th place, scoring a league-high 29 goals.
The last 16 saw a repeat of the CWC Final as we took on Dortmund. A late Arias goal nicked a draw in Germany but Farley, Pereira and Milo Bedini gained revenge with a 3-0 home win. Another German opponent followed as we took on Hertha and Arias again earned a 1-1 away then scored a hat-trick and a dramatic injury-time winner at home. A more familiar foe saw us face Man UFC in the semis and another away first leg saw Arias again the hero with a brace earning a 2-2. UFC scored their first shot in the second leg but a delicious Ellender finish got us level and a quickfire brace from that man Arias sent us through to a 4th successive Final!
Our 9th Final in 12 years was a repeat of our first as we took on PSG, in their first final since 2032, at the 87,000-capacity OAKA Spyros Louis. We have an interesting record against PSG, with each club winning six and drawing six of 18 meetings over the last 15 years. Vinícius picked up a knock in the final league game, but I decided to risk him and line up:
Gilcher; Vinícius, Fernández, Pavas, Wilson; Schade, Vandendriessche; Ellender, Post; Arias, Pereira
Subs: Farley, Soro, Stejskal, Gorman, Bedini, Roper, Wakaso, Dorrian, Vaz, Bos, Cannas, Sarikaya
We started the better only for PSG to score their first shot with their left-back’s first goal for the club (obviously). But we continued to dominate and I started pushing the team up the field, which worked as Vinícius to cross for Post to superbly head into the far top corner then Pereira sent Ellender through to slam home three minutes later. PSG totally undeservedly equalised in injury time, so I laid into the team at half-time and got an immediate reward as Pereira raced through to make it 3-2. PSG grew into the game, so I sured things up to protect the lead and it worked as we held on for the victory.
Nottingham Forest won a 3rd Champions League in 4 years and our 5th of this save!
Academy Products Step Up
2042 began with a trip to Liverpool and Farley, in for the injured Pereira, tapped home the only goal from an Ellender cross. Farley then bagged a brace after Gorman’s opener as a fully rotated side beat Middlesbrough 3-1. Next time out, three academy players scored as Farley, Gorman and Wakaso strikes downed Newcastle 3-0.
We continued to dominate the league as a Pereira hat-trick led a 6-2 win at Leeds before Aymeric Vandendriessche and Arias earned a 2-1 win at Arsenal to move us 9 points clear with 8 games remaining. And two easy home games in a week saw another Pereira hat-trick in a 4-0 thumping of Stoke before running riot on Sunderland as Post’s hat-trick and Arias and Pereira braces led an 8-0 hammering of Sunderland, which virtually wrapped up the title.
We wrapped up a 10th successive title as Arsenal drew at home to Wolves, taking me past SAF to 14 Premier League titles as a manager. We won the league by 10 points from Arsenal, finishing with an identical record to last season on 98 points with 32 wins, scoring 104 goals and conceding just 25.
Pereira’s 30 goals in 29 games was only bettered by Man UFC’s Collado with 31 in 35. But Arias topped the assists with 13 and a league-high 7.87 average rating, which won him his 2nd Footballer of the Year and Players’ Player of the Year awards, as well as being the first Forest player to win Goal of the Year since Pereira in 2030. And Ellender won Players’ Young Player with 4 goals and 9 assists in 26 games.
Usurping The Great Man SAF
There’s no doubt we’ve usurped the achievements of SAF, racking up 14 titles and 47 total trophies in just under 20 years at Forest.
This season’s star man was undoubtedly Arias, who led the way with 42 goals and 18 assists with a 7.98 average rating in 50 matches and won the Best Player in Europe award for the first time. Pereira scored 38 and a career-high 19 assists with a 7.66 average rating in 48 matches. Also impressive were Post with 20 goals and 17 assists, Ellender with 12 goals and a club-high 21 assists, Farley with 12 goals, Gorman with 10 goals and Vandendriessche with 15 goals.
There’s still plenty of potential at the club, as highlighted by Ellender defending his NxGn victory, with Wilson in 3rd, our future striker Tomás Rodríguez in 7th and four more players in the top 25. While our U21s won a 3rd successive U21 Premier Division 1 title, the Papa Johns Trophy, U21 Premier Division Cup Final and defended the U21 Premier Division International Cup.
Having surpassed SAF’s record, there’s not a huge amount left to achieve in this save. However, part of me wants to at least see out Pereira’s career at the club, then potentially look for another challenge in this future universe. There’s also likely to be a significant rebuild in the summer of 2042 as we look to move on some of our older players.
So how will the Forest team look for 2042/43? Join us next Wednesday to find out!
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