Position: Defender / Midfield Born: Stavanger Signed from: Byrne, January 1994
Debut: 6 February 1994 vs Leicester City Sold to: Leeds United, July 1997
Alfie was unwittingly the cause of one of the more precarious episodes in Brian Clough's history - it was his transfer that sparked allegations of bungs from agents. He was a good player (a Norwegian international full back for the 1994 World Cup in America, though he very rarely played at full back for Forest), but never fully established himself as an automatic choice. He was very young when we signed him, but always looked the part as a defensive midfield player - which is the position in which he had a successful post-Forest career at Leeds United and Manchester City, before Roy Keane's notorious tackle effectively ended his playing days.
Haaland's finest hour for Forest came as a slightly unlikely goalscorer, though. In December 1996, when Frank Clark resigned saying he could no longer motivate the players, the reins were handed over to Stuart Pearce. Psycho could scarcely have had a more difficult first game than Arsenal, but Alfie popped up with 2 goals (bearing in mind that he only scored 7 in 90 appearances!), the second a late (and frankly mis-hit) shot to secure a delirious 2-1 win.
When Pearce's fight against relegation failed, Alfie wanted to stay in the Premiership, so moved to Leeds.
Back to ... The Players : 1993 - 1994 : 1994 - 1995 : 1995 - 1996 : 1996 - 1997
Position: Defender Born: - Signed from: Coventry City, August 2002
Debut: 10 August 2002 vs Portsmouth Sold to: Southampton, August 2002
Out of contract at Coventry the end of the 2001-2002, Hall's wage demands were clearly too high for the skint Sky Blues to sign him up again. He started training at Forest, and we then offered him a week-to-week deal.
He played one game, and looked OK but nothing more. Then Southampton offered him a proper deal the day before the transfer deadline, and we couldn't match it, so he was off.
Back to ... The Players : 2002 - 2003
Position: Goalkeeper Born: Nottingham Signed from: Apprentice, July 1967
Debut: 30 March 1968 vs Sunderland Sold to: Released, May 1969
I know that I haven't taken the archive back to 1967 yet, but I am including Mick early by special request of my brother - he has long been a legend in our family. Why? Partly because he was the Forest player you always ended up with when collecting Soccer Stars (the Pannini of the 1960s), but mostly because he has probably the most inept record of any goalkeeper in history.
He was Peter Grummitt's understudy (and Grummitt was a superb keeper who had only missed 12 games between August 1961 and February 1967, so Mick didn't get many chances to... uhhh... impress). When Grummitt was badly injured, then, we thought we would finally get the chance to see young Harby in his full glory.
Unfortunately we did. Three games constitute his entire Forest career. Debut vs Sunderland at home, lost 3-0 (a brilliant performance in view of what followed). Second game Wolves away, lost 6-1. Final game Liverpool away, lost 6-1.
Goalie, 3 games, 15 goals conceded. Strangely we never heard of him again!
Back to ... The Players : 1967 - 1968
Position: Forward Born: Hampstead, 25 August 1979 Signed from: Apprentice, September 1996
Debut: 3 May 1997 vs West Bromwich Albion Sold to: West Ham United, November 2003
Marlon was a cult figure with the fans, largely because he was one of those players whom you could never accuse of not trying. He also comes across as a thoroughly nice guy - indeed for a long time it seemd that he might be too nice to make it. In his early seasons he looked decidedly Bambi-legged - a trier but unlikely to get very far. For 5 years his supporters would weary the rest of us with their increasingly forlorn-sounding reminders of how much potential Marlon had... but in 2002 it all came together in spectacular manner, and suddenly the world looked to be his oyster as he finally turned potential into consistent and spectacular results.
On the one hand, he had pace, power and skill in abundance - he routinely left defenders for dead. On the other hand, for a long time there was the strong suspicion that he was not perhaps the sharpest pencil in the box, especially when it comes to understanding of the offside law. Added to that, for years he tended to play with his head down far too much, so these defender-skinning episodes didn't always lead to much. What he needed was some self-belief... but that would only follow if he got an extended run in the side, and his lack of confidence was such that he rarely looked like making it impossible to leave him out; Catch-22.
I, and many others, had just about given up on him, and when Paul Hart started openly looking at other forwards in late 2001 (notably the decidedly ordinary Adam Proudlock), Marlon's days appeared to be numbered.
