Perspective

[Strawberry Avenger]

I agree 100% even though some might read that & view me as an offender, but the air of negativity, the divisions & the infighting it's causing is nothing short of toxic.

You say you deliberately didn’t look at the team today, deliberately didn’t look at the result until 5 o’clock, & deliberately didn’t come on the forum until 9 tonight & I can completely understand that having felt a need to step away tonight myself.

It is time for fans to give their heads a wobble & to have a think about things.

My family has been involved with this club for about 150 years, when we were at the old town ground, in the Meadows I had ancestors who did voluntary work on both the construction & dismantling of facilities there & I have forebears who invested in stadium bonds so that we could move to the City ground.

I'm not saying this to be some sort of big-I-am, or to brag, or boast, I'm saying it to demonstrate how, probably like for many others, that this club is ingrained in my family history, entwined with my life, that it courses through me & has been a life long love affair.

We have had many ups & downs in my lifetime, I've seen relegations & promotions, good times & bad, heroes & villains, legends & Dumitru, but through out it all, above everything else, it's Nottingham Forest first.

We are meant to be a community, a band of brothers (& sisters, & Alf) supporting the club we love.

Supporting Nottingham Forest is meant to be a thing of joy, even in dark times, when results are going against us, because we are meant to be united in our support, united by our common history & united by our love & ambitions for this club.

With the air of toxicity & negativity around at the moment, with those hell bent on trying to cause dissent & disruption & to invent any reason possible to rail against this club, throwing their toys out the pram, inventing narratives to lash out at anyone & anything, it has become increasingly hard to maintain that loving feeling.

The fact that people have been trying to invent reasons to undermine the new manager, almost from day one, right down to blatantly inventing, or spreading bullshit is truly shocking & sad, not least when that man is a club legend, involved in some of our clubs greatest moments.

I don't know if he'll fail, or succeed, I can't see the future, if I could I wouldn't be here, & instead I'd be counting my money from winning the last 500 lotteries & deciding which player to buy next, but whatever the future holds I'd love to see us give it a chance, rather than trying to tear it down before it's started.

I get the reasons for some people's anger & frustration, but I'd beg of them, don't direct it vindictively at the new management team, they are not responsible for your ire, & don't inflict it on the rest of us, especially if the toxicity your pushing is built on inventions, innuendo, or baseless gossip.

If you feel like that take a break, have a think, recharge & regroup, instead of trying to tear it down & ruin it for the rest of us.

I understand there are concerns, there always has been, always will be & it's reasonable to discuss & debate these concerns, but that's not what's happening, what's happening is immature temper tantrums, toxicity & negativity that's leading to infighting & undermining the club, which is why, like you, I'm being made to feel uncomfortable & wanting breaks, & it should never be that way.

As I said yesterday, It is our job, nay our duty, to stand as a body behind these team, united as a metaphorical 12th man, strong in numbers, loud in voice to lift our men, our Forresters, our Tricky trees to the triumphs, heights & glories that we aspire to & deserve.

This is Nottingham, our city, our county & this is our game, our gift to the world, from the red shirts we gave to Arsenal & others, to the ground breaking tours that give inspiration to clubs in Argentina, Uruguay & Brazil, to the men who inspired & founded clubs in Milan & other cities, who strove to follow in the footsteps of the city of football, to the innovations in tactics & formations we provided, to the introduction of shinguard's, the referee’s whistle, goal nets, round goalposts, to the joy we have given to millions, for over 150 years.

We have been away from our rightful place for to long, so we can dwell on the past, if we wish, but if we do let us focus on glory years, on legends & inspirational managers, be they from the FA cup winning 50's, The real best team in England in the mid to late 60's, the miracle men of the 70's & 80's or for the younger generations the play off thrills of Hart, or Davies, but let us also always look to the future & make ourselves a part of our journey back to champions of Europe & inspiration for the world.

Thank you for speaking up, Redgirl, I love you for that, you're a true red, striving to restore our spirit & I hope others heed your words & consider their actions, so that we can unite again, because as you rightly observe, we should all be united by the Garabaldi, & the same goal, to see this club back where it belongs!

I rated your thread 5 stars & added a +1 to your reputation, both merited, & I hope that everyone hears your passionate plea & that it inspires them to put aside their grievances & to unite behind this club again.

I enjoyed reading that.  The romantic in me dug the bit in bold.

Also?  You have to plus 1 anyone with that kind of history with the club.

And it was fair prose too.

SA.  :cool: