Football Dynasty-Chapter 565: Sending Nottingham Forest Into Relegation

A disappointing performance by Aston Villa at Villa Park, following their defeat to Manchester City, saw them overtaken by both Manchester City and Chelsea in the race for a Champions League spot next season.

Manchester United — 75 points

Arsenal — 73 points

Manchester City — 71 points

Chelsea — 70 points

Aston Villa — 68 points

Liverpool — 66 points

"The next three final fixtures are Nottingham Forest, Liverpool, and Arsenal," Miss Heysen said as she reported to Richard.

"..."

Richard cursed under his breath.

This bloody FA... can’t they make the schedule a bit more humane for us?

"Fine, then," Richard said after a brief pause. "Tell José this clearly — I want results. If he can secure a Champions League place for next season, this season is his. No performance reviews. No uncertainty."

"What? Richard, that’s—"

"I know," Richard interrupted calmly. "It’s a risk. But José needs something concrete to fight for. Liverpool and Arsenal aren’t easy. He needs belief... and positive pressure."

There was silence on the other end of the line.

Miss Heysen processed his words, then nodded even though he couldn’t see her. "Understood. I’ll deliver the message exactly as you said."

"Good. Marina and I are still in Barcelona. We should be back next week."

"I’ll make sure everything’s prepared."

The call ended.

Richard leaned back, exhaling slowly. This wasn’t about favoritism or sentiment. Next season wasn’t optional. Champions League qualification was non-negotiable.

They had to be there.

Time passed, and in the next round of the league, Manchester City traveled a long way from Manchester to Nottingham Forest’s City Ground. Thankfully, Richard wasn’t there — otherwise, he would have been stuck in traffic in Nottinghamshire.

The funny thing was that Nottingham Forest’s fans seemed to already know what was coming, as banners were being held up even before kickoff.

One banner read, "Barnes, you’ve let us down!" while another demanded, "Eric Barnes out!"

Yet another banner, in contrast, declared, "Always support the Reds!"

How bitter it must have felt for Nottingham Forest supporters. In the past, their club had been a giant — a true giant-killer — claiming titles and striking fear into opponents season after season. Now, that glory felt impossibly distant.

Three decades later, all Forest could do was cling to survival, hovering near the relegation zone and fighting simply to stay afloat. For a club once defined by ambition and dominance, the contrast was painful — a reminder of how quickly footballing fortunes

This marked the third encounter between the two teams this season.

They had already met once in the league and once in the League Cup, with Manchester City holding a record of one win and one draw.

Mourinho sat in the City technical area box with his father, watching the match unfold, while Baltemar Brito appeared alongside him.

When the commentator announced Nottingham Forest’s lineup and formation over the stadium speakers, Mourinho felt a wave of frustration wash over him.

Originally, the plan had been to rotate the squad and field several substitutes for this match. However, the night before, the entire first-team squad had unanimously approached the coaching staff in the locker room, requesting to start. Every player was desperate for the league title, and faced with such collective determination, Mourinho had no choice but to compromise.

Nottingham Forest currently sat nineteenth in the Premier League. Traditionally, survival required finishing at least seventeenth. To have any realistic chance of staying up, Forest would need to win all three of their remaining matches, or at the very least produce a near-perfect run and hope results elsewhere went their way.

It was essentially the same situation for City, who were also hoping to stay within the top three to secure a ticket to European competition.

The chances of breaking into the top three were slim every season, as the leaders — Manchester United and Arsenal — consistently kept the chasing pack at bay.

At the time, the table stood as follows:

Manchester United — 75 points

Arsenal — 73 points

Manchester City — 71 points

Chelsea — 70 points

There wasn’t much of a points gap between first and fourth. Just a few points separated the top teams, while there was already a noticeable gap to the teams below them. As a result, the battle for fourth and fifth place was especially fierce.

In addition to the top four, Leeds United and West Ham were also in the mix, all closely matched. The smallest gap between them was level on points, while the largest difference was only three points. With just three rounds remaining in the league, any of them could still claim fourth place.

Aston Villa — 68 points

Liverpool — 66 points

Because of this brutal environment, where every single point was priceless, Forest boss Ron Atkinson had already shifted toward extreme pragmatism. In their previous match against Leicester City, he had set the team up in a 5-3-2 defensive formation.

Now, facing even greater pressure, he went a step further, deploying a 5-4-1 for the current match.

The message was unmistakable.

Forest didn’t want to concede again. They weren’t chasing style, pride, or aesthetics — they were fighting to survive. At this stage of the season, avoiding humiliation mattered almost as much as avoiding relegation. One point was better than none, and damage control had become the priority.

This wasn’t cowardice.

It was desperation — and realism.

The City Ground was packed to capacity. Fans from all across West Bridgford fought for tickets to watch the remaining matches. If ticket allocations between home and away supporters had not been strictly enforced, it would have been almost impossible for neutral fans to get a seat at all.

The City Ground had always been a small stadium to begin with, but as the team’s situation deteriorated rapidly, every inch of the stands was filled.