Ironically, Marlon might be one player who remembers the financial crisis of 2001 with pleasure. By the time February 2002 came around, Stern John had been moved on to Brum to ease the wage bill, and the (at that stage) disappointing David Johnson was out on loan. Marlon, therefore, suddenly found himself first choice centre forward with 16 games left of the season to show everyone what he could do. And you have to say that he made his point - 9 goals in 16 starts is a hard statistic to criticise.
By the following August, at long last he found himself an automatic choice if fit. He started the 2002-2003 season playing some scintillating football alongside the rejuvenated Johnson - as it happened, in the first 15 games Johnno was doing all the scoring, but he was quick to acknowledge Marlon's contribution. Later on the roles were reversed, and Marlon finished the season with 21 of the 50 goals that the pair scored between them. Marlon probably owed a great deal to Johnson's ability to encourage and teach others with less experience (and he was not slow to acknowledge the fact). It also might have been true that his laid-back nature dictated that Marlon is a player who needed a kick up the backside; certainly Paul Hart seems to be publicly critical of him more than most. It did seem to work, but one wonders whether the constant carping sowed the seeds of his subsequent departure.
His attributes were extreme pace and ability to beat defenders at very close quarters. He also had considerable physical presence, and his heading - for many years very weak for someone of his size and power - eventually came on in leaps and bounds. Perhaps the best illustration of what Marlon was all about came in a match against Crystal Palace in February 2002. Receiving the ball tight to the touchline about 35 yards out from goal, he held off the right back and backheeled the ball through his legs, and set off directly towards goal with defenders trailing in his wake. A shimmy of the hips took two more out of the game, and then he hammered the ball into the roof of the net from a seemingly-impossible angle. 19 times out of 20 any forward would have crashed it into the side netting and we would once more have bemoaned Marlon's erratic finishing. Instead he scored one of the best individual goals seen in Nottingham for many years. His finishing could be superb, especially when he didn't have time to think.
At long last Marlon looked the 20-goals-a-season player that looked for so long to be fading into unrealised potential, and he was also still developing, having added awareness of his team-mates to his more obvious attributes. But...
Just when he looked set to be a cult figure at Forest for many years, we came to new contract time. No-one really knows what happened (agents whispering in the ear, falling out with the manager and / or falling out with team-mates have all been plausibly suggested), but Marlon refused to sign the new deal. He was sold to West Ham and replaced by his namesake, Mr King, almost immediately.
It wasn't us who got the better of the deal; Harewood continued to thrive at Upton Park, eventually helping to take them back up - Forest went out of the division in the opposite direction, with King already despaired of and out on loan.
The sale of Harewood is seen by many fans as the point where it all went horribly wrong, and they might have a point.
Back to ... The Players : 1997 - 1998 : 1998 - 1999 : 1999 - 2000 : 2000 - 2001 : 2001 - 2002 : 2002 - 2003 : 2003 - 2004
Position: Full Back Born: New Jersey Signed from: USAF, January 1999 (LOAN)
Debut: 30 Janurary 1999 vs Everton
To be honest, I was never exactly blown away by the quality of Harkes even when he was playing for Wednesday a few years before he came to Nottingham. Ron Atkinson got him over on loan as we plunged towards the abyss of relegation. He played 3 games and hardly set the world on fire. Old pals act? Atkinson? Surely not!
Back to ... The Players : 1998 - 1999
Position: Forward / Attacking Midfield Born: Orsett, 12 July 1977 Signed from: Millwall, 22 December 2004
Debut: 26 December 2004 vs West Ham United Sold to: -
Small, nippy, hard working forward who was something of a legend at Millwall, where he scored 99 goals in just over 200 matches. However, in 2003 he was diagnosed with testicular cancer, and it was feared that he might not play again - if not worse. To everyone in football's delight, he did recover sufficiently to play again, but so far he doesn't seem to have recaptured his pre-illness form. None the less, when Mick Harford signed him to help the struggling David Johnson out, at first it looked an excellent move - they combined excellently in their first couple of games.
Then Harford was out, Megson was in and Harris seldom got more than 5 minutes as a sub if he was lucky. He kept plugging away, but it was still a surprise to me when Megson retained "Bomber" in the Great May 2005 Cull.
