Forest are showing every sign of looking like automatic promotion challengers. They are defending well, they are good at recovering from setbacks, such as at Coventry last night, and they are not relying on just one or two players for goals. Although we are at presently fourth, the bookmakers have made us second favourites to go up alongside QPR. It might irk Norwich, Cardiff, and Swansea who are all playing well, but they obviously know a good team when they see one! I really have a strong feeling that we will be in the Premiership next season, something which I am a bit ambivalent about.
Some days I think it would be hugely exciting to see Forest back in the top flight mixing it with Man United, Chelsea, et al, but another part of me feels very uncomfortable about trying to compete with the richest clubs who are prepared to pay out obscene amounts to keep their best players. I really hope we don't go down that route and get into financial difficulty because we've overspent ourselves. Forest spent a decade trying to recover from their last escapade in the Premiership, which let's face it was an unmitigated disaster on all levels. I hope by going up, we are not in the long run taking two steps back.
Perhaps I am jumping the gun a little, though, because there's still three months to go of the season, and there's a lot of points still to be won. At least I can stop worrying about relegation! That is something which is too horrible to contemplate, and once I know we've avoided that I can relax, because I am very happy being a Championship club and am in no rush to leave it, so should we fail to go up again, I'm not going to be devastated, although I'm sure the players will think otherwise. Some of them might want to leave for a fresh challenge, and I know a few are out of contract in the summer. Everyone will be clamouring to stay if we get promoted, even if some will be surplus to requirements. But the likes of Chris Cohen, Rob Earnshaw, and maybe even Lee Camp will feel that the grass is greener elsewhere if we cannot offer them top flight football, and there will definitely be a lot of interest in them. There comes a point after a few years of coming close to success that if a team doesn't start turning promise into prizes, players will get restless and start to question their futures. If we don't go up this season, I fear that the squad will be broken up and we will start to slip away into obscurity again. So maybe, yes, I have to concede, much as I love the Championship, we need to be in the Premiership next season.
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