Transcript of Palace win, Marinakis banned, Leicester next...

Hello and welcome back to the Garabordy Red podcast, a Nottingham Forest podcast. I'm Max Hayes, your host. And as Forest beat Crystal Palace to move up the Premier League table, three big points and a Chris Wood goal, and a nice Chris Wood goal outside the box for once. Fair play to him, albeit Dean Henderson's slight mistake in net. It means that Forest move further up that table before a big East Midlands clash on Friday night under the lights, again, against Leicester City to discuss all of the Palace game. Also, the news about Maranacas being banned and why, everything surrounding that, plus the East Midlands derby, the small master of that, joined first of all by Mark Turner from sunny States. Mark, good to see you, mate. You okay?

Doing well, fella. Good to see you, too.

Good. Good to have you with us to discuss it. And also joined by Ossie Dave, who is not on the other side of the world. Mark is still on a time difference, but you're not, David. You're synced with the UK now. You are here. You're at the game on Tuesday, Monday, which was good to see you. I'm loving those curtains in the background as well, mate, wherever you're recording this from.

I am recording it from sunny London. Well, firstly, it's just great to be on a podcast with Mark. It's like the fivident forest friendship because our time zones never line up. So the fact that I get to talk to the legend from States with the amazing door in his background is also good fun. But I must say it was terrific to see you on Monday night at the city ground. I've never watched Forest Underlights. What an experience and the fireworks and the energy. Can I just say, if you are a Forest fan watching this and you haven't been to a game, try and get to one. It's emotional, it's special. When you hear that for the seventh time, for the seventh game you've been to, still brings a tear down to my show my eye, Max. It's a great night, and let's go fifth.

Yeah, you were like a kid at Christmas. We won't mention as well, David, how you bumped into me. We will keep that under wraps. Maybe we'll reveal that like a Christmas special or something when we've had a few beers.

It's a Patreon special. It becomes paying to hear the story.

Right, moving swiftly on. Let's talk about Crystal Palace the game and the win and everything surrounding it. David just kick us off then, really, with your thoughts. It was a game under the lights. It always has that extra feeling about it as the Forests fans booed the Premier. It was the loudest booze ever over the Premier League Anthem, shall we say, at the start as well. The atmosphere was quite lively to start off with, obviously, no Nuno on the sidelines, no Morgan Gibbs white, but Forest got the three points. Yeah, it was a good night all round.

Great night. Palace, I thought Just started quite strongly in the first couple of minutes and Forrest tempered the storm. Then just a few, the physicality of some of the Forrest boys, certainly in person, Malencovitch, he just looks like he'd break the Nottingham bench press record. Every time the ball seems to fly into the air, Nakedier or whoever he was on just had absolutely no chance of getting to the ball. And similarly with Chris Wood up front, just the physicality and presence of him with those aerial balls and the way that he was able to win it. And to be honest, when you go look at the shots on target from Crystal Palace, they didn't have the close to range high XG goals that you were expecting you saw from Forest. Look, You always know Forest can blow it, but I thought we were particularly strong. And look, what's really encouraging is we won arguably without a midfield four that could have been the starting four in Ward-Prouse, Gibbs-White, Sangare, and Danilo, who could arguably be the starting four midfielders and would give the ones that started a good run for their money. So to be a top eight team, you got to win matches when you depleted, and we did that.

Yeah, absolutely. And it's a funny one, isn't it, Mark, actually? Because I don't think Forest started that brightly. I thought they started quite nervous, and it's actually quite end-to-end and a little bit scrappy to start off with. But I thought the game, it wasn't an amazing game to watch, potentially as a neutral. But if Forest went ugly, it's It's three points at the end of the day, and we don't really care, right?

Absolutely. Yeah, it was essential to get that first home victory of the season. I think David sends it up really nicely. I'll just say I'm sat here, Max, feeling pretty smug right about now after our Ratings episode where I had only three players to receive the high bar of nine out of 10. One of them gets a clean sheet, as David mentioned, Malinkowitch, an absolute rock. Anderson doing Morgan gives white things, and I arguably alongside Matt Sals, who I'm sure we're going to talk about, Man of the Match, and then Chris Woods with the game winner. So yeah, maybe I do know a thing or two, but only maybe one of them.

Do you think Anderson did Morgan gives white things or Anderson did his own Anderson things because he's trickery on the ball and his silky skills and the jinks through that jink in the first half where he got that shot on goal. And I will applaud you. I woke up at 6:00 AM and watched that podcast with you talking up Anderson. I was I'm not sure about that, but yeah, classic. You were correct straight away. How do you see it?