By all accounts a top bloke, everyone wishes him well after what must be every man's worst nightmare. But the fact remains that he is yet to score for Forest at the time of writing.
Back to ... The Players : 2004 - 2005 : 2005 - 2006
Position: Central Defender Born: Manchester Signed from: Leeds United, May 1983
Debut: 27 September 1983 vs Southampton Sold to: Sheffield Wednesday, May 1985
Hart was signed to replace Willie Young and had an eventful couple of years in Nottingham. He joined us as we embarked on our first European campaign since the Champions' Cup days of 3 years before. The UEFA Cup was no push-over that season, either - amongst others we had to dispose of PSV and Celtic on our pretty comfortable progress to the Semi-Final. The semis against Anderlecht are probably the most controversial 2 games in the club's history - particularly the second leg. Forest had won at home 2-0 with a couple of goals from Steve Hodge. We "lost" the away leg 3-0 and were out - but Hart had had a perfectly legal goal disallowed for no apparent reason (and without explanation), and one of Anderlecht's goals was a farcical penalty. Cloughie said even at the time that the game was crooked, but this was dismissed by most as sour grapes.
Only many years later, after the ref concerned had died, did Anderlecht admit that they had bribed him. The court case concerning compensation went on for yeasrs - amazingly, it is not actually illegal to bribe refs under Belgian law! But UEFA did not exactly lead the queue of people wanting either to punish the Belgians or compensate Forest. The whole thing still leaves a nasty taste in the mouth.
The following season Hart remained solid if unspectacular, and then left - at the time seemingly a well respected ex-pro who would be remembered in Nottingham solely for a goal that never was. A good player, but not one of the absolute greats.
His first managerial appointment was at Chesterfield, where his side had a reputation for playing good football, but lost in the play-offs shortly before manager and chairman fell out in a big way (something that seems sadly ironic in retrospect). After a short time in Forest's then relatively rudimentary youth set-up, Hart went to Leeds just as the whole Youth Academy movement was taking off.
Whatever talents it takes to be a great youth coach (and identifier of talent), Harty clearly has them in abundance. The Leeds side that was packed with home-nurtured youth talent like Harry Kewell, Jonathan Woodgate and Steven McPhail, was largely Hart's creation, and when it advanced as far as the Champions' League semi-finals, it looked set fair to be a real force in the game. However, in what must rate as one of the worst days at the office in his entire career, George Graham was stupid enough not to recognise what an asset he had in Hart and fell out with him. (Rumour has it that Harty went to Graham to tell him that one of his charges - reputed to be Woodgate - was ready for the first team. "When I want a new defender, Paul, I'll f**king go out and buy one!" is Graham's reported reply.) Forest snapped Paul up on the spot.
In the modern game, with its post-Sky massive and increasing imbalance of wealth and and post-Bosman ludicrous salaries, the ONLY way ahead for clubs like Forest is to bring through their own talent. We always used to be good at it in the days of Woodcock, Anderson, Hodge, Clough and Keane, but in the 90s especially the well seemed to have dried up; Steve Stone was the last really good player to emerge from our youth teams, and that was ages ago. Until, that is, Paul Hart arrived. In no time at all our Academy sides were making waves, winning competitions, playing some great football and providing considerably more than our fair share of young internationals.
In 1999-2000, indeed, as David Platt was struggling to rebuild a poor senior side, the Under-19s were undoubtedly the best team in the club, winning their league by a mile and disposing of the likes of Manchester United and Liverpool in the FA Youth Cup (in the end they narrowly lost to Arsenal, the eventual winners). The following season they went one better, remaining unbeaten until well into March, by which time the League was safely won, and going on to win the Academy play-offs to become officially the best Under-19 team in the country (bearing in mind that the FA Youth Cup is for Under-18 sides).
Better still, Hart's insistence on developing his young charges as rounded people as well as footballers meant that many of them showed considerable maturity when thrust into the first team. David Prutton was picked in dire emergency when we had half the squad injured - and was so good that he never looked like being dropped. Chris Doig, Gareth Williams, Andy Reid, Jermaine Jenas, Eugene Bopp, John Thompson, Michael Dawson, James Perch and Ross Gardner went on to show that the conveyor belt had not stopped yet (the last two being products of the post-Hart Acadmey under Nick Marshall), and there are always more following on.
