Position: Central Defender Born: Nottingham Signed from: Apprentice, October 1981
Debut: 2 December 1981 vs Tranmere Rovers Sold to: Tottenham Hotspur, July 1987
A tall footballing centre half of considerable promise, Fairclough had emerged from the youth system between 82-84, understudying Colin Todd, Willie Young and Paul Hart (3 pretty good role models) and looking more than sound when called upon. He established himself in the side in the second half of the 1983-84 season, but just as it appeared he had made the place his own, he broke his leg and didn't play for over a year. By the time he had recovered, Forest had signed Colin Foster and (more importantly) Des Walker had come through, so he moved on. He had a successful career with, amongst others, Leeds United and Bolton Wanderers, and eventually came home to Nottingham by becoming a coach at Forest's Academy in the summer of 2001.
A good player - but not quite as good as Walker (but then who was?)
Back to ... The Players : 1981 - 1982 : 1982 - 1983 : 1983 - 1984 : 1984 - 1985 : 1986 - 1987
Position: Forward Born: Hackney Signed from: Norwich City, August 1981
Debut: 29 August 1981 vs Southampton Sold to: Notts County, December 1982
When Fashanu (older brother of Wimbledon and Aston Villa's John) was signed for over a million (in the days when that was an awful lot of money), Clough had presumably already decided to sell Trevor Francis - they only played one game together. Fashanu was seriously hot property at the time, on the strength of an outstanding season with Norwich the year before - one goal in particular, a spectacular tumbling volley from outside the box against Liverpool, had won goal of the season (you still see it shown occasionally).
But when he was at Forest he was, frankly, rubbish - we were used to Francis, and this new guy not only didn't score enough goals, but his first touch seemed poor and after a short time he looked dispirited and lethargic. What had happened to the rampaging striker of the previous year, when (for younger readers) he had resembled Emile Heskey?
Only much later did we learn what had been going on. Fashanu was a homosexual, and Brian Clough was probably one of the least politically correct men in Nottingham - which wouldn't have mattered had Fashanu been playing well, but as his confidence fell and his form dipped alarmingly, Clough didn't know how to deal with him; the barbed comments which worked with many others simply made it worse. Only those who were there will ever know for sure, but it doesn't seem improbable that Clough simply persecuted him, and the fragile ego of the homosexual Barnado's boy couldn't take it.
18 months later he had moved on - not much mourned by the fans at the time. Alas, he was never the same player again, and his life fell apart amidst increasing personal problems. These culminated in his tragic suicide in the early 90s - which is when the truth finally came to light. Not one of Clough's finest hours.
Back to ... The Players : 1981 - 1982
Position: Goalkeeper Born: Belfast Signed from: Hull City, January 1996
Debut: 15 February 1997 vs Chesterfield Sold to: Blackburn Rovers, September 1997
A Northern Ireland international, Fettis had made a fair name for himself at Hull when Stuart Pearce & Harry Bassett signed him as cover for Norm and Tommy Wright. He still has the reputation of being a good keeper, but has never really made it - he was cover at Forest (though he actually made his debut as an outfield player, coming on briefly for the injured Brian Roy in a frustrating away FA Cup debacle at Chesterfield), but was injured at the critical moment when Pascolo's ineptitude became apparent and Norm was injured at the start of the following season. By the time he was fit again, Dave Beasant was firmly Forest's number 1, so he moved on... only to have much the same experience of bench warming at Blackburn.
Back to ... The Players : 1996 - 1997 : 1997 - 1998
Position: Full Back Born: Londonderry Signed from: Apprentice, July 1983
Debut: 13 April 1985 vs Arsenal Sold to: Manchester City, August 1989
Irish right back who suffered by comparison with Viv Anderson and Brian Laws, the two players his Forest career was sandwiched between - since those two are undoubtedly the best 2 right backs we have had in the past 20 years, this is not to say that Fleming was rubbish; just that he tends not to be remembered. Forest never finished below 9th during Fleming's 4 years here, so he must have been doing something right!
