Should Nottingham Forest have been more loyal to players after promotion?

In the summer before the inaugural Premier League season, in 1992, Nottingham Forest manager Brian Clough only spent money on two new players. They paid £800,000 to bring Neil Webb back from Manchester United and gave Coventry City about half that for Robert Rosario, bringing their total spend to £1.2m. Thirty years on and Forest have broken the Premier League record for the number of signings in a window, bringing in 22 players for £146m this summer.

Forest fans had waited 23 years to return to the top flight and their joy was unconfined when they sealed promotion by beating Huddersfield Town in the Championship playoffs final. The victory parade in the city’s Old Market Square attracted thousands of supporters as the players joined manager Steve Cooper and owner Evangelos Marinakis on the balcony of the council offices the day after their triumph at Wembley. For the host of that celebration, comedian Matt Forde, the positivity has not diminished.

“There is still an overriding feeling of euphoria, even after a couple of recent defeats,” says Forde. “Getting promoted into the Premier League was like a bullet of pure adrenalin. Considering we had pretty poor starts in the last few seasons in the Championship, the level of stress is minimal by comparison.” Indeed, Forest have had a better start this season in the Premier League than they did in either of their last two seasons in the Championship, when they began with four straight defeats.

Inevitably, many of the players who joined Forde in those celebrations in May have since left the club. Twenty-three players left Forest this summer, either joining new clubs permanently or going out on loan. There was always going to be a high turnover of players, but how do fans feel