I thought they were different

New depths: You can’t take our history but today is another low point. Photo: Waywardeffort

Football has officially gone mad.

Many will have told you this happened a long time ago but no-one ever takes anything seriously until it affects their own club, and now it has.

The Al Hasawi family sacked Nottingham Forest manager Sean O’Driscoll after a 4-2 home win over Leeds United left them a point off the Championship’s top six.

The decision makes a mockery of their family’s promises.

I had been pleasantly surprised by the Kuwaiti’s management of Forest since they bought the club in July.

They appointed Sean O’Driscoll, a manager who knew the club after a spell as Steve Cotterill’s number two last season, and had a good record in the Championship.

Funds were made available to assemble a very competitive Championship squad with no pressure statements of ‘we must get promoted this season’.

Instead we were assured they were in it or the long haul, wanted to build a sustainable club and in time return Forest to the promised land.

But all the gloss and good will built up with the fans started to fade in the past few weeks as the players were paid late, bills went unpaid and the club’s credit card was refused in Brighton.

A shiny new replay screen was installed for the game against Leeds, something the City Ground has been crying out for, but it was clearly just another attempt to curry favour.

For after the mightily impressive result against Neil Warnock’s men the owners decided to part company with O’Driscoll after all his good work.

The manager had a group of strangers just one point from the play-off spots with half a season left to gel them into a team.

His sacking is just as baffling as Gareth Southgate’s when Middlesbrough had just won 2-0 to sit a point from top in the Championship.

That was in 2009 and ‘Boro are still trying for promotion to the Premier League now.

Short-term plans very rarely work out and sacking a manager clearly respected by his player’s after just six months in the job is ludicrous in the extreme.

A dark day: Forest have been in the doldrums and can’t help but shoot themselves in the foot. Photo: Torcello Trio

O’Driscoll may not have been the Kuwaiti’s first choice, proclaiming as they did to look for an ‘iconic’ name.

But he was doing his job well and the excuse of wanting a manager with Premier League experience is rubbish.

We are a Championship side, let us worry about the Premier League if and when we get there.

Paul Lambert, Nigel Adkins and Brendan Rodgers are just a few examples of managers without Premier League experience but all have won promotion in recent seasons.

For now all I can say is good luck to Sean O’Driscoll, wherever he may go next – one lucky club will be getting a very fine manager.

And why would any player now want to sign for Forest in January, with a brand new manager who knows nothing about the club?

Photos: Waywardeffort, Torcello Trio, rutty