Opposition…
It is 50-and-a-half years since Brian Clough was appointed manager of Nottingham Forest.
Back then, in January 1975, Forest were 13th in the old Second Division. They finished the 1974/75 campaign 16th and winning major trophies and European qualification seemed unthinkable.
However, Clough had a track record of success, having led Derby County from the second tier to the league title and the European Cup semi-finals in the space of three years between 1970 and 1973.
The outspoken manager, working with his long-time trusted assistant Peter Taylor, then similarly transformed Forest. They won promotion in 1976/77, stormed to the First Division title at the first attempt and lifted the League Cup the following season, won the 1978 Charity Shield, went 42 league games unbeaten, retained the League Cup, then defeated Malmö to win the 1979 European Cup. For good measure, they then beat Barcelona to win the European Super Cup and overcame Hamburg to retain the European Cup.
For a club which had previously won just two FA Cups, it was an incredible period of dominance.
Clough remained in charge until 1993, winning two further League Cups and two Full Members Cups, and left having added 13 pieces of silverware to the City Ground trophy cabinet.
Of course, while Forest will not repeat that success, their seventh-place finish in the Premier League and subsequent European qualification last season served a reminder that the club from the city of Robin Hood has a history of mixing it with the richest in the game.
Certainly, that history has been rekindled since the arrival of Greek businessman Evangelos Marinakis as the club’s owner in 2017.
While comparisons between Clough and Marinakis are unfair, both are larger-than-life characters whose presence at Forest helped transform the club from second-tier also-rans to top-flight challengers.
Under Marinakis’ ownership, Forest have risen from the lower reaches of the EFL Championship to the upper echelons of the Premier League.
After narrowly avoiding relegation in 2022/23 and 2023/24, Forest put together their best campaign in 30 years last term.
With former Valencia, Porto, Wolverhampton Wanderers and Tottenham Hotspur head coach Nuno Espírito Santo in the dugout and a young and exciting team on the pitch, the Tricky Trees spent large parts of 2024/25 challenging for a place in this season’s UEFA Champions League.
A run of four defeats in their last eight games saw them ultimately fall short of that target, and though they had initially been allocated a space in the Conference League, they were eventually afforded Crystal Palace's Europa League spot as a result of the Eagles being judged to have breached multi-ownership rules.
The feel-good factor at Forest has continued on the pitch so far in 2025/26, with the Reds powering to a win over Brentford and a draw at Palace in their opening two Premier League clashes, while anticipation brews for their exciting return to the continent for the first time since 1995/96.