Yeah, it's a good question. I mean, Morgan gives why it has a bag of tricks, whereas Anderson was largely relying on the croquette moving the ball from left foot to right foot as he jinksed his way through Crystal Palace midfielders and then laterly defenders. But we saw a couple of other good moves from him, too. What I like with Anderson is he really plays with his head up. I think sometimes Morgan has a tendency see when the ball is at his feet, have his head down, Morgan does a great job of scanning before he receives, which is why he's able to play the ball first time so well, so frequently. But then when he has the ball at his feet, he does have a tendency to have his head down a little bit. Anderson always plays with his head up. And I think he is a different player, David. And what's exciting is he gives us a different option in the 10. We missed Morgan because we missed what Morgan brings, but what Anderson brought was fantastic. And I think he really excited the fans. It was a good alternative.

Yeah, absolutely. I agree. Elliot Anderson, stats-wise, he created the most chances, which was five, completed the most dribbles, six, and it was the most accurate passer to play, 45 minutes plus. He won the most jewels, 11 of anyone on the pitch on Monday night. So the stats certainly don't lie, and excellent from him. And just talking about that, actually, David, about no Morgan Gibbs-White, no James Ward-Prouse. Yet Forest, I didn't actually think in midfield, were overrun at any point. I didn't ever think, like I've actually done in sometimes previous games with both Morgan and James there. I thought, actually, we're getting turned over here in almost that transition of play in the midfield, but there was none of that. And I suppose that just shows where we are maybe as well with recruitment and having those options on the bench in terms of squad depth.

Well, Dominguez certainly did himself no harm pressing his claims and his utility value. He just seemed to be a Jack box all over the pitch, really, and won a whole bunch of classic challenges. And then he's, Look, we have to talk. He's running, mate. And I know that Mark's might give me a hard time about that. This is the analogy I'm going to draw for you, Mark, on Ryan Yates. He's like Steve Stifler from American pie in American Reunion, where they're describing Steve Stifler and they say, I'm not allowed to swear on the podcast, but he's a D. And then the conclusion they draw is, Yeah, but he's our D. And so this is the thing. Ryan Yates, he's our Ryan Yates. And whilst he drives you mental because he's not as good at creatively passing the ball, and a few times he goes the ground too easily, but he's our Ryan Yates. And when he's injured and off the field and you're getting frustrated that he can't get in, he's our Ryan Yates. So I thought he had quite a good game, too. But he still needs to pass the ball better, Mark. He's the worst.

You just know he's not going to score. And that one where he Where he got in the position and he tried to jag the penalty, he's still not as creative as the others, but he's our Ryan Yates, Mark. Come on, talk him up.

It was interesting. I was listening to the Rest is Football podcast with Gary Ginnaker and Alan Sheeram, Michael Richards. Richards was actually absent on this particular one, and so they wheeled in Sean Longstaff from New Castle, I guess, doing Alan a favor. And when Longstaff was talking about his experience, being a local boy and coming to the ranks at New Castle, echoes of Yates. And it's interesting. And I think most Premier League teams have this. They have one or two players who are homegrown, who they're one of our own. And Longstaff was saying, the local players get it harder than the imports. They do, the bar is higher whenever there's mistakes made. Fans always feel comfortable getting on the local boys. And so we know Yates's shortcomings, but I think the way he stood up, broad shoulders, played in every league in the professional pyramid here in the UK. And now he is an absolute stone cold Premier League footballer. Is he the best midfielder in the league? No, of course he isn't. He's not even the best midfielder at Nottingham Forest. But there's no doubt he's a Premier League footballer now, and I'm very To your point, David, I'm glad he's on our team, and I'm delighted what he brings to the team.

I agree with you also with Dominguez. Dominguez is an absolute mystery. I don't know what shirt number he needs to have. I don't know if he's a six. I don't know if he's an eight. We have moments where he almost could be a 10. He looks like he can see things and link things up in that attacking... He's all over the shop, and I love that about him. I want to say very quickly, Max, you pegged Anderson as a 10 during our ratings episode. I'm putting the wrong way here. There we go. That way, there you go. There you go. And I push back on you, right? And I think I was right to push back on you and say, well, hang on a second, there's still more to come. So if he's a 10 now, what happens when he does ABC, right? I think I put you on your heels a little bit. But this game is exactly what I was talking about. We haven't seen this. We've seen flashes of it, but we haven't seen this consistently from Anderson. It's that a performance, hopefully then with assists and goals to follow that are going to elevate him to that 10.

Yeah, absolutely. I just thought his energy was brilliant. It's just everything you want from a player in a forest side. I think there's often this unwritten rule in a way at home when you're the home side that you have to go out there on the front foot and you have to create the most chances in the final third and be that attacking side at home. I think fans do think that sometimes, Well, we're at home, so we should win, and the atmosphere is behind us and let's go for it. I thought Forest did that for large portions of the game. It felt like Crystal Palace were on the back foot a lot, and Forest obviously capitalized on that with Chris Wood could have had two or three during the game, and Elliott Anderson providing that energy at times. I thought Ryan Yates had an excellent game. And to hear David praising You guys are just slowly breaking me down.

Can I ask a question for both of you, though? Elliott Anderson and Morgan gives White. So I noticed during the match that sometimes Elliott Anderson was coming deep to retrieve the ball, and Yates was higher up the pitch based on where they were. With the two of them, and I mean, Elliott Anderson and Morgan gives White in the team at the same time, why can't Elliot Anderson be the 10 sometimes? I quite like Morgan gives White being a deep and midfielder. He's got great energy. He's great at winning the ball. He tackles hard, he runs hard. So why can't they interchange? Why does it have to be so one way or the other? Where do you see them sitting, Max? I think Elliot Anderson can play in the 10 and Gibbs-White can be deeper.

Yeah, it's a great point. Absolutely. It's a great point. I also think, you alluded to it earlier slightly, but he offers something different Anderson. You saw how he was a bit tricky to play against. And not saying that Morgan... I mean, you alluded to it earlier about Morgan having his head down a lot and Elliot Anderson looking up. But I think Morgan has to... I think one part of his game that he'll know, coaches will know, and probably we all agree with, is that Morgan's sometimes final end product in terms of shooting ability and scoring goals simply. Obviously, Anderson hasn't done that recently. However, I think that there's more faith in Anderson. I'd say if Morgan was on a one-on-one versus Elliott Anderson on a one-on-one, I'd probably back Anderson to score it more. Maybe a bit of a controversial opinion.

No, I think that's a good observation. I wonder what it is about Crystal Palace that bring out almost world Woody goals in us, too. We had the Murillo one last season. Anderson had his score in that little tricky jinks through to the defense. That might have been goal of the season. I don't know what it is about Palace, but it seems to bring out the most ambitious efforts from our players.

Yeah, absolutely. Well, let's talk about Chris Ward. Great goal. Obviously, Henderson makes that mistake. I think it is five. Yeah, it's five goals in eight games for Chris Wood, which is just where would Forest be without Chris Wood right now, basically, especially given Taewoong. We'll touch on him later on.

You keep asking that question. The answer is the Championship is where Forrest will be without Chris Wood.

There you go.

We'd have Devon bloody Origi still playing for us is where we'd be. Andre, are you?

Don't mention him. Don't mention him. You know what? There's a guy that sits behind me and we have a joke at you because he always used to scream for Divock Origi to come on. And every time Chris Wood scores now, I turn around and go to him, Do you still want Divock Origi to come on? I think we can all agree that Yeah, I think we can all agree that Diva Karigi provided absolutely nothing for Forest when he wore the shirt, and that's probably been nice. Let's touch on Chris Wood, David. We do praise him, but wasn't really a typical Chris Wood finish. He was outside the box. I thought he struck it brilliantly. And again, a player that's full of confidence, and when you strike, he's full of confidence. I think the whole team is really as well.

Well, it's actually quite hard to strike a ball on the volley like that outside the box and It's not easy. And so when you see the players, they frequently do that in the warm-up and they're spraying them everywhere. I actually had a lot of fun watching the matchday pass today with the highlights, and they showed that the players striking the ball in a tack on goal in the warm-up. And they showed the only clip where the three of them got three goals in a row, and I was counting them like, Goodness me, they missed 20 in a row here, and then they suddenly got three in a row. So of course, that's the only three that they clipped for the highlight But back to Chris Wood. I think he's underrated as a player who can score from distance and his silky skills. We saw him with the Newcastle goals, and he's finishing there. And the way that he props up, and also he's still got that very high goals to shot ratio. He's a class player, Chris Wood. And Mark's not wrong. If without him, we might have very well found ourselves in the Championship.

But I just love his aerial presence. He's just so difficult to deal with. And you compare that to what the other teams... Like, Milinkowitch just shuts down all the headers, and the other teams don't get to lay it off back to their running through midfield. We so frequently get that through Chris Wood. It's just a delight to watch. So now, Southern hemisphere, countrymen. How are you playing? He was one of our own, Chris Wood.

Yeah, that's the thing. He just came off the back of having played for New Zealand on the other side of the world. I mean, I don't know about you guys. I need to lie down when I come back from the school. I'm exhausted.

I'm exhausted being over here. I don't know how he went and did it.

You're missing a trick, David. When New Zealand are playing at home in their next game, you need to do that short jawn over from Australia to New Zealand, show up to a New Zealand game with a Forest shirt, wave it around like a madman. I'm quite sure Chris will come over and sign it at the end of the match.

I think so. I think that's quite a good idea. All right, Chris Wood, I'm coming for you.

There you go.

Gosh, Chris and David Bolman will be best mates by the end of this season. They'll travel to New Zealand and back with each other.

Either that or Chris Wood will have a restraining order on him by the end of the season.

Well, he is New Zealand's highest ever international goal scorer. And I was actually randomly on a New Zealand pod for a different sport. And then New Zealand guys couldn't believe my level of knowledge on Chris Wood as a footballer. This guy's unbelievable. How does it know so much about this guy? It was very funny. So shout out to WasupTV.

Yes, shout out to them. Mark, I wanted to get you thought. I was actually going to talk about it at the end, but I think it's relevant to discuss it now. Obviously, Taewo came on towards the end of the second half. I see mixed opinions on social media, which we often do. It's the 21st century, right? But I saw some opinions that said he looked sharp and he looked bright and he looked okay when he came on. And then I saw some that were completely disagreeing. If I'm being totally honest, I'm probably on the side of, I didn't think he looked great again. I just thought he looked quite slow, unfit, wasn't sharp. And Timo's sole purpose of coming on at 70, 80 minutes is to hold up the ball and keep it up our end rather than it going down the other in simple football terms. And I just don't think he did that. So I just wonder what you think about him at the minute. And there's already talk of, should we get rid of him in January? How much would you sell him for? And where the forest, of course, we all probably agree, need another striker as well, because God forbid, if anything happens to Chris would.

Yeah. Well, I mean, the fact that there's talk about potentially selling him, Max, you started that. I have a difficult relationship with Taewo. Every time I see him on the sideline ready to come on, I have this unintentional tingling, like excitement. Oh, my gosh, it's Taewo. I know what Taewo is capable of. And And then that's the heart, and then the head kicks in and goes, Yeah, but I mean, what has Taewo done for us lately? And it is difficult. We know what he's capable of with his pace, his strength, he's direct. I mean, when he's on fire, he is a handful for defenders, but we haven't seen that Taewo for so long now. And we know there are mitigating circumstances, both in terms of on field and off field and injuries and so forth. I'd like to see him stick around, but probably as a third choice, I think we do need another option in January. But I'm not ready to throw Taewo to the walls yet, or Derby, or any other club that I'll have him. Because I don't know, maybe this is Maybe it's nostalgia because, again, he was the first. He's got the first goal for us in our return to the Premier League, and has had some sparkling games subsequently.

It is sad to see him struggling right now, but that The good Taewo is in there.

David,.

I'm Captain of team Keep Taewo and keep the faith. There were flashes of moments the other night where you just saw that physicality coming back. But then also there was one key moment where the palace, one of the center back on their left hand side had the ball, and you just wanted, where was the tie away from two years ago? Just storming adding with 10 minutes to go, just being an absolute pest because they were obviously pushing up on us and we were playing deeper. And in that scenario, we want just Taewo the beast just running at absolutely everything like a lunatic. And we're currently not getting that, whether that's a confidence thing or whether he's also just not as fit as where he was. It will just be heartbreaking if we go and sell Taewo to a team lower than us, such as, well, basically all of them, the team He's almost lower than us at the moment, but it would be heartbreaking to see him go to a Wolves and rescue them from relegation or Ipswich or Everton or wherever it might be. There's still a good player in him. And there's a reason to sell in the January window because strikers go for more money then.

And if we think he's not going to improve the next five months after that, then his values are only going to go down. So I might make better business to sell him. But strikers who can score goals in the Premier League are difficult to find. And if there's a chance that he can come good, would you trade Taewofe and Nketia? No way.

Also, we're watching Taewofe play, Max, as well. It does look like a little bit, and maybe you're in the stadium, so you see this firsthand, so perhaps you can speak to this. It looks like he's playing with a handbrake on a little bit. There are a couple of moments against Palace where you were wanting to step in and block something and he seemed reluctant to do so. I wonder if that's a lack of fitness. If he's struggling to cover those last few yards right now as he tries to get his legs back under him. We know he's made of hobnubs. Is there that voice in the back of his head saying, I've been out already two or three times. He's basically been out more months and he's been available at this point for Forest. And is there a voice in the back of his head saying, Don't do 's nothing stupid, ' 'don't get injured again. I don't know what it is, but we're definitely not seeing the best of him right now.

Yeah, I think it could be a confidence thing as well. Let us know what you think, always. Let us know in the comments.

We can-We got to take at least 30 seconds to talk about the legend that is Matt Sals, right?

Well, I was just about to throw to that, Mark. See, you should have faith in me, mate. I was just about to come to you about him. I was going to read out some of my favorite things, stats, because I've got no life. And stats on Matt Sells, Crystal Palace. One clean sheet, seven saves, five saves inside the box, one punch, 78% pass accuracy, 10 long balls, one clearance, seven recoveries, and this one, which sums it all up, 100 % aerial jewels. I thought, particularly, that's one thing that Matt Sells has not improved on, but I've noticed it more recently. He's almost his confidence in the air and coming out and punching or claiming a ball. So, yeah, I thought he had an excellent performance and he'll be open. And maybe a few months ago now, I was on about maybe getting another keeper in to replace him. But I'm wrong and been proved wrong. And Matt Sells had a brilliant performance. And of course, another great performance. He's had a great start to the season as a pretty much the rest of the Forest squad, that performance against Chelsea as well. I just wonder what you think, Mark.

And again, if a striker is confident in Chris Ward and a goalkeeper is confident and the back four is all right, then I don't want to get ahead of myself, but we might be booking the plane tickets next year.

