Football Season Guide

It has been a strange summer at Nottingham Forest. With a takeover by the mega-rich Al Hasawi family in the middle of it, Forest were in limbo with Garath McCleary, Luke Chambers, Joel Lynch, Chris Gunter and Paul Anderson all opting to depart for pastures new. Steve Cotterill was also ruthlessly sacked and replaced by last season's No.2 Sean O'Driscoll in a surprise move. O'Driscoll had to move fast to add to a threadbare squad but appears to have done well in a short space of time with Adlene Guedioura, who had a successful City Ground loan spell last season, Norwich defender Daniel Ayala and West Brom forward Simon Cox standout signings. O'Driscoll reportedly has a £20 million transfer budget but getting the players to gel remains his biggest difficulty. There is a feeling that pre-season has been a rush job so it may be October before Forest start playing as a team. Certainly expectations are much higher than last season when the Reds came close to relegation.