Nice one, Anderson!

Finally we have some news! We have signed Liverpool's 20-year-old winger Paul Anderson on a season-long loan. Judging by people's excited reactions on TalkForest, we have landed a really good player.

It's a shame that he's only on loan, but at least it's a start. We've got him for the season, and if he helps us stay in the Championship, then it will be a great signing. We have to pay a loan fee to Liverpool to keep him for a year, so let's hope he turns out to be good for us! Judging by what I've read about him, he certainly sounds promising.

If Liverpool are reluctant to sell him, it shows how highly they rate him, and he has been tipped to make it as a regular in their starting eleven one day, so I suppose we better make the most of him while we've got him! He has been capped at England under-19 level, and spent last season on loan with Swansea, where he scored an impressive ten goals. Swansea wanted to sign him permanently, but Forest proved that money talks in the end and persuaded Anderson to sign for them instead. The fact that we have signed such a quality player is very good news, and certainly makes us all feel a bit better after the mini-exodus recently.

Kris Commons, Sammy Clingan, Grant Holt, and Matt Lockwood have all gone, and Junior Agogo is still expected to leave, even though his move to Egyptian side Zamalek has fallen through. The papers are full of rumours surrounding Nathan Tyson's future. They say that he has not signed a new deal and that he is wanted by Bristol City, who may yet come back with an improved offer for him.

When you look at the sheer number of players who have left this summer, it is a bit alarming, but when you take these players at face value, are any of them worth crying about? I've always thought that Commons was rather overrated myself, and although we will miss his goal threat, I won't miss his lack of work rate and tendency to drift in and out of games. Anderson is probably a lot better player than he could ever hope to be, and he is still very young.

I'm not that bothered about losing Clingan, either. He's never been one of my favourite players, and if he thinks that Norwich have better prospects than Forest then he can get lost. He is easily replaceable.

As for Holt and Lockwood, they are nothing more than League One players, and I'm delighted to finally get shot of Holt. I hated his attitude, and I can't help but grin at the fact that he's ended up at a 'big club' like Shrewsbury! That will teach him to mouth off to the press about putting himself in shop windows. Karma or what?!

Fixtures list for once makes happy Reading

For the past four years, the release of the fixtures list for the forthcoming season has for Forest fans been greeted largely with indifference as all the teams in League One are pretty much of a muchness. So please forgive us for getting a little carried away when our mouths froth over at the thought of pitting our wits against our genuine rivals Derby and Sheffield United again after three seasons in the wilderness.

We start the 2008/09 season with a home game with newly relegated Reading, and our first away trip is at Swansea, who of course came up with us. We visit Derby on November 1st and the home game is on February 21st, although both games will probably be switched to accommodate Sky TV.

Just six weeks after that amazing day at the City Ground when we snatched promotion at the final hurdle back to the Championship, we have got more confirmation that it wasn't just a dream, seeing our name in print alongside other big teams with histories and huge fan bases like Birmingham City, Sheffield Wednesday, and Southampton. It feels like we have finally come home. The Championship is where we belong, in my opinion. I don't think we have a right to claim we belong in the Premiership because we've been relegated three times from it and only spent six seasons there in total. The Premiership is not the same as what the old Division One (that's the top flight) used to be. I think the Championship is more like that league now, and that's why I'm perfectly happy for Forest to be here and am not too bothered about the Premiership any more.

Nigel Doughty, being a multi-millionaire businessman, of course is desperate for us to be in the top flight, but from a football point of view, I don't want Forest to be like Derby were last season being a huge source of ridicule for everyone else. I'd sooner we were at the top of League One than be bottom of the Premiership, as at least we would be winning games instead of losing all the time.

It's also extremely expensive to follow a top flight football team. I would want to go to virtually all of the away games, but with tickets sometimes costing £50 a time, I have to ask myself if I can justify the cost when I add on travel expenses as well. Season ticket prices at Forest would shoot up, as the City Ground would sell out every week, and there'd be a huge demand for tickets for most games.

But I am getting way ahead of myself here. We're more likely to be involved in a relegation battle next season than a promotion one if we don't make any more good signings. We've lost Judas (I can't bring myself to say his name any more), Junior Agogo has apparently found a bigger club in Egypt (snigger!), and with Nathan Tyson and Sammy Clingan yet to sign new deals, we could lose another couple of good players from our promotion campaign. The signing of Robbie Earnshaw, however, is a great start, and it underlines our ambition, but it's all gone rather quiet lately on the transfer front. I just hope they are really busy behind the scenes right now, because the players report back for pre-season training in a fortnight, and it's always good preparation to have an idea of what your squad is going to be a month before the season begins.