You'll never beat our Belgian. You'll never beat our Belgian. No, he's phenomenal. And I actually feel bad now for only giving him eight in the ratings episode. My rationale for that was he had a couple of slips earlier in the season. But honestly, that Chelsea demonstration now compounded by the Crystal Palace performance, where I think he edged out Eric Anderson for me as man of the match. He absolutely deserves a nine out of 10 so far this season. He's narrow, he put a foot or glove wrong, and he was sensational on Monday.

Yeah. I got to tell you very, very quickly.

The save he made against Eze. It's hilarious because I'm good friends with the goalkeeper for Austin FC, and right now MLS have their thing up for save of the season. And Brad Steover, the Austin goalkeeper, is the only one to have two saves in the list of 10 or 12 saves you're voting for. One of them is against Ricky Puig, who is formerly a Barcelona. He's a big noise in MLS, and he hits the ball from about the distance as he does with almost exactly the same strike, and Stuva makes exactly the So I was sending Matt Sal's videos to Brad Steuva yesterday, and he was like, That looks familiar. I'm like, Come on, Brad. You're ready for the Premier League. Come on over now. But yeah, top draw. Matt Sal's top draw. Sorry, David, didn't mean to cut you off. I was going to say I really like Matt Sal's distribution with his feet at the moment.

The accuracy on his long passes, I'm just really noticing it quite tight. And the other thought I hadn't noticed before was the way that Marillo takes the goal kicks and then plays them to Matt Sells. And then they have this little jinky move where they're happy to... They're just so confident. I'm not sure. How many weeks have they been doing that little move? Have I just been missing that? Or maybe they don't actively cover it.

No, it's funny, actually, because somebody did mention it the other week. I actually didn't notice it. But then again, I don't notice a lot of things. So maybe I was just...

I just thought it was highly unusual. So Marillo plays the ball from the from the left-hand side of the six-yard box to Sels in the middle, and then is happy to put him under a little bit of pressure, and then they play that long ball. Just highly unusual. But yeah, I'll echo Mark's thoughts. Matt Sells, clearly confident. I think also the change in the number of keepers in the squad and him being the clear number one with Miguel has given him an air of confidence. I think that's the psyche of that has also helped him because we have a clear number one and a clear number two and not these one A, one B, one C keepers. So Matt Sells, I believe in you, and I think you can genuinely keep us in games. Such a great thing.

That being said, he is my second favorite Forest goalkeeper after Dean Henderson.

Well, he was actually for Nottingham Forest, he was only the second best goalkeeper on the pitch.

Agent.

I actually thought that was, you guys are all a bit tough on Anderson, having played goalkeeper myself. It was a good strike, but Chris Wood can hit the ball well. Dean Anderson, bloody air on my ass. Chris Wood struck it in and there was no chance. Three goalkeepers weren't saving that.

What are you talking about? David, you're so wrong. You could see Hender's reaction after it. He burying his face into the- Are you telling me that Chris Wood, that wasn't a wonder goal?

No, it was one of the great- No, it was- What are you talking about?

It was unexpected. It was the way to Max's point earlier on, the fact he even hit it from that distance was unlikely. It was well struck, but it under Hendo's body, and you could see he wanted the ground to swallow him up. But we still had the Hendo.

Hendo was so surprised that Chris would have managed to get a shot on target and from distance that he just wasn't expecting that he caught. He did catch it a little bit late, and Premier League goalkeepers of that class to expect to get that class.

Yeah, probably. Joking aside, I would take Henderson back at the city ground as a backup to sales.

Who just thought we've been arguing and going back and forth about Dean Henderson rather than Ryan Yates? I thought Ryan Yates is his biggest lover and Ryan Yates is his biggest hater on the podcast together. You're not going to get away from that title now, David. You've got to live up to be in.

Ryan Yates, just pass the ball forward once. Just once, one again.

Right. This is why we didn't get Ryan Yates on the podcast. That's why Ryan Yates is doing Forest Focus and not us. Right. Moving swiftly on, moving very swiftly on. And I just wanted to talk about before we look at Leicester and before we talk about Marenack as being banned and a few other bits and pieces, Forest, if we beat Leicester on Friday night, can go fifth in the Premier League because we play on the Friday. I just mean, what a start to the season, Mark. And we've talked about it for so long, but honestly, I think an incredible start. I think people have underestimated Forest this season. And I think they've done I think the club have got everything right so far in terms of recruitment, giving Nuno what he needs. And I just think there must be a really good feeling around the place. I mean, Forest can go fifth. Getting a nosebleed being that far up the table.

