David Prutton has claimed Nottingham Forest have fallen apart in the same way as another “great club” in Leeds United due to appalling owners.
Businessman Evangelos Marinakis is the new man in control at Forest following his successful takeover, which spells the end of Fawaz Al Hasawi’s deeply unpopular five-year spell at the Championship outfit.
The Forest fans won’t mind seeing the back of Al Hasawi as the club have rarely looked like achieving promotion back to the Premier League whilst he was the owner.
Speaking to the Nottingham Post, former Forest midfielder Prutton gave a very damning verdict on Al Hawasi’s reign at the club and he compared the situation to the downfall of fellow Championship side Leeds United.
“It’s a bit like the sticky patch Leeds went through, a great club run in a way that isn’t befitting of them,” he said.
“Just because you have money, doesn’t mean you have class and it wasn’t run in a classy way – a way befitting of its heritage and tradition.”
“You’ll never get away from the shadow of Brian Clough because he built the football club in his own image of loyalty, hard work, commitment, good manners – that’s why Forest has such a tradition and history.
“They were built on that and it should be run in that way.”
Leeds United’s fall from grace is well-documented and it all started when they were relegated from the Premier League during the 2003-04 season.
In 2007, the Yorkshire side were relegated to League One where they endured three full seasons before achieving promotion back to the Championship in 2010.
Throughout these difficult times at Elland Road, Leeds were under the guidance of owners such as Gerald Krasner and Ken Bates and the club failed to maintain any stability.
There has not been too much progress under the ownership of Massimo Celino because since his arrival to the club, Leeds have rarely looked like maintaining a serious challenge for automatic promotion.