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I have never read Cloughs autobiography - but I probably must do that to find the answer to 2 questions which still puzzle me.
We are going back to the start of the Premier League - which was gonna be the last season in management for Clough. After a decent season the year before (Forest ended 8th), they started the Premier League by beating Liverpool, goal scored by Sheringham. Within a week Sheringham was sold to Tottenham for £2 million - which in itself was a strange decision but that could have been triggered by Teddy himself so I wont hold that against Clough.
Clough needed a replacement - and picked up Gary Bannister for free. Bannister had been a highly competent striker in the first 6-7 seasons of the 80s - he was a 1 goal in 2 matches-player for both Wednesday and QPR. However at the age of 32 - his last 4 seasons had been spent at WBA and Oxford in both the 2nd and 3rd division - where he scored roughly 20 goals in 80+ matches. Hardly the player you would expect to score a lot of goals for a struggling side. However Bannister did ok for Forest at the start of the season- his all-round play wasn't good enough but he actually managed to score 8 goals. However the goals quickly dried up and basically Forest was left without a striker who scored goals.
It was however quickly going to get worse for Clough. After christmas Clough decided he needed to get a striker who could score goals and get Forest away from the relegation-zone. His choice was one of the worst goalscorers the old first division had ever seen - Robert Rosario. Rosario was a tall striker who failed trials with several clubs Before getting contracts with non-League clubs Harrow and Hillingdon. Norwich City saw potential in the 17 year old and signed him. He stayed at Norwich for almost 8 seasons - during that time he played 161 League matches and scored 29 goals. In 1991 Terry Butcher paid £600.000 to get Rosario to Coventry - at one stage he did make a nice partnership with Mickey Quinn, it should however be added that Quinn scored the goals - Rosario was the lump flicking the ball on to Quinn. He spent 1.5 season at Coventry scoring 8 goals in 59 matches.
So by March 1993 - Robert Rosario had 37 goals in 220 League matches. Forest were struggling near the bottom and couldn't score goals. Just to make the situation more bizarre - the night before he was unveiled as a Forest-player - the club made an announcement saying they had announced a well known Premier League-player who would address their goalscoring problem. So you had every Forest-fan going to bed that night pondering which quality player they had signed. And they woke up to Robert Rosario.
Needless to say it didn't work out - he scored 1 goal in 10 matches - and Forest got relegated.
We are going back to the start of the Premier League - which was gonna be the last season in management for Clough. After a decent season the year before (Forest ended 8th), they started the Premier League by beating Liverpool, goal scored by Sheringham. Within a week Sheringham was sold to Tottenham for £2 million - which in itself was a strange decision but that could have been triggered by Teddy himself so I wont hold that against Clough.
Clough needed a replacement - and picked up Gary Bannister for free. Bannister had been a highly competent striker in the first 6-7 seasons of the 80s - he was a 1 goal in 2 matches-player for both Wednesday and QPR. However at the age of 32 - his last 4 seasons had been spent at WBA and Oxford in both the 2nd and 3rd division - where he scored roughly 20 goals in 80+ matches. Hardly the player you would expect to score a lot of goals for a struggling side. However Bannister did ok for Forest at the start of the season- his all-round play wasn't good enough but he actually managed to score 8 goals. However the goals quickly dried up and basically Forest was left without a striker who scored goals.
It was however quickly going to get worse for Clough. After christmas Clough decided he needed to get a striker who could score goals and get Forest away from the relegation-zone. His choice was one of the worst goalscorers the old first division had ever seen - Robert Rosario. Rosario was a tall striker who failed trials with several clubs Before getting contracts with non-League clubs Harrow and Hillingdon. Norwich City saw potential in the 17 year old and signed him. He stayed at Norwich for almost 8 seasons - during that time he played 161 League matches and scored 29 goals. In 1991 Terry Butcher paid £600.000 to get Rosario to Coventry - at one stage he did make a nice partnership with Mickey Quinn, it should however be added that Quinn scored the goals - Rosario was the lump flicking the ball on to Quinn. He spent 1.5 season at Coventry scoring 8 goals in 59 matches.
So by March 1993 - Robert Rosario had 37 goals in 220 League matches. Forest were struggling near the bottom and couldn't score goals. Just to make the situation more bizarre - the night before he was unveiled as a Forest-player - the club made an announcement saying they had announced a well known Premier League-player who would address their goalscoring problem. So you had every Forest-fan going to bed that night pondering which quality player they had signed. And they woke up to Robert Rosario.
Needless to say it didn't work out - he scored 1 goal in 10 matches - and Forest got relegated.