The atmosphere became electric — and tense. Stewards, club officials, and police were forced to be extra vigilant, maintaining crowd control and safety as demand pushed the stadium beyond its comfortable limits. The ground could no longer match the scale of the club’s ambitions. Events were moving faster than the infrastructure could handle.

PHWEEEE~

The match quickly devolved into a half-field exercise in attack versus defense.

Manchester City dominated possession but struggled to penetrate Nottingham Forest’s compact wall, especially as the home side continued to overload the midfield.

Watching City’s repeated failures to break through, Baltemar Brito turned to Mourinho and said,"Their formation looks like a 5-1-3-1. To be precise, it’s closer to a 1-4-1-3-1."

Mourinho nodded.

Nottingham Forest’s intentions were obvious — they were playing for a draw. Since Pierre Van Hooijdonk, top scorer in Forest’s promotion-winning 1997-98 campaign went AWOL (Essentially went on strike) before the start of the season following the sale of strike partner Kevin Campbell, it appeared that he would never play for the club again.

To be honest, if that was the situation, it would have made more sense to sell both of them as a package, given how successful their previous campaign had been. His strike partnership with Kevin Campbell was crucial to that success.

Back to the match~

Now, aside from Steve Chettle, operating as a withdrawn center-back, midfielder Thierry Bonalair and Andy Johnson were also dropping deep, effectively forming pseudo center-backs behind the midfield line. Although Johnson was nominally a defensive midfielder, his role had become almost entirely defensive.

With two midfielders permanently shielding the back line, Forest’s defense turned into a fortress, reinforced by double layers of protection, both centrally and out wide.

Nottingham Forest’s attacks flowed only along the periphery. Every time they approached the danger zone, they were swallowed whole by Manchester City’s dense defensive structure.

"How do you break through this?" Brito muttered from City technical area.

"At this point, only luck can help," Mourinho replied quietly. "Forest have struggled all season against compact defenses. Their flanks have some threat, but the middle is weak. Next season, the balance between the wings and the center has to improve."

He let out a sigh. It was a systemic issue — a limitation of the tactical framework itself. Much like Arsenal’s rigid 5-3-2, which often produced dull 0–0 draws against deeply packed defenses, Forest simply lacked the tools to unlock City’s shape.

In their five defenders setup, Forest relied heavily on wide play, but everything funneled back toward a single focal point in the center. That left their main creator isolated, closely marked, and suffocated by City’s midfield screen, with barely any space to operate.

Mourinho immediately stood up and turned toward the City bench.

"Ronaldo, Ronaldinho, and Larsson — warm up."

Three attackers at the same time.

When the ball went out of play a few moments later, Mourinho made his move. For the first time, he showed why he would one day be called "The Special One."

Makélélé — off.Stanković — off.Thuram — off.

Madness. Absolute madness.

Even Brito and the rest of the City staff were stunned. Some hurriedly warned him that City could be exposed on the counterattack.

But once again, Mourinho showed them who was in charge.

Or, as people like to say:

Quality over quantity. Once you choose true quality, it will always find a way.

Trezeguet. Pires. Henry.

And now, add Ronaldo, Ronaldinho, and Larsson.

Since then, Manchester City’s attacking approach leaned heavily on individual brilliance rather than rigid structure.

Zidane, Ronaldo, and Larsson combined intelligently in the final third, constantly rotating positions and pulling defenders out of shape, while Pires — with Ronaldinho and Pirlo surging forward from midfield — overloaded the attacking zones.

Their technical quality allowed them to survive — even thrive — in one-on-one situations. Despite often being outnumbered near the penalty area, City still created several promising chances.

The only thing missing was the finishing touch. Pires, in particular, squandered two clear opportunities that should have changed the scoreline.

From the edge of the coaching area, Mourinho folded his arms and glanced back at Baltemar Brito. For a moment, he considered instructing the team to bypass midfield entirely with long balls. But the thought died quickly — there was no traditional target man up front, no classic center forward to pin defenders and bring others into play. Long passes would only invite pressure and risk a counterattack. He rather focus on ball retenction ti minimie the risk.

Then, without warning, the breakthrough came.

After failing to break Nottingham Forest down through patient buildup, City took a calculated risk, committing more men forward and pushing their defensive line dangerously high.

That was the moment.

Larsson surged through the center like a freight train, forcing Steve Chettle to step out and confront him. He drove deep into the heart of the defense, dragging bodies toward him, holding their attention until the very last second.

Then — a perfectly weighted square pass.

Pirlo arrived at pace.

"PIRLOOOOO—!"

One volley. Clean and deadly.

"OH MY WORD! WHAT A HIT!"

The net rippled.

"GOOOOAAALLLLL! MANCHESTER CITY HAVE DONE IT!"

Manchester City had finally broken through — not with sustained pressure, but with ruthless efficiency born of pure quality.

All the City staff exhaled in unison, the tension finally draining from their shoulders. Sometimes, structure failed. Sometimes, patience ran out. And sometimes—

PHWEEEE~

—one moment of pure quality was enough.

"Forest defended heroically for nearly ninety minutes," the commentator roared