Nottingham Forest chief says promotion 'just the beginning' as glory days honoured

CEO Dane Murphy is confident promotion to the Premier League “is just the beginning” for Nottingham Forest.

For the first time in 23 years, the Reds will be back in the top-flight when the new season begins. Victory over Huddersfield Town at Wembley on Sunday completed a remarkable turnaround, with Forest going from bottom of the table when Steve Cooper was appointed manager in September to being crowned play-offs winners.

Cooper galvanised a dressing room which was bereft of team spirit and morale when he walked in. He has also embraced the club’s glorious past, regularly talking to some of the European Cup-winning Miracle Men and using their achievements as an inspiration rather than seeing that history as a burden. Murphy is the same.

He told American radio station Sirius XM: “You never want to escape it. You want to adhere to it and you want to honour the history, the players, the coaches and all the former staff that brought glory to the name, to the city and to the community.

“If you don’t do that, there’s a bit of arrogance and almost disingenuousness that myself and the club would never want to touch. You have to adhere to it, you have to honour it, but then you have to build a new history with what you have.

“I always say, on the base and the infrastructure and the blocks that are in place, you have to grow something new. Steve, his staff, the players, this season, our ownership, my backroom staff, have built a new history. I think this is just the beginning.

“We will always look back at the 79/80 group, the European Cups and FA Cups, the players who have come through and Brian Clough, and say, ‘there is an element to this that we have to always adhere to and always remember’. But we can also build our own