Obviously not all of these kids make it all the way - some incredibly talented youth players fail quite to train on to their full potential. But some of them will make it for sure, and if we build our side around some and keep bankruptcy at bay with others, the Academy pays for itself many times over. For instance, sad though we were to see him go, the £5M cash injection from the sale of Jenas to Newcastle probably saved the club from oblivion.
Hart was, without question, a giant of an Academy director.
But then, all of a sudden, in Summer 2001 the FA in their wisdom decided that David Platt was the man for the England Under-21 job. Great - 3 weeks before the start of the new season, no money, no manager. Frankly, the appointment of Paul Hart was a no-brainer - he represented continuity, he knew the club inside out, he knew and was respected by the players, and his young sides had been the best thing about Forest for 2 years.
His first 4 months were an absolute triumph. Rapidly he cleared the likes of Andy Johnson from the squad (and the club), and built a passing side around the talented midfield he knew from his Under-19s - Jenas, Williams and Prutton playing with Bart-Williams in a flexible midfield diamond. Manager after manager left the City Ground raving about Forest's football, using phrases like "they footballed us to death".
However, in the short term the hideous finances of the club caught Hart up. From fielding a side with a healthy balance of experience and talented youth, more and more he was forced to field a side of kids - Bart-Williams, Stern John and David Johnson all left the club (Johnson on loan) for nothing because of unsustainably high salaries (though at the time DJ was scarcely missed after a dreadful season), and then Jenas had to be sold to Newcastle to keep the administrators at bay.
In those circumstances, it was not too surprising that Forest's season declined - they finished in the bottom half, largely because of a chronic inability to score enough goals. None the less Hart kept us up in a season when many managers would have cracked under the appalling constraints he found himself subject to - and for that he was widely respected by the fans.
None the less, Harty knew as well as anyone that a second season consolidating with the kids would not be enough. Even he, however, can probably not have been too confident that the progress of the side would be so rapid; at just the right moment Marlon Harewood suddenly clicked from raw potential into vivid life, and David Johnson (who had come within inches of leaving the club altogether) rediscovered his form with dramatic effect. Forest entered the top 6 in late September 2002 and never left, in the end narrowly losing to Sheffield United in the play-offs. Along the way they played some superb football, and in Summer 2003 they looked capable of mounting a serious challenge for promotion, provided Hart could either persuade enough of his experienced players (Riccy Scimeca in particular) to stay, or replace them with sufficient quality.
Unfortunately he did neither. With every single Forest fan screaming out for us to sign a left back to replace Jim Brennan, for instance, Hart insisted on playing 19-year-old centre back Wes Morgan out of position, appearing to think that a learning experience for the talented Wes would counteract any impact on the team's performances. Increasingly he looked more and more like a youth coach, appearing happy to live with defeat so long as people played well and learned from the experience.
When he lost David Johnson for 6 months with a broken leg, instead of immediately signing a replacement (even on loan), Hart appeared to dither. At the same time the Leeds job became vacant and he made absolutely no secret of the fact that he would walk up the M1 to take it.
Unsurprisingly, the morale of the team collapsed. Marlon Harewood (long a butt of Hart's sometimes scathing criticism) couldn't get out of the place fast enough. The players Hart signed (Gareth Taylor and Marlon King) took a long time to settle, and the fans became weary of hearing how we'd "worked out socks off out there, were unlucky, are a young team still learning, and wouldn't be signing any players because no-one is available who's better than what we've got".... as the team plummeted to the relegation zone, their lowest league position in over 50 years.
By the time the end came, Forest were in utter disarray; they hadn't even scored a goal in open play in well over 2 months. Hart went to Barnsley.
Paul Hart is arguably the greatest youth coach in Europe, but unfortunately he wants to be a manager, and the evidence is growing that, however brilliant he is with youth, he doesn't handle senior pros well, is utterly inept in the transfer market and is inclined to blame absolutely anyone but himself. A bad combination.
A shame, because for a while there it looked good...
If someone could persuade him to stick to the Academy, they'd have a gemius on their hands.
Back to ... The Players : 1983 - 1984 : 1984 - 1985
Position: Midfield Born: Clydebank Signed from: Manchester City, July 1979
Debut: 19 August 1979 vs Ipswich Town Sold to: Everton, August 1979
Just in case we ever needed reminding that Brian Clough was (though a genius) a tad eccentric, every so often he would sign a player with lots of fanfares and then decide that the new guy was rubbish in what seemed like a matter of days. Usually these players seemed to be in midfield - Asa Hartford, Gary Megson and John Sheridan mustered 4 games between them!
