There was one thing Sabri Lamouchi always dreamed of doing when he was a player but had to wait until he hung up his boots to do: the New York Marathon. In 2010, at the age of 38, the former midfielder donned his running shoes and hit the streets of the Big Apple. “I remember the 10 miles before the end, it was so difficult I stopped for two minutes to do some stretching because I was [ready] to die,” he says. “But I finished the marathon.”
The Frenchman crossed the line in just under four and a half hours and jokes his time might have been faster if his wife had not “killed me before with the shopping”. But his reason for mentioning the tale is he reckons his Nottingham Forest team could take inspiration from it as they approach what he terms “the most crucial” part of the Championship run-in. On Saturday fourth-placed Forest host second-placed Leeds; on Tuesday they play Charlton; and next weekend they travel to the leaders, West Brom.
All those teams have stumbled recently – Forest’s seven-match unbeaten streak came to a surprising end last week when they lost at Birmingham, while Leeds’ form has lapsed so badly some of the Elland Road faithful have turned heretic and started casting doubt on the doctrine of Marcelo Bielsa’s infallibility. Promotion will go to whoever recovers and finishes strongest.
The way Forest have played this season has got their fans thinking Lamouchi is the man who will get them back to the Premier League at last. He is the 24th manager – including caretakers – to try since Forest were relegated in 1999, which is why he said his primary goal when he got the job in June was just to complete a season. “The last [manager] to do one full season here was 10 years ago [Billy Davies in 2010-11]. That’s too much [change]!”
But he has done more than hang in; he has got Forest looking strong among the front runners. To do that he has had to adapt quickly. The Championship poses a very different challenge to the ones he faced as manager at Rennes and in Qatar and Ivory Coast.
“Sometimes I wake up and I don’t know what day it is,” he says of the division’s relentlessness. “You just need to make priorities and bring the players immediately with you – be clear about what you want and what you don’t want,” he says before admitting the task became more complicated when his first two matches resulted in a home defeat by West Brom and a last-gasp 1-1 draw at Leeds. “After two games we had one point so [there was] some doubt. Some people were probably worried because before I signed nobody knew me. But the players have done a fantastic job. Now what I am saying to them is: ‘It has been fantastic [so far] but what you can and must do [next] will be amazing for the rest of your lives.’”
That message is understood particularly well by players such as Matty Cash, Joe Worrall and Ryan Yates, who have graduated from the club’s academy to become leading performers under Lamouchi. “The players [reared at] Forest start to dream like the fans,” says Lamouchi. “They just want to play in the best competition with this shirt because they started here.”
Cash agrees. He has been converted from a winger to a right-back so successfully by Lamouchi that several clubs, including West Ham and Milan, tried to buy him last month, but he says he is happy Forest refused to sell. “It’s nice to have a bit of speculation but my aim was to stay here,” says Cash. “The club is going upwards and I see my future at Forest.”
Not least because he relishes working with Lamouchi. “He’s been brilliant since the day he came in. He’s very hard on me, which I need. In my new position he tells me every day what I need to do. The quality he’s got in coaching as well as management is brilliant. He’s very demanding and keeps everyone on their toes.”
Lamouchi says after last week’s defeat at Birmingham he was angrier than he has ever been with the players. “I told some truths,” he says. “But it’s like I say the truth to my kids. I love them. I don’t want to cry because we lost promotion by one point or one goal. I am strong with them because I know what we can do.” Forest aim to get back to doing it against Leeds on Saturday. “They are a good team but Leeds aren’t Barcelona,” says Cash. “We can go and have a right good go at them.”