Back to ... The Players : 1984 - 1985 : 1985 - 1986 : 1986 - 1987 : 1987 - 1988 : 1988 - 1989
Position: Midfield Born: Togo, 6 June 1985 Signed from: Southampton (LOAN) January 2005
Debut: 8 January 2005 vs Queen's Park Rangers (FA Cup 3rd Round)
French Under-21 International defensive midfield player with a good reputation, signed on loan by Mick Harford just as things were really starting to get desperate in the Winter of 2004-2005. He played well (and scored) on his debut, but Harford was replaced by Gary Megson the following day, and Megson clearly didn't see him as worth the trouble of acclimatising for the sake of two or threee games. Folly cut short his loan spell and returned to St Mary's a week or so later.
Back to ... The Players : 2004 - 2005
Position: Central Defender Born: Chislehurst Signed from: Leyton Orient, March 1987
Debut: 17 May 1987 vs Arsenal Sold to: West Ham United, September 1989
A giant, uncompromising centre half, Foster 's Forest career spanned less than 2 seasons. He was excellent in the air, solid in the tackle and even scored the odd goal - and since he played alongside Des Walker, his relative lack of pace wasn't too much of a problem. For whatever reason, though, after an excellent 1987-1988 season, Cloughie sold him early the next season, replacing him with Terry Wilson. Foster went back to London.
Back to ... The Players : 1986 - 1987 : 1987 - 1988 : 1988 - 1989
Position: Left Back Born: Dublin Signed from: Apprentice, July 2000
Debut: 23 September 2000 vs Grimsby Town Sold to: Released, November 2002
Irish Youth International left back or left sided midfield player who made a highly accomplished debut at Grimsby in September 2000. Foy is built like the proverbial brick outhouse, and made a number of impressive appearances as a left wing-back in the Autumn of 2000 - including scoring the goal of the season with an exquisite volleyed lob from the edge of the box at home to Tranmere. At that point he looked here to stay, but his form then dipped dramatically and he found himself out of the side and devoid of confidence (it is unclear which led to which) - he eventually went back to playing in the Academy side which won the title and national play-offs.
After starting as first choice left back for Paul Hart's first game in charge, he rapidly lost his place, lost confidence and looked a forlorn and overweight figure in the Stiffs. Despite keeping his place in the Irish Under-21s, he seems to have little future at Forest - Hart placed him on the transfer list at the end of 2001 - 2002, with some pretty withering comments about his weight and attitude. When Don Givens, the Irish Under-21 boss, followed those up with a few choice points of his own (notably "Keith Foy has to look at himself - in a year's time he can either be a footballer or a Dublin taxi-driver"), we all hoped that he'd be jolted into action. However, we saw little evidence of any attitude change, and he seems destined to drift out of the game altogether; he was released by Forest in November 2002.
Last seen in Doncaster's side, looking a good 2 stone overweight.
Back to ... The Players : 2000 - 2001 : 2001 - 2002
Position: Forward Born: Plymouth Signed from: Birmingham City, February 1979
Debut: 3 March 1979 vs Ipswich Town Sold to: Manchester City, September 1981
Nowadays, when people only know Trevor for his managerial career and Sky lower leagues punditry, it is easy to forget what a fantastic player he was. Quick, immensely skillful and a lethal finisher, he got almost 60% of votes for the centre forward slot in Forest's greatest-ever team (voted for the celebrations of the centenary of the City Ground in 1998) - this despite only playing for us for slightly over 2 seasons. His only major defect was his physical fragility - he got some pretty severe treatment from the defenders of his day, when tackles from behind and the like were accepted practice, and he did spend a lot of time on the treatment table.
When fit, though, Francis was world class. Trevor, as everybody knows, was the first million pound transfer in British football - but unlike several of the million pounders (Steve Daley, for instance) who followed immediately in his wake (including several to Forest - Fashanu and Wallace spring to mind), Francis was actually worth the money!