Hartford was a small skilfull Scottish international - not unlike the player he was signed to replace, Archie Gemmill. He had made his name at Maine Road, and was also widely celebrated in adverts at the time; he had recovered from being born with a hole in his heart to become a professional athlete and the British Heart Foundation not un-naturally regarded him as something of a hero.
To be honest, I don't remember Asa at Forest. I do remember that he was a good player, but my mental picture of him is always in blue, not red.
Back to ... The Players : 1979 - 1980
Position: Midfield Born: Harlow Signed from: Leyton Orient, August 1993
Debut: 15 August 1993 vs Southend United Sold to: Brentford, October 1993
3 sustitute appearances early in the 1993-94 season, then rapidly fired back to London and never heard of again.
Back to ... The Players : 1993 - 1994
Position: Midfield Born: Stoke-on-Trent Signed from: Stoke City, July 1976
Debut: 7 August 1976 vs Notts County (Anglo-Scottish Cup) Sold to: Preston North End, September 1977
For some reason I recall that Haslegrave arrived at Forest with a big reputation - he was going to be a crucial piece in the jigsaw of the new Forest, etc. Instead he was just yet another OK midfield player - the crucial piece in our midfield was Archie Gemmill, and when he arrived Haslegrave was sold to the lower leagues, where he belonged.
Back to ... The Players : 1976 - 1977
Position: Right Back Born: Worksop Signed from: Apprentice, July 1961
Debut: 6 March 1963 vs West Bromwich Albion Sold to: Coventry City, April 1974
Peter Hindley was the sort of lardy footballer you'd never see nowadays (OK, so there's Richard Dunne, but he hardly counts) - at least, that's how I remember him; by the end of his distinguished Forest career the origins of his nickname "Tank" were plain to see (long before Alan Rogers - and frankly as tanks go he was a King Tiger to Rogers' piddling little APC). He was a big man, uncompromising in the tackle and uncomplicated in style. Nowadays he would be sent off on a regular basis, and derided for being overweight. More fool the modern game - Tank could play, and would no doubt frighten a modern winger stupid!
The game was completely different in those days, but Hindley was very far from being a bad footballer. He really established himself as Forest's right back from the start of the 1965-66 season, and was cemented into the number 2 shirt (perhaps they couldn't get it over his head) for the next 8 years. He eventually made over 400 appearances for the club. During that time Forest had arguably their second finest team of all time - the 1967-68 team which finished runners-up in the League and were FA Cup semi-finalists, and only injury (and there were not many of those for this seemingly indestructible man) kept him out of the side.
He must have been as frustrated as the rest of us as a series of poor managers gradually dismantled that promising side and Forest slowly slipped towards relegation. I am astonished to find from the records that he left when he was still only 30 - it seemed to the small boy that I was at the time that he must be close to retirement! None the less, he was unlucky in that his real peak coincided with the dip between Forest's first stirrings of greatness in the late 60s and the Clough years, which he just missed. Not that this was any fault of his - he was a consistent and uncomplicated performer even when times were at their very worst under Matt Gillies and Allan Brown.
Back to ... The Players : 1962 - 1963 : 1963 - 1964 : 1964 - 1965 : 1965 - 1966 : 1966 - 1967 : 1967 - 1968 : 1968 - 1969 : 1969 - 1970 : 1970 - 1971 : 1971 - 1972 : 1972 - 1973 : 1973 - 1974
Position: Central Defender Born: Levanger, Norway, 30 April 1972 Signed from: Rosenborg, August 1997, and again from free agent, August 2004.
Debut: 9 August 1997 vs Port Vale Sold to: Released, 12 May 2003, and again 9 May 2005.
Signed by Dave Bassett, he had been playing in the Champions' League the previous season, and it is rumoured that we turned down a £4 Million bid from Italy immediately after he joined (though personally I find this one hard to believe). In his first few games he looked the business, but then he was injured and didn't play for several months - injury was to become a depressingly familiar situation.
For the first game of the 1998-99 season we were away at Arsenal. The club was already reeling from the sale of Kevin Campbell and Pierre van Hooijdonk had just started his strike. For 45 minutes Hjelde was superb, playing Dennis Bergkamp out of the game and confirming the excellent impression he'd made in 10 games a year before. At half time, though, he went off injured... and things were never quite the same again; by the time we saw Hjelde again on a regular basis it was December and we were in deep shit.
When you saw this guy warm up you wondered whether he could walk, let alone run - he had a cramped and stiff-looking running style (though in fact he was not slow). He was, however, thoroughly dependable, strong in the air, a crisp tackler and especially effective against physical centre forwards like Brian Deane or Ade Akinbiyi. Against anybody who got the ball on the deck and ran at him, however, it was a totally different story (I still get nightmares thinking about the sight of Hjelde being twisted into knots by Michael Owen at Anfield - Owen scoring just the 4 goals that day). Which merely meant that he could do a good job for us in Division 1 (where the Akinbiyis, Adebolas and Horsefields of this world are common), but that he should not be let anywhere near a game in the Premiership. And so it proved - when he managed to keep fit - especially in 2001-2002, when he was a steady and thoroughly reliable man around whom to build the defence.
Unfortunately after an terrific season like that, he finished it with only a year left on his contract - that, a high salary, the emergence of Michael Dawson and John Thompson, and Des Walker's return all meant that his Forest days were numbered; his contract was not renewed in the summer of 2003. He's a lovely bloke - a real gentle giant - and in the end we saw that he was also a good player.
A year later he was back, a last minute (you might almost say "panic"...?) signing by Joe Kinnear to shore up his young defence with Michael Dawson injured in the summer of 2004. Jon Olav was his normal self, but it didn't really work out - Forest were relegated and this time it feels as though our friendly Norwegian is gone for good.
Back to ... The Players : 1997 - 1998 : 1998 - 1999 : 1999 - 2000 : 2000 - 2001 : 2001 - 2002 : 2002 - 2003 : 2004 - 2005
Position: Midfield Born: Nottingham Signed from: Apprentice, October 1980 and again from Tottenham Hotspur, August 1988 (£575,000)
Debut: 15 May 1982 vs Ipswich Town Sold to: Aston Villa, August 1985 (£400,000) and again to Leeds United, July 1991
God, how we could do with a Steve Hodge at the moment! "Harry" Hodge made his debut as a teenager in the final game of 1981-82, helping the young Peter Davenport to a hat-trick at Ipswich. By half way through the following season he was firmly a part of the side.
Small, a great passer, a bundle of energy and with a fierce shot on him, Hodge finally solved the problem of how were to replace Archie Gemmill. He got into double figures on the score sheet every season (something only Neil Webb has matched from midfield since) and averaged a goal every 4 games over his whole Forest career, which is better than many of our strikers! All this helped to maintain a side for whom a top ten finish was routine (sigh - those were the days, eh?!), and he was an important part of the 1984-85 UEFA Cup side (see Paul Hart's entry for details of that particular travesty).
Alas, we couldn't hang onto him and he moved to Villa after 4 excellent seasons. He was enormously popular at Forest, but my Villa-supporting mates tell me that he is a real hate figure in Birmingham; he had broken into the England team early in 1986 and had an excellent World Cup in Mexico, so promptly moved on to Spurs for lots of money - the Villa fans were not impressed! At White Hart Lane his form dipped alarmingly, he lost his England place and was generally going nowhere - many Londoners were gleeful when Forest bought him back in 1988.
As soon as he got back under Mr Clough's wing Hodgey was as good as ever - he probably played the best football of his career between 1988 and 1990, forming a formidable midfield with Neil Webb and Gary Parker behind Nigel Clough, and winning his England place back (though he missed Italia 90 through injury).
Eventually the emergence of a precocious Irishman called Keane allowed Clough to sell the 30-year-old Hodge for the second time; he promptly won a Championship medal with Leeds.
A great player; as I say, how we could do with someone like him now!
