Nottingham Forest Greatest All-Time Team
Please also see my All-Time World Cup Team Index.
This is my selection of a 25 member all-time team for the club. The number 25 was chosen because it is the official squad size for the Champions' League.
Founded in 1865, Forest were founder members of the Football Alliance in 1889 and joined the Football League in 1892. Since then they mostly competed in the top two League tiers, excepting five seasons in the third tier. Forest won the FA Cup in 1898 and 1959. Their most successful period was under the management of Brian Clough between 1975 and 1993, winning the League in 1978, back to back European Cups in the two years thereafter, four League Cups and two Full Members Cups.
TeamGK: Peter Shilton (England)
Peter Shilton is considered one of the greatest keepers ever. He is England's all-time cap record-holder with 125. He earned his first cap in 1970 and his last 20 years later in 1990. He took England to 4th place in the 1986 World Cup. He played for 11 different clubs in his career, all in England. He won two straight European Cups in 1979 and 1980 with Nottingham Forrest.
 |
| Peter Shilton |
Linacre joined Forest in 1899. Linacre was chosen to go on the first foreign tour with his Nottingham club in 1905. In the same year as he appeared for England, he toured Uruguay and Argentina.
GK: Mark Crossley (Wales)
As a player he was a goalkeeper from 1988 until 2011 and he has previously played for numerous clubs in England's top flight, notably for Nottingham Forest, where he became the only goalkeeper to stop a Matthew Le Tissier penalty kick. He has also played for Manchester United, Milwall, Middlesbrough, Stoke City, Fulham, Sheffield Wednesday, Oldham Athletic and Chesterfield. He earned 8 international caps playing for Wales between 1997 and 2004.
RB: Viv Anderson (England)
In 1978, Anderson became the first Black player to play for the senior national team. He would earn 30 caps. He was on two World Cup team: 1982 and 1986, and two European Championshiop team: 1980 and 1988. He was a part of the Nottingham Forrest team that they won the European Cup. He also played for Arsenal, Manchester United and and Sheffield Wednesday.
 |
| Viv Anderson |
CB/ST: Kenny Burns (Scotland)
He arrived at the Birmingham as a defender in 1971, but was converted to striker and earned the first of his 20 international caps in that role soon afterwards. However, after joining Nottingham in 1977, he was converted back into a central defender. Burns proved a great success in his new role and was voted FWA Footballer of the Year in 1977–78, as Forest won the First Division title. He was an influential figure to Forest's victory in the 1979 and 1980 European Cup tournaments.
CB: Des Walker (England)
Walker played 59 times for England. He started in all of England;'s games at the World Cup Finals in 1990. He was rated as one of the best defender at that Finals. For club football, he mainly played for Nottingham Forrest and Sheffield Wednesday. He played one season at Sampdoria in then 1992-1993 season. He was Forest's player of the year three times. On four straight occasions at Forest he was selected for the PFA Team of the Year.
 |
| Des Walker |
He was once club player for Nottingham Forest. He is the club's record appearance holder and won the 1959 FA Cup Final with the club.
CB: Larry Lloyd (England)
Lloyd was remembered for his stints with Liverpool and Nottingham Forest. He helped Liverpool winning the First Division in 1972-1973, the FA Cup 1973-1974 and the UEFA 1972-1973. He was also a part of Brian Clough's team that won back-to-back European Cup.
 |
| Larry Lloyd |
After playing in the lower division, he moved to Nottingham Forest in 1993. It was at Forest where Colin arguably played the best football of his career, his form earning him two England caps in 1995.
LB: Stuart Pearce (England)
Pearce was a club legend with Nottingham Forrest. He was the club's most capped international player. He played at the WC Finals in 1990 and the European championship min 1996, where England had the best two results since the WC win in 1966.
 |
| Stuart Pearce |
He started his career at Crook Town. He started his professional career at Newcastle United, and played a total of 464 games for them between 1962 and 1975. He then joined Nottingham Forest, and helped them win promotion in 1977, and he played for them in the 1979 European Cup Final, where they beat Malmö FF
CM/DM: Roy Keane (Ireland)
Keane was the captain of Manchester United from 1997 to 2005, where he won one Champions' League, 7 Preimer League titles and 4 FA Cups. He was the PWA Player of the Year in 2000. He had 67 caps. He played for Ireland at the 1994 World Cup Finals in the USA, but was sent home 4 years later before the start of the World Cup Finals in 2002. He later played for Celtic in Scotland after leaving Manchester United.
