Football News: Fawaz And Publicity Seeking Is Not What Is Best For Forest

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Maybe it is my age, but I just personally do not like to see a club chairman constantly in the press or on social media courting publicity. I am of the opinion that a chairman should be working behind the scenes to get things done and let the club's success do his speaking for him, not his Twitter feed.

When the football club you are running is a shambles on a number of levels, club credit cards being cut up, creditors taking you to court for unpaid bills on an almost regular basis and a transfer embargo being placed on it by the Football League, I would prefer to see the chairman sorting out those issues. So when I see Fawaz Al-Hasawi moaning about the criticism he is taking on Twitter, I just find it difficult to have any sympathy for him at all.

It is not just that he has put himself up there to give people somewhere to air their frustrations, it is that he has done absolutely nothing to address them. Nottingham Forest were always known for being a club that acted a certain way, in Brian Clough's day.

They played good football, they treated opponents and officials with respect, and they paid their bills. So when Fawaz is posting up odd pictures of paintings he had created of himself and his brother up in the sky, with Brian Clough, over the City Ground, you have to expect that to draw criticism.

It is not just that it is odd to have himself up in the sky over the ground, like they are some kind of guardian spirits along with Clough, nor that they failed to include the man who was reponsible for so much of Forest's success, Peter Taylor, it is that he has given fans a platform to vent their frustrations. When you look at how the club is being run, it is impossible to discern a good business plan being implemented.

While people keep defending the unpaid bills by suggesting you always pay at the last minute, they seem to forget that taking it to court just adds to the hassle and increases the cost. Yes a good business model is to pay at the last possible minute to keep your overdraft down, or more cash in the bank, you do it at the last possible minute before court action is begun, not after.

Then there are the managers appointed, both Billy Davies and Stuart Pearce seem to have been appointed purely to make the fans happy, which is not the way to run a football club. Fans are the most important part of any football club, that is undoubted, but you are the chairman, your job is to run the club to be successful and solvent, not to pander to the fans' desires.

That is why Fawaz should be in the background, not publicity seeking on a constant basis, so he can make the correct decisions without the pressure from the fans. Do what is right, not what is popular, as chairman you are not there to get the credit for the things you get right, because they will be credited to the manager and players when the team wins.

It is time to stop just throwing money at everything and put together a proper business plan for the club itself, the academy, the first team and the way to best develop academy players into first team footballers. Instead of moaning that some people are never pleased, no matter what you do, stop trying to please them and start running their football club properly.

Written by Tris Burke June 29 2015 06:40:31