Yeah, it is remarkable. I mean, Marenackis obviously has bankroll with us to an incredible degree. The recruitment, to your point, has been outstanding, but I think not enough is spoken about Nuno. I was definitely a Nuno doubter when he came in, he didn't convince me in the half of season after he arrived after Steve Cooper. In part, that was because I was in love with Steve Cooper. I mean, it's so hard. We were so emotionally invested in Cooper and everything he'd done. And as I said to you at the beginning of the season, I know we're going to switch to Lester here in a moment, but I don't want Lester to get relegated. I want Steve Cooper to keep his job. I just want Lester to end up the season below us. That's it. Right now, touch wood. That seems to be panning out. But I think there are not enough credits given to Nuno the culture he's created, the positively competitive nature that he seems to have cultivated in the team, where players genuinely seem fired up and ready to go on, but they're not at each other's throats. He just has struck the balance so well, and so fair play to him.

And I'm not going to say anything more than that because I don't want to temp fate.

Good stuff. Well said, mate. Well said indeed. Right. Moving on to some of the topics of discussion, the small matter of Leicester on Friday. But first of all, we've got to talk about it because it's been dominating the headlines. I was listening this morning to talk sport quite a bit and they were on about it in-depth. And of course, we knew Mork and Gibbs-White were suspended, we knew Nuno was suspended, and we knew that Marenackus was going to be banned for five games, one of those five being on Monday night. So he missed the game against Crystal Palace unless he snuck in in disguise, but I'm sure he didn't. And obviously, he's got a ban. We didn't know what the ban was four, but then it's alleged that Marenackus spat on the floor by where the officials were standing and said some other stuff, which, as you can imagine, I can't repeat on a family friendly podcast, I can get away with a little bit of it, but I'm not going to even attempt it. And obviously it's caused a little bit of a debate amongst the general footballing world. In fact, David, you can kick us off with this.

And I think it's the same with Morgan and Nuno obviously getting banned. Dave talked about last week, he quite liked that we were a bit of a rebel club at the minute, a bit of a rebel city. But in the same way, Maranac is doing that. And we don't know the full details. We've not seen. We weren't there. We didn't see CCT TV of it. It's very difficult to have you say on it. But in the same way, your owner being banned for five days, five games, and Forest getting almost an eight-game ban altogether, it brings the spotlight on us again and probably isn't the best thing for the club.

Well, Well, I was thinking, I was reflecting on this in the trend on Monday night. You got to think, well, what's to our advantage for Marino Ackers and the rest of the club to actually be acting and doing here? And so are we trying to apply an appropriate level of agitation to the Premier League so that they know that if decisions go against us or we don't get fixtures or whatever that might be that they're feeling enough pressure? Or does that amount of pressure and acting like petulant at times causes a few problems. The moment with Marenackus and the spitting, he's either deliberately spat on the referee, one, or two, he's thought, I need to spit now and I'll just spit in the direction of the referee, but I'll make it look like I'm not spitting towards the referee, Or three is actually just spat to the side and they're just out to get us. And so I'd like to think that it's number three, but it could easily be number two. I think that's not doing us any favors, but I don't smoke three cigars a day, so I wouldn't know. But wasn't there the incident where we had the player who was playing against us spat towards our manager or the referee and didn't get suspended and nothing happened to them?

Just seems like they're just a little bit tough on us. But Back to your earlier point on Marenackus, whilst he has bankrolled the club, we still have to play to the FFP rules. And so all of the signings and the way that he's acting and all of the things that he's doing, and you can even see in the quality of the content production that's coming out of the club, everything's on the way up. And so you have to applaud the man and his family for everything that they've done. And you see that together that's coming through in the team. So it was clearly He was spitting because of his health. He was no ill towards the referee. That's complete rubbish. I won't believe it for a second that he was spitting at the referee, Max. No way that he could possibly have done that.

Do you agree? No. Yeah, of course not. And I think that he's He's a passionate man and he invests a lot of time and money into the football club. That obviously doesn't mean he can spit at the referee, but it means he can have his say and he can debate things with the Premier. I just don't think people, other football fans like to see somebody be a bit different and be a bit unique at times, which at Maranacca certainly is. And Mark, anything from you to add to that? Or is it just a non-story you think that maybe the media and us journalists are talking about too much Yeah, I have a few observations.

One is, it's lucky this isn't baseball, given the proliferation of chewing tobacco and sopology to get dispensed on the sideline of a baseball diamond, players will be getting suspended left, right, and center. Secondly, I don't know how Marenake could have some a disguise to sneak into the city ground. What would you do for a disguise? Cushion up the T-shirt, beard on the face? I mean...

Anyway, and then the- You have to be the most recognizable person in Nottingham. There's no way he's sneaking in. But I did notice the top deck of the shipping containers was completely empty and dark.

There you go. Well, actually, Max, breaking news here as well. I'm just seeing on Twitter, Forrest have actually put out a tweet. We regret to inform you that due to his disparaging comments regarding our captain, Ryan Yates, Aussie Dave is now no longer welcome at the city ground. He can consider himself suspended for the next three years, which seems incredibly harsh. But But then there's the rules. So we all live and die by. There we go.

Well, I'm just going to respond to that ban by saying I'm following the lead of the club, and I expect Mr. Marenackis to put in a hefty appeal and to bankroll any appeal that I may need to put towards the FA. Unless he, of course, has banned me himself.

