Jose Mourinho scouted a Nottingham Forest buy who has shown how Manchester United can turn it around

Mull of Kintyre is not a football anthem to rival Sunshine on Leith and it will doubtless draw the usual query of "What the f*****g hell is that?" from the Manchester United supporters in the Bridgford Stand on Tuesday night.

It will be belted out with more gusto than ever. Nottingham Forest, who finished 17th in the Championship less than four years ago, are in the top three of the Premier League and into the final four of the FA Cup.

This evening's fixture is bigger for Forest than United as they have everything to lose. Forest rose to fifth when they won at Old Trafford for the first time in 30 years in their 15th league fixture nearly four months ago. Fifth would secure a place in next season's Champions League, never mind third.

Forest were even nostalgically billed as budding championship challengers a few months ago. Chiefly to draw up anticipation for their game against champions-elect Liverpool. These are heady days for a club that was 21st in the second tier when United loaned them James Garner in January 2021.

Sleeping giant is maybe overstating it with Forest, whose last major honour was in 1990. Yet they are another club - a smaller club with fewer resources - that have a recruitment strategy United must glance at enviously.

And that was after two scattergun summers that must have made United blush. Forest signed 21 players in the 2022 summer transfer window and they came 16th. Last season, they dropped to 17th.

Steve Cooper remains, just about, the club's finest manager since Brian Clough. But Forest head-hunted an upgrade midway through last season in Nuno Espirito Santo, a Premier League-standard manager who was an ill fit with Tottenham.

That was on Spurs. They interviewed Antonio Conte in the summer of