Dave’s Ramblings – Nottingham Forest
The owner of Nottingham Forest, Evangelos Marinakis, is basically a Greek Donald Trump.
Not orange, but definitely operating a few drachmas short of a full shilling — and wielding power like a toddler with a lightsaber. Take, for example, the sacking of Nuno Espírito Santo. I’m not sure what the man did wrong, but I doubt he’s down the Job Centre filling out a Universal Credit claim.
As always, it’s the fans who suffer. Nuno dragged Forest into European competition for the first time since Robin Hood was playing left-back — then boom, he’s gone. In comes Ange Postecoglou. Great name for Scrabble, questionable choice for football management. You might remember Ange as the man who somehow managed to make Tottenham more Tottenham. They won a trophy once, but honestly, that final was so bad even the ball wanted to go home.
Ange, being a Greek-Aussie, should be tougher than a kebab at 3 a.m., but apparently not — he was nearly in tears when Forest fans sang “you’re getting sacked in the morning.” Before Chelsea, his record read: 7 games, 0 wins. Honestly, I’ve seen better starts from Windows updates.
Still, Ange’s motto remains “no worries.” Doesn’t matter what’s happening — the house is on fire? “Yeah nah, no worries mate, she’ll be right.” The board’s sharpening the axe? “Yeah nah, no worries mate, I’ve got a barbie later.”
We rocked up in our new third kit — green, because apparently we’re cosplaying as Robin Hood now. These kits are getting ridiculous. Third kit, fourth kit, gardening kit. It’s football, not a Milan fashion week.
Anyway, first half — absolute chaos. We did everything possible to help poor Ange keep his job. We were gifting them chances like it was Christmas morning. In a parallel universe, we’re two-nil down at half-time. Thankfully, this isn’t that universe.
Then, just as the fans were checking whether there’s a refund policy on season tickets, Josh scores his first goal in blue (well, green). He celebrated like he’d just won the lottery — and who could blame him? Three minutes later, Pedro Neto curls in a free-kick that the keeper kindly decided not to stop. Lovely stuff.
From there it was end-to-end madness, until Reece popped up in the 84th minute to make it 3–0 — a goal that somehow avoided everyone, including physics.
Of course, no Chelsea game is complete without a red card. This week’s lucky winner: Malo Gusto. Between injuries and suspensions, we’ll soon need a raffle just to find 11 players.
Truth be told, 3–0 flattered us. Could’ve been a draw, could’ve been a loss, could’ve been a disaster. But it wasn’t, and we’ll take it.
As for Ange — he’s still saying “no worries” somewhere. But when the fans are singing “you’re getting sacked in the morning,” maybe it’s time to worry just a little. Because “you’re getting sacked in twenty minutes” doesn’t really rhyme, but it’s definitely more accurate.
Dave M
‘Chelsea Supporters Group’ can also be found on X and Facebook and Bluesky
