Online Reporter
AS two wise men once said, it’s such a fine line between stupid and, uh, clever.
This philosophical gem comes from the mockumentary — if you will, rockumentary — Spinal Tap, in which the David St Hubbins character is marginally brighter than bandmate Nigel Tufnel.
Back in the summer of 2022, it was Nottingham Forest cast as the idiots after bringing in 31 players to help their bid for a successful return to the English top flight.
Meanwhile, Chelsea’s £250million spree on eight stars was generally regarded as a positive sign that the new owners would do their best to keep the Blues in the style to which they had become accustomed under Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich.
The two clubs have moved back and forth on the stupid/clever scale in the intervening two-and-a-half years. But if Forest end the season in the top four, and Chelsea don’t, it will be pretty clear where they stand.
That feels like a real possibility after recent results. When Chelsea sat second for most of December, boss Enzo Maresca played it cool and insisted his side were not title contenders.
After five Premier League games without a win, Maresca’s stance now looks less like a mind game to take the pressure off his players, which hasn’t worked, and more like a frank assessment of their level.
Forest chief Nuno Espirito Santo has also preached caution, but he and his players have maintained their strong start to the season.
The battling draw against leaders Liverpool last week on Tuesday was the latest evidence they can mix it with the big boys and have a good chance of staying the distance.
It has been tempting to tar these clubs with the same brush, with Forest as the poor man’s Chelsea — despite owner Evangelos Marinakis being a billionaire.
When the Blues splashed out an unprecedented £300m-plus in January 2023, they firmly joined Forest in farcical, rather than fantasy, football. Graham Potter and then Mauricio Pochettino were sacked for not making enough sense of it all. While at Forest, Steve Cooper paid the same price in December 2023 as the club dug in for another relegation battle.
That was before Forest were docked four points for breaking profit and sustainability rules due to their 2022-23 spending.
Such a miscalculation would have looked even more stupid if they had gone down.
Chelsea’s owners dodged any penalty by selling a couple of hotels to themselves for £76.5m just before the deadline for the 2022-23 period. It showed they were clever at accounting, at least. —Sun.
