Nottingham Forest will work towards hitting “small targets” as it reaches make-or-break time in the Championship campaign.
Boss Steve Cooper has barely veered from a tunnel-vision approach all season, focusing on where his team are and what they can do. And he has been keen to stress the Reds simply have to take their promotion push game by game, rather than look too far ahead.
Defender Scott McKenna says small goals are set for Forest to aim for. But their overarching aim is to maintain the momentum they have built up, as they head to Luton Town on Friday on the back of five straight league wins.
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Hatters blow
Luton Town boss Nathan Jones has bemoaned “catastrophic” injury problems ahead of Friday’s crunch clash with Nottingham Forest.
The Reds make the trip to Kenilworth Road on the back of five successive league wins and a 10-match unbeaten streak in the Championship. It is a run which has put them firmly in promotion contention as the season reaches its climax.
The Hatters, too, are battling for a top-six spot. But Monday night’s 2-0 defeat at Huddersfield Town made it three games without a victory for Jones’ side.
They were also forced into a couple of substitutions against the Terriers, with Pelly-Ruddock Mpanzu and former Forest midfielder Henri Lansbury having to come off. The former had to be helped off the pitch with a leg problem, while his teammate is said to have suffered a neck injury - which could make both potential doubts for the match against Steve Cooper’s men.
Transfer talk
Newcastle United are said to have already compiled a report on Nottingham Forest talent Brennan Johnson ahead of the summer transfer window.
The Reds youngster has lit up the Championship with his performances this season. And that has led to plenty of speculation about his future as he approaches the last 12 months of his contract.
Johnson has had a host of admirers since last summer, when he returned from an impressive loan spell at Lincoln City. Brentford failed in their bid to sign him in January, while Tottenham Hotspur, Everton, West Ham United, Burnley, Leeds United, Leicester City, Barnsley, Crystal Palace, Southampton and Brighton have previously been credited with an interest in the Wales international.
Newcastle were said to have been weighing up an offer in the winter window. And they have continued to track his progress as the 20-year-old has helped Forest climb the Championship table.
Spending power
The English Football League are expected to overhaul their Financial Fair Play model to limit clubs to spending 70 percent of revenue.
Teams in the second tier are currently permitted losses of up to £39million over three years – or more if they have spent one or two of the previous three seasons in the Premier League - and face potential points deductions as penalties for breaches. Now, the Championship is being tipped to abandon the one size fits all cap and instead echo changes to Uefa's new model. Major changes are also in line to the parachute payment system for sides who have been relegated from the Premier League.
Talks are ongoing between the EFL and Premier League, who are both awaiting the Government’s verdict on Tracey Crouch’s review of football regulation before committing to the next step. New rules would mean significant changes to the transfer and wage budgets of clubs in the Championship – and the most recent accounts give a good idea of potential spending power in the division.
Most teams have now filed financial returns for 2020/21, while we can also incorporate match day income from 2018/19 – the last full season with supporters allowed in for games before the pandemic. It is clear to see the impact of parachute payments, which were introduced in 2006/07 to try to soften the blow of relegation from the top-flight and the subsequent fall in guaranteed broadcast revenue from £100m to about £8m.