CM: John McGovern (Scotland)
McGovern is most famous for captaining the Nottingham Forest side that won the European Cup twice. At the age of 19 he became the youngest player to play in all four divisions of the Football League. During his playing career he won promotion with Hartlepools United, Derby County and Nottingham Forest.
 |
| John McGovern |
He played as a midfielder but could also play as a defender between 1980 and 1997 notably for Portsmouth, Nottingham Forest and Manchester United. Webb also played for Reading, Swindon Town, Grimsby Town, Aldershot Town and Hong Kong side Instant-Dict.
Capped 26 times in five years for the England team, and was also the 1,000th player to be capped by England.
CM: Steve Hodge (England)
Joined his boyhood club Nottingham Forest as an apprentice in 1980 and helped the club to reach the semifinal of the UEFA Cup. He also played for Aston Villa, Tottenham Hotspurs and Leeds United. Capped 24 times. He went to Mexico 1986 and Italia 1990.
RW: Martin O'Neill (Northern Ireland)
Starting his career in his native Northern Ireland, O'Neill moved to England where he spent most of his playing career with Nottingham Forest, with whom he won the European Cup twice, in 1979 and 1980. He was capped 64 times for the Northern Ireland national football team, also captaining the side at the 1982 World Cup.
RW: Steve Stone (England)
Stone began his career at Nottingham Forest, where, despite suffering three broken legs, he managed to establish himself as a vital team player, and also earned a call up to the England squad, making his international debut in 1995 against Norway. He went on to earn nine caps, scoring twice, and was part of Terry Venables' squad for Euro 96.
LW: John Robertson (Scotland)
He played for Nottingham Forest when they were at the peak of their success under manager Brian Clough, notably scoring the only goal in a 1–0 victory in the 1980 European Cup Final against Hamburger SV. He also played for the full Scotland national football team, scoring the winning goal against England in 1981 and against New Zealand in the 1982 FIFA World Cup.
 |
| John Robertson |
He started his professional football career with Lossiemouth FC and then, Bury paid £150 for his services in May 1952. In 1954, he joined Derby County. However the "Rams" were relegated out of the Second Division at the end of the 1954–55 season. He joined Nottingham Forest in 1955. He was part of the City Ground club's 1959 FA Cup winning team, providing the cross for the first goal in the final by Roy Dwight. Capped 4 times.
FW: Stan Collymore (England)
He held the English transfer record when he moved from Nottingham Forest to Liverpool for £8.5 million in 1995.
and was capped three times at senior level by the England national football team. He formed a great partnership with Robbie Fowler. Unfortunately, he never lived up to expectation after his first few seasons. Capped 3 times.
 |
| Stan Collymore |
FW: Grenville Morris (Wales)
He was one of the greatest players of his generation and was known as "The Prince of the Inside-Lefts". He still holds Forest's all-time goal scoring record with 217 in all competitions. He won his first full international Welsh cap at the age of 18 in 1896 against England, and went on to play 21 times for his country,
ST: Wally Ardron (England)
He joined Rotherham United from Denaby United, and went on to score 98 Football League goals for Rotherham, either side of World War II. He joined Nottingham Forest after his time at Rotherham, and holds the record for scoring most Forest league goals in one season (36 in 1950–51).
ST: Nigel Clough (England)
Clough is most notable for his time as a player at Nottingham Forest, where he played over 400 times in league, cup and European matches in two separate spells, mostly under the managership of his father Brian and scored 131 goals throughout his career making him the second highest scorer in the club's history. He subsequently had spells with Liverpool, Manchester City and Sheffield Wednesday. Capped 14 times.
 |
| Nigel Clough |
ST: Tony Woodcock (England)
Woodcock broke into the Forest first team in 1976–77, helping the team to promotion to the First Division. Under Brian Clough, Forest went on to win the First Division title and Football League Cup in 1978 (Woodcock winning the PFA Young Player of the Year award that year as well), and the European Cup in 1979. In 1986, he joined FC Köln in 1979 and later played for Arsenal. Capped 42 times and went to Spain 1982.
ST: Trevor Francis (England)
Francis won the European Cup with Nottingham Forest and played for England 52 times. He went to Spain 1982. He was England's first £1 million player. His career also took him to Manchester City, Birmingham, Detroit Express, Sampdoria, Atlanta, etc.
 |
| Trevor Francis |
Honorable mention
Brian Laws, Des Lyttle, Johnny Metgod, Michael Dawson, Steve Chettle, Wes Morgan, Archie Gemmill, Joe McDonald, Julian Bennett, Pierre Van Hooijdonk, Ian Woan, Ian Bowyer, Jermaine Jenas, Jeff Whitefoot, Jack Burkitt, Gary Crosby, Barry Lyons, David Phillips, Garry Birtles, Ian Storey-Moore.
Squad Explanation
--Andy Reid only played in the lower division for Nottingham Forest.
-- Michael Dawson and Jermaine Jenas were famous elsewhere.
Formation
Post a Comment