Back to ... The Players : 1981 - 1982 : 1982 - 1983 : 1983 - 1984 : 1984 - 1985 : 1985 - 1986 : 1988 - 1989 : 1989 - 1990 : 1990 - 1991
Position: Midfield Born: Streatham Signed from: Hull City, February 1998
Debut: 17 August 1998 vs Arsenal Sold to: Scarborough, February 1999
One of the more bizarre Forest signings of recent (or indeed any) times. The young Hodges had been in Harry Bassett's Wimbledon side and had amassed a good few Wales caps on the left of midfield. By the time he came to us, however, the man was in his Bath chair - he was about as quick as me (and I can assure you that ain't quick) - just the sort of player you need to help in a Premiership relegation struggle (NOT!). To be fair to Hodges, I think he was signed as a prospective coach, but found himself thrown into the first team at places like Arsenal because Chris Bart-Williams was injured. All the same, Harry - WHY?
Back to ... The Players : 1998 - 1999
Position: Midfield Born: Irvine, 9 March 1973 Signed from: Norwich City, 27 June 2005 (swap for Matthieu Louis-Jean)
Debut: - Sold to:
Scottish International defensive midfield player, nicknamed "3 lungs" at Carrow Road for his prodigious workrate. Whenever I have seen himplayagainst us in thepast he has dominated our midfield, so it is to be hoped that the chest injury which plagued him in his final year at Norwich is well and truly behind him.
Assuming that it is, a great piece of business.
Back to ... The Players : 2005 - 2006
Position: Midfield Born: Annitsford Signed from: Apprentice, December 1990
Debut: 26 September 1993 vs Bolton Wanderers Sold to: Swindon Town, December 1998
When Howe made a good impression in occasional appearances in Frank Clark's 1993-94 promotion side, great things were expected of him (along with Paul McGregor, who broke through at the same time). He next played in 1995-96, including a dramatic UEFA Cup game against Lyon, when he and McGregor were brought on to replace Roy and Silenzi in a desperate move towards the end of the game - the two kids galvanised Forest and managed to squeeze out what turned out to be the only goal of the entire tie.
For all that, Howe never quite took it on from there - he made increasingly infrequent substitute appearances and eventually moved on to Swindon in search of first team football. They were promptly relegated and went bust (not that I am laying that at Bobby's door!), so you could say that the poor guy's career declined a tad.
Back to ... The Players : 1993 - 1994 : 1995 - 1996 : 1996 - 1997
Position: Foward Born: Clifton, Nottinghamshire, 23 April 1976 Signed from: LOAN Manchester City, February - May 2003
Debut: 1 March 2003 vs Watford
As we came towards the Vinegar Stroke of the 2002 - 2003 Season, it became apparent that the one area where we were heavily dependent on the fitness of key players was in attack - David Johnson & Marlon Harewood were scoring for fun (they eventually finished the season with 50 goals between them, but if anything happened to either of them, the only cover was Jack Lester (decent player, but hardly prolific), Eoin Jess (never to convince) or Craig Westcarr (very young and raw). So it was seen as a token of intent on the part of the management when Forest signed Huckerby - especially when the start of the loan was deliberately delayed to ensure that he would be eligible for the Play-Off Final.
In the event, of course, Forest failed to make that Final, losing 5-4 on aggregate in the semis to the Blunts - but the fact that they kept their nerve and made the Play-Offs in the first place was at least partly due to Hucks. Johnson was, in fact, already carrying an injury, so as soon as Huckerby was on board, Hart was able to rest the country's leading goalscorer - which proved crucial as Johnno roared back at full throttle for the run-in. His presence also allowed Hart to play an aggressive formation, with Huckerby just behind the front two with a license both to roam and drop deep in order to pick up the ball before running at defences at pace.
Huckerby is quick and skillful, though with a maddening tendency to play with his head down. None the less, his ebullient character, obvious enjoyment at playing for his home-town club and experience all helped his young team-mates through a tense run-up to the end of the season (when Forest played 6 of their promotion rivals in consecutive matches). He scored on his debut and, only 3 days later, helped Marlon to demolish Gillingham before half time at the Priest Field. A couple of weeks later he played important roles in the demolition of Derby and Norwich City in consecutive games at the City Ground (3- & 4-0 respoectively). Then he got a slight knock and, in truth, was never quite as effective again.
To no-one's surprise, when Forest couldn't offer him Premiership football all talk of a permanent signing evaporated instantly, and he scuttled back to Maine Road (and eventually to the Premiership - briefly - with Norwich City). None the less, 5 goals in 11 games and the freedom to give Johnson a rest at a crucial time represent a good return from a popular player. One of our better loans of recent years.
Back to ... The Players : 2002 - 2003