Martin O’Neill is back in the manager hot seat and this time with an emotional return to Nottingham Forest. Forest still in reach of a possible promotion or at least a play-off position will under MON be doing things with “Clough Touch”.
Watching MON over the years you know that taking risks and building a strong team is a key when bringing a smaller club up to battle with the big once. Playing a strong team having a tight and united squad, and just build stone by stone.
Yohan Benalouane looks certain to join Forest after being on a medical there today and what a great player they will get. He made a number of appearances during the Champions League season and was good, and he is a Tunisia international who last summer played in the World Cup, so MON knows his trade.
No doubt that Benalouane will be a good player at Championship level, it will be interesting to follow the path and steps taken by MON. “Benji” is what you would call “a lost wonder” or a player not “seen to his full potential”, MON will squeeze that out and get the best out of the former Atalanta and Serie A defender.
Don’t be surprised if you see more players from Leicester City being linked and a guess is that Andy King could be a possible loan option. MON will look for experience when he tries to strengthen his team and he knows how to bring out the best in players with a good potential.
When he took over at Celtic he recrutied a few Leicester City players and brought the best out of Neil Lennon, Steve Guppy and even Dion Dublin, who joined Celtic for a short spell and managed to win both the SPL and the League Cup after his short spell up north.
Interesting to be following MON in his return to league football management after a long time as manager of Republic of Ireland.
A few fun facts going back in the management annals of Nottingham Forest and Leicester City. Martin O’Neill is one to be in charge of both clubs, so is Matt Gillies, Micky Adams and Dave Bassett.
Matt Gillies signed Martin O’Neill for Nottingham Forest from Distillery in Northern Ireland, so the former Leicester City manager, who also signed Gordon Banks at Leicester, also managed to bring MON to English football.
Rob Kelly was never confirmed as a permanent manager at Nottingham Forest as he was for Leicester City, but has been in caretaker charge at City Ground in three periods during the turbulent years 2011 and 2012. Gary Megson is also one of many to have been in charge of both clubs.
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