Of course, he scored probably the most famous single goal in Forest's history - a diving header at the far post in Munich's Olympic Stadium to win our first European Cup (and in scoring it paid for his fee in a split second). But possibly his best game for us was in the European Cup semi-final the following season; we had lost the first (home) leg 1-0, but in the second leg against Dynamo Berlin Francis was immense, scoring 2 goals and generally tearing the German defence to shreds as we cruised to a 3-1 win. Shortly after that game he suffered a serious achilles injury, so he missed the second European final and about 6 months after it. On his return at Christmas 1980, he scored 7 goals in as many games to kick-start the season (Garry Birtles had been sold and the goals had dried up), but early in the following season Cloughie sold him - the suspicion is that even in those heady days we were struggling to match the wages offered by the rich boys. With the greatest of respect, Justin Fashanu and Ian Wallace were not even remotely in the same league, and we didn't recover until Birtles had rejoined us and Peter Davenport had emerged.
Trev went on to Man City and to Sampdoria and Atalanta in Italy, and then to a pretty second-rate management with QPR, Sheffield Wednesday, Birmingham City and Crystal Palace.
Back to ... The Players : 1978 - 1979 : 1979 - 1980 : 1980 - 1981 : 1981 - 1982
Position: Forward Born: Glasgow, 21 January 1974 Signed from: Wolverhampton Wanderers, August 1998
Debut: 17 August 1998 vs Arsenal Sold to: Crystal Palace, October 2000
There can have been few players in Forest's history who have excited such widely split and deeply-held differences of opinion as Dougie. On the one hand there are the pro brigade, who point out that he top scored in both his two seasons, both in pretty average teams (worse than that in the case of his first season - we were awful!), that he is a predator rather than a player who makes things happen, and besides what do you expect for under a million pounds nowadays?
On the other hand, there were those, like my neighbour at the City Ground, for whom Dougie could have scored a hat trick every week and still not been good enough. For these guys he was lazy, not a team man, selfish and misses far too many sitters like the legendary open goal at Norwich in November 1999.
Who knows where the truth lies? If rumours are to be believed, Dougie (with Crossley and Quashie) was one of the focal points for anti-Platt dissent in the dressing room during 1999-2000 - as a consequence he was not even picked to sit on the bench after Jack Lester's arrival towards the end of the season (and this was even when Stern John was injured). Though he did appear to start the 2000-01 season with a better attitude, the arrival of Robbie Blake on loan put him even further down the pecking order, and it was no surprise when he was sold to Palace (one of his old clubs) in October 2000.
Don't be surprised if he scores against us for Palace - he had a tendency to do that before he came here!
Back to ... The Players : 1998 - 1999 : 1999 - 2000
Position: Forward Born: Dublin Signed from: Apprentice, August 1996
Debut: 14 November 1999 vs Huddersfield Town Sold to: Carlisle United, September 2002
Diminutive young Irish striker scored for fun in the Stiffs and was once described by David Platt as "the best finisher at the club" (though at that stage the competition was not vast). He never got beyond a handful of appearances, during which he looked quick and skillful; had he scored when faced with a sitter at Wolves in March 2001. who knows whether the story might have been different. But he didn't.
It remains to be seen whether he fulfills his promise in the lower leagues; he just might go on to score goals by the bucketload.
Back to ... The Players : 1999 - 2000 : 2000 - 2001 : 2001 - 2002
Position: Midfield Born: Thionville, France, 17 February 1973 Signed from: Plymouth Argyle, 14 February 2005 (£100,000)
Debut: 23 February 2005 vs Preston North End (W 2-0) Sold to: -
Talented goalscoring midfield player whose goals did much to assure 2 promotions for Argyle, but he got injured (during the warm-up, of all things!) in only his second game, so we never really saw enough of him in the inexorable spiral towards relegation to know whether we'd picked up a bargain or a dud. I suspect the former, but only time will tell - in a different division, when he's actually fit.
Back to ... The Players : 2004 - 2005 : 2005 - 2006