Can Billy Davies transform Forest into a Premier League force?

When Forest beat Leeds United 4-2 on Boxing Day 2012 to place the team a point and two places outside the play-off zone – having suffered only six defeats in 24 matches – there was an impression of serenity at the club as quiet and encouraging progress was achieved.  That calm was suddenly replaced by turmoil and more unwelcome attention as the bewildering decision was made by the demanding Kuwaiti’s to dispense with their studious and progressive manager.

The folly was compounded in the eyes of a vocal majority of Forest’s support with the immediate appointment of Alex McLeish – a man whose most recent C.V. featured a miserable year in office at Aston Villa which came hot on the heels of relegation with Birmingham City.

Fawaz Al Hasawi judged the ex-Scotland national boss to be ‘the man who can help us fulfil our ambition of making it to the Premier League’.

To little surprise that opinion was reversed when McLeish achieved only one league victory in six and oversaw a home F.A. Cup exit against League One Oldham Athletic – the Scot consequently departing by ‘mutual consent’.

Adding to the feeling of chaos was the detail of Forest’s failed transfer window bid for Peterborough United’s attacker George Boyd – a signing McLeish believed to be assured until the owners vetoed the player’s arrival on the spurious grounds of a failed eye test.  Boyd’s vision hasn’t proved any barrier to his appearing 31 times for Posh this term, nor to scoring twice on home debut for Hull City after finally securing a loan move away from his relegation threatened employers.

The Al Hasawi’s spoke of their ‘bitter disappointment’ at McLeish’s brief reign, but the greatest concern for Forest’s loyal and battle wearied support will have arrived in the deposed man’s valedictory address which indicated that there had been little change from previous regimes as regards unwanted input;

‘Both parties entered into the relationship in good faith.  However, there was a difference in the understanding of the development strategy of the football club and it was felt by both parties that we should part company’.

A fortnight after McLeish’s final match – a 2-1 loss at Birmingham – the familiar face of Billy Davies was back in the City Ground dugout for a home clash against Bolton Wanderers.

Curiously unemployed since he was last in charge at Forest, the 48 year-old Glaswegian is a fiercely popular figure among the club’s followers having taken the club as close to a return to the top-flight as any of the other 16 men (6 as caretaker) who have taken on that exacting challenge during the past fourteen years.

Davies twice took Forest as far as play-off semi-finals, losing to eventual winners Blackpool and Swansea City, respectively.  The second of those ‘failures’ persuaded the club’s board that their feisty manager wouldn’t be able to deliver a cherished return to the big time.

It betrays the reservations that plenty of people within the game hold about a man who has previously taken Preston North End to the Championship play-offs and Derby County into the Premier League, that in an era when managerial openings emerge on a weekly basis, Davies has spent 20 months out of work.  The Scot was also forced to wait 13 months for his next chance after leaving Pride Park – when he was appointed at Forest for the first time.

Notwithstanding his ebullient nature, Davies is a born competitor and upon his appointment spoke of having ‘unfinished business’, a sentiment repeated by Fawaz Al Hasawi.  Slightly disconcertingly the co-owner also described his third permanent boss in just short of seven months as the man to ‘fulfil our ambition of making it to the Premier League’.

Davies’ start has been considerably more positive than the last man to be daubed with that description by one of his excitable bosses.  A draw in that opening encounter with Bolton has been backed up by four straight wins.

In such a tight and ever-changing division that form has taken Forest to 7^th in the table, and most vitally a single point below a play-off spot.  That represents a four place leap and closing of the gap to a top-six berth which had stood at 6 points when McLeish’s 41 day tenure concluded.

Crucially, the momentum at Nottingham Forest is surging in the right direction again.  None of the ten obstacles facing Davies’ team between now and May 4^th will hold the slightest fear.  That situation is in complete contrast to Middlesbrough for example, a direct promotion rival but one beset by poor form and dwindling confidence.

The Al Hasawi’s have made mistakes since they became guardians of one of this country’s finest football institutions.  In the appointment of the man known affectionately by Forest devotees as ‘King Billy’ they might have made their best call yet – and quite possibly just in time to take a gigantic step in their 3-5 year plan.

Our football grounds are chiefly populated by an older demographic – a subject for another day – which means that plenty of people on the nation’s terraces will have fond memories of Nottingham Forest as this country’s and Europe’s premier team.

Not many would begrudge Billy Davies the opportunity that has evaded, among others, David Platt, Paul Hart, Joe Kinnear, Gary Megson, and McClaren, namely leading Forest as a Premier League club once again.

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