Left Brian: August - September 2025

Words: Julie Pritchard

Wednesday 03 September 2025

reading time: min, words

left brian Nottingham Forest FC Football Sport

Julie Pritchard, the creator of the classic nineties 'Brian' fanzine, is back with her thoughts on the last month at Nottingham Forest FC...

There’s never a dull moment in Forestland. Before the season started, we saw the newly re-contracted MGW emerge meekly from behind Mr Marinakis, like a head boy who’s been caught vaping behind the bikesheds. Then we had the CAS Tribunal in Lausanne shattering Steve Parish’s delusions.

The Europa League draw saw 10k Reds drop everything and channel their inner Romesh Ranganathan in planning exotic Iberian adventures, or just learning how to spell Midtjylland. We even sued the FA for being prejudiced and defamatory against us – and won. But we wouldn’t be Forest if life was too easy; one minute we’re signing players you wouldn’t believe we could land in a game of FIFA; the next our manager appears to be trying to sack himself...

There’s even been some football. We looked like world-beaters at home to Brentford (a fixture we normally contrive to lose), then bought 4 heartstopping players in three days in striker Arnaud Kalimuendo and midfielders James McAtee, Omari Hutchinson and Douglas Luiz (from Juventus! Remember the Baggio rumours from the 90s? This time it came true!) It’s amazing what a difference that extra £20m from Europa rather than Conference brings.

The performance at Palace was patchy but it will take Nuno time to work out his best permutations. We saw red alert policing at Selhurst of the type normally reserved for visiting heads of state - which isn’t far off what EM is, to be fair - but thankfully, bar an ill-judged banner or two, there was no trouble. Palace fans are mostly a decent bunch and the ones we spoke to were as sick of the whole saga as we are. I hope they go on to win the Conference (and with it a place in next season’s Europa). But 9 out of 20 PL teams will be in Europe this season. Palace weren’t out of the running via the league until the end of April. Was it really beyond the wit of someone at the club to make discreet enquiries of UEFA, just in case?

Next up were West Ham, where a mediocre performance that looked nailed on 0-0 until the 84th minute turned into a horror show. Cue social media meltdown. Ah, the entitlement of the modern football fan, part 30,215. Yes, it ended painfully but worst performance ever? Are our attention spans now so short that we can’t even remember the end of last season? But then again, how many more TV sets must suffer before Nuno deigns to use his subs a little earlier when we’re not playing well?

Everyone at the club has clearly been unsettled by the Nuno situation. Players need certainty and consistency. Will the manager who’s just signed me/ given me a stonking new contract still be there next week? Who are we signing in my position and am I guaranteed a place in the Europa squad?

No doubt much of the conjecture is internet hyperbole. Douglas Luiz may not yet be match-fit (perhaps Nuno was planning to give him a runout at the end of the Wham game, but scoreline said no). Everyone is trying to read the runes. There will always be personality clashes in any group, especially one of very successful men with some sizeable egos. And ultimately the Big Man always wins. But it would be footshooting of monstrous proportions if we were to lose our manager at this juncture. Let’s hope we won’t be finding Nuno swimming with the fishes anytime soon.

Like spoilt kids at Christmas getting absolutely everything on our gold-embossed letters to Santa, the transfers have kept coming. Italian U21 defender Nicolo Savona, back up keepers Angus Gunn and John Victor, left back Cubiabano (who’s already been loaned back to Botafogo, but at least would have collected some Avios), and winger Dilane Bakwa (who has the moves to walk straight into Ola Aina’s Tik Tok troupe). Poor Javi Galán was gazumped by Oleksandr Zinchenko. Transfer deadline days have never been the same since they gated the Main Stand car park (thus locking out the background entourage of swearing kids), but for once this window has lived up to the Sky hype. Even if I am getting fever dreams/nightmares where Roman Kemp pops up EVERYWHERE...

We’ll need to trim the squad, most likely with Taiwo and Jota Silva being loaned to Greece, Turkey or Saudi (where the windows are still wide open), but if Nuno is not salivating at the prospect of working with this set of players then perhaps it’s time to take up gardening. He’s got the full second team he wanted and we even tried for Adama Traoré. If he’s still in charge for Arsenal away then it should be safe to pack our Nuno t-shirts and beanies for Seville. But whether he leaves this month or in 10 years time - with several new trophies painted on the fascia of the new Peter Taylor Stand – I would think there would be a very long line of prospective replacements.

All roads lead to Seville...via Arsenal, Swansea and Burnley...but that’s the next column...I’m away to research home remedies for pepper-gassing (Spanish police can be a little feisty). Hasto luego, baby...

Read the Brian Nottingham Forest fanzine archives

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