Anthony Elanga slumped to the floor, Nuno Espirito Santo looked to the sky and placed his hands in his pockets, whilst Nikola Milenkovic looked like he was threatening to boil over as the Chelsea bench spilt onto the pitch to celebrate their Champions League qualification.
The Blues reached Europe’s elite club competition at the expense of Nottingham Forest, who needed to win and hope that results went their way elsewhere. The football gods did their bit, with Newcastle and Aston Villa losing, but the Reds could not find a way to breach a resolute Chelsea rearguard, succumbing to a third defeat in four home games at the worst possible time.
Levi Colwill scored the only goal of the game. The player who infamously scored the only goal of the game as Forest won 1-0 in the Championship Play-Off Final three years ago got himself the ultimate retribution for that own goal and football really does have a funny way of working at times. Lucky us!
Photo by Robbie Jay Barratt - AMA/Getty Images
Photo by Robbie Jay Barratt – AMA/Getty Images
Nottingham Forest qualify for UEFA Conference League
Forest should be celebrating, however. European football is back on the fixture list for the first time in three decades and, when the dust settles, the team will climb off the canvas and receive a sizeable pat on the back after a remarkable campaign.
Instead of the Champions League for Forest, it’s a place in the recently formed UEFA Conference League. Typically, the one year the Reds could do with a big six juggernaut winning the FA Cup, Crystal Palace go and make their own history and pinch a spot in the Europa League to deny the Reds.
But, this is significant progress. Rewind to last year and Forest were doing their lap of appreciation – ironically after defeat to Chelsea – still mathematically uncertain of their place in the Premier League.
That said, it’s easy to understand the frustration of fans. Forest spent 162 days inside the top five from December to April and it’s perfectly viable that supporters are allowed to be happy to be dusting off the passport for a European adventure, yet remain slightly underwhelmed that it’s the Conference League and not the Champions League that will be on the agenda.
These players aren’t bottle jobs though – that is extremely harsh. These players at Espirito Santo’s disposal are honest professionals who have given a fan base with little to shout about in 25 years, the season of a lifetime and have simply run out of steam amid fierce competition from clubs with squads who have cost millions to assemble.
MORE FOREST STORIES
Perhaps January was a turning point. Forest sat tight on the purse strings with the likes of Yoane Wissa and Igor Jesus proving too costly at the midway stage of the campaign and Evangelos Marinakis rightly wise not to panic buy at a pivotal point.
For context, signing players wouldn’t have guaranteed a top-five finish. Aston Villa – with the luxury of offering Champions League football in the second half of the campaign – added Marcus Rashford, Marco Asensio and Donyell Malan, yet still slipped out of contention on the final day despite the fees and salaries paid to land that stellar trio.
The likes of Chelsea, Newcastle and Villa have built squads over a period of time for situations like yesterday. See also Manchester City. The former champions have ended the season trophyless for the first time under Pep Guardiola but could still afford the luxury of leaving Jack Grealish out of their matchday squad on Sunday. Fancy a Conference League tilt, Jack?
Positives outweigh negatives for Nottingham Forest
The positives far outweigh the negatives for Forest in 2024/25. Espirito Santo has taken this team to a place that nobody presumed was possible at the beginning of the season and this squad is still very much a work in progress.
All around the dressing room, Forest have top players to call upon. Matz Sels has been superb on his journey to the Premier League’s Golden Glove accolade, tied on 13 with Arsenal stopper David Raya. At the other end, Chris Wood has bagged 20 goals and proved that he’s ageing like a fine bottle of Rioja, enjoying the best season of his career.
In between, Milenkovic – the club’s Player of the Year – has been the perfect partner for Murillo, Neco Williams has vastly improved, Elliot Anderson looks like a wonderful talent, whilst Ibrahim Sangare has showcased that he can be a serious Premier League player in 2025/26.
Out wide, Elanga has produced great numbers once again, whilst Callum Hudson-Odoi might have struggled for fitness towards the end of the season, but he’s once again proved that he can get back to being the player who showed world-class potential as a teenager at Chelsea.
Forest fans might not want to hear it with the immediate burn of missing out on the Champions League still stinging badly, but the Conference League might actually be the level of progression required for the Reds at this stage.
The Reds already have a paper-thin squad and it’s impossible to completely overhaul that in one summer, even with the riches on offer in the Champions League – just ask Aston Villa and Newcastle – in a world in which football clubs are puppets on strings to the demands of PSR.
The seventh-place finish might help the club develop more players from within. If Forest come through a two-legged play-off to make the group stages of the Conference League, perhaps the likes of Zach Abbott, Kyle McAdam and Esapa Osong can play against some of the smaller clubs that will provide opposition.
In addition to all of that, the Conference League is a competition that Forest will genuinely feel they can win! Chelsea are in the final on Wednesday night, whilst West Ham have gone all the way previously, beating Fiorentina in the final.
Football is about seizing opportunities and it’s fair to say that a big one has been missed this season. However, it wasn’t through a lack of trying and nobody can knock the commitment to the cause. Surely?
Forest are ahead of their progression trajectory, have an ambitious owner who will simply refuse to let the club stand still, whilst the squad is blessed with a number of players who still have their very best yet to come.
Some players could now seek pastures new but in fairness, qualifying for the Champions League wouldn’t have changed that possibility, with Forest not at the top of the food chain when it comes to the hierarchy of other, more established Premier League clubs.
Photo by Jon Hobley | MI News/NurPhoto via Getty Images
Photo by Jon Hobley | MI News/NurPhoto via Getty Images
People who pay good money have every right to express whatever feelings they wish to after the season ended on Sunday. No single fan has a divine right to call someone out because they might be seriously annoyed at the outcome of the campaign, with Forest taking just eight points from a possible 21 from the final seven games.
However, the dust will start to settle, the salt rubbed into the wounds will become less painful and hopefully, it won’t be too long before fans can unanimously agree that this can be the start of a successful period for Forest and not the end of something that might have been.
Forest never, ever do things the easy way – and we wouldn’t have it any other way. Whichever way it’s dressed up, the Reds are back in European competition and despite how it might feel in the short term, the football club are once again firmly on the up. On and off the pitch…