No spitting on the pod, Dave. No spitting on the pod.

Yeah, please don't. My lens is nice and clean at the minute. Right. Small matter of Leicester. Let's discuss the game. Is this an East Midland derby, David? Everyone talks about, I think there's a little bit of added rivalry, especially even given with Cooper managing them now. Obviously, no hard feelings towards Cooper, and I'm sure he's going to get a great reception on Friday night, even though we're in the away end, and I'm sure he'll get a good reception for the reverse fixture, but it does add something a little bit about it Friday night. Let's do it and let's get a win.

The Cooper factor makes it a massive match. Anyone who thinks it's not a revenge game or some issue, if that team is behind Steve Cooper, then they will have marked this match on their calendar.

Yes, Steve Cooper's ex-team is coming to play us.

And if they're believing in him and if they're galvanized behind him, they are going to be super-pumped up for playing Nottingham Forest. As for the locality, look, I struggle being a non-Nottingham resident understanding the rivalry between the local teams. For mine, I always saw Liverpool and Manchester United as the true rivals of Nottingham Forest because we're one of the top teams, and they were the top teams in the '80s and the '90s. So there's a rivalry there, but we're a lot better than them and bigger than them. So they jagged a Premier League title once. Good luck to them. With one of our players as their captain, like, Where's Morgan? Then I win.

Yeah, absolutely. We were discussing that Leicester title, weren't we, Mark? On Deadline Day, when we joked about if Forrest got the Champions League, I'd present Garabaldi ready in my underwear. I'm not going to do that, by the way, just to put that out there. In terms of the team, we'll hopefully have Morgan back. Nuno had his press conference this afternoon and gave no real big news that is significant to say on the part. However, he said, Morgan, we're seeing how he goes and we'll see day by day, really not giving anything away of whether he will play on Friday. It worked quite nicely with him having this extra game suspension. Obviously for the Palace game, he probably wasn't going to play then anyway. Do you think he'll come back in, Mark? And also, I know the old saying of, Don't fix what's not broken, but in terms of changes to the side, would you bring James Ward-Prowse back in, or would it literally just be more than you think that you'd bring back him?

Well, first off, let me address the fact that Dave is struggling with the geographical components here in the UK. You have to remember, he lives in a country where two-thirds of the country is unpopulated, and And the nearest rival is about 3,000 miles away. This is true. The fact that Leicester is just at the street by comparison, it is a rivalry, and it isn't. David makes a really good point in regards to Wes Morgan, and of course, he's not the only player that is in exchange between the two teams. And it's what makes the rivalry with Derby so spicy as well is the fact that we have both management and players that have traded jerseys over the years. I've already cleaned my pipe singing for Matt Sells, so I'm not going sing the Stevie Cooper song. But I really, really hope the Forestaway fans do the whole Stevie Cooper. He hates the Derby. He hates the Leicester. That would be magnificent. So guys, if you're listening to this, please, that would be so awesome watching that on TV. Me and hearing you singing that. So, Max, to your point, I don't think Morgan is going to be fit for the game.

I mean, he may. Nuno might be doing a Stevie Cooper, right? And pulling Morgan from nowhere. As far as Jwp is concerned, personally, Personally, I wouldn't like to see him back in the starting lineup unless one of the other midfield players does need a rest. I mean, they've really put a shift in on Monday. We've already talked about Dominguez and the miles he covered, Yates similarly. If either of those got me, these are two games within four days in the Premier League. So if either of these guys do need to rest their legs, they have no issue with Jwp coming in. But if they're fighting fit and ready to go, to your point, Max, if that ain't broke.

You'd have to think James Ward-Prowse comes in, don't you? He's going to come in for somebody, James Ward-Prowse. One of the two just needs to... You just can't play that many minutes.

But I'm going to ask again, based on Out of form? I mean, Jwp is- Jwp is out of form, though, Mark.

You are right. He's not getting it up for us.

I just don't know that he's in form. I don't think he's been good, but he's not been epic, right?

Yeah.

Well, the only pace he showed when he was tackling that guy the other day when Max is still angry about him tackling that guy and handballing it.

Don't do it, David.

Don't do it. My Mark on Twitter, he's almost like Mark picked me up and fed me to the sharks on Forestry. I I get enough stickers. It is. I get free tickets and all sorts, and I'm paid by the club. I literally just got loads of abuse. Thanks, Mark.

So it wouldn't surprise us if Jwp comes in. The other one that's doing the rounds at the minute is dropping Alanga for.

Yeah, Jota. Max started that one, too.

Yeah, that is just completely wrong, Max. Alanga is such a gun player. He's such a good player.

His speed and his- I don't think he did a great deal, honestly, the other day. I do not think Alanga did a great deal.

He got marked out by the up and coming young left back for Crystal Palace. And then Jota comes on when the match is close to being over, when they're all naked and He gets to play in the same place. I'm telling you, Alanger is like a gun. You just don't just go... Alanger is such a good player. I'm telling you, we got to keep the faith with Anthony Alanger. This is so funny.

Do you know what? I think I think Jotter deserves... I just think he deserves a start. I think his energy and his enthusiasm and people are like, Oh, well, it's only energy enthusiasm. But I just love the fact that he's so high energy. And maybe In a game like Leicester, you need a bit of a, I'm going to say, a bit of a shit house player. Jotter can be that. But then again, it's Anthony Alanga. You guys are new up short memories on poor Anthony Alanga.

This is a great game for him. It's Leicester. Yes, I know they have two wins and on a little bit of form right now. But if you're going to unleash the Jotter, you've got to do it against Southampton or Wolves or Leicester, one of the small teams. But this is the perfect time. And then to your point, David, why not bring a langer on in the last 20 minutes and utilize his pace? Because we're going to be playing counter attack anyway, despite the fact we're the better team. You know that's how Nuno is going to set up. Well, actually, you know what? He didn't do that against Southampton. So it'd be interesting to see, but either way.

Yeah, we shall see.

Can I make a point on, do you remember when Kim's White debuted for Nottingham Forest? No. When Kim's White debuted and he came off the bench and you just had those wow moments. You're just sitting there watching him and the trick moves and you just sit there and go, That guy is going to be in the starting team next match. And then he was. Zota is good, but he's not that good. And he hasn't quite lit it up at that, I'm going to boot someone out of the team who's been in the team for over a year and a bit. I think he's not quite, and he should have scored on Monday night as well. He's not quite. I'm sick. I believe in you, Anthony Langer, and I'm putting it out there. I've got the receipts. Anthony Anthony Langer to score against Leicester.

Max, can we say that David's track record in regards to Ryan Yates, Yates showed him up. So David, keep knocking on Yota. Who knows? Maybe he'll- He may not be proven to be correct with Ryan Yates.

What are you What are you talking about? He's our Ryan Yates. He's just got that awful.

The clock, right.

Max is never going to have Mark and I on together again.

The clock is going. I knew it would be a lively one when I messaged both of you asking if you were free tonight, five o'clock on a I'd say. Right, quickly then before we go, predictions for Friday. Oh, Mark. Predictions for Friday. Dave, kick us off your one, mate.

I'm going to go 2-1, Forest. Hudson Adoy and Alanger will get the goals. Alanger to hit the winner.

Mark?

I'm going to go with a 1-1. I think Leicester are hitting a little bit of form, and they're going to be up for this game, and Cooper is going to be up for it as well. He has something to prove. I don't think it's beyond the realm as a possibility that we win this. I think we're certainly were favored. But yeah, I'm going to go 1-1.

I'm going to go completely different. I'm going to go 3-0 Forest. I think Leicester are poor. I think Forest are going to turn them over. I think we're going to prove a little bit of a point on Friday night. There you go. I shall eat my words.

They were lucky against Southampton. They were really lucky. They were going to lose. Don't you think?

I think maybe. I think it shows the fight in the spirit, doesn't it? In a side that is favored towards relegation, to turn that around. I mean, did Forest ever really do that at times? Turn it to and it was completely the other way around. It was losing three, two every week, wasn't it? In the first season, but particularly. Right. No more chat. That finishes us and does us nicely on this pod. We will be back. It's a bit of an odd one, isn't it? With the fixtures being all over the place at the minute. So we'll be back for our main episode on Monday, most likely. So we'll have a bit of time to think after whatever happens against Leicester on Friday. David, thank you as ever, mate. Pleasure, mate. No words. Thank you, mate. I appreciate it.

I think he forgot that this is also a podcast.

Yeah, that's true. I'm just giving him a piece of help. Like, come on. Yeah.

Remember, the audio only people can't hear us. Can't see us, sorry. Where was I going with that? We're going to do a live, aren't we, David? We're going to do a live before the West Ham game. We're going to find a pub and we're going to do something. So full details released in due course, whether we can organize it, where we can get people that actually come and watch us as well. I'm not sure. It's in the making to leave it with us. But if not, we'll definitely be doing something in person, me and David, before the West Ham game, which is a week on Saturday, right? Week on Saturday. Absolutely. So it will be me and Dave in person, sadly, and no Mark to interfere, although we might get him on video link if he's lucky. Mark, thanks mate, as ever. And enjoy watching on Friday, wherever you will be. He's.

You're welcome, my friend.

You're welcome. Mark is smoking a cigar for those that are audio only.

We should have those description titles, shouldn't we? We should have someone in the background giving us what Mark's doing because he's always there. He does sometimes forget we're audio. Right. Thanks, everyone, for your comments and everything. Like I said, we'll be back Monday, but until then, have a great rest of your week. And as Forrest, win 1-0 over Crystal Palace. No manager, no problem, no owner, no problem, no Morgan, Gibbs-White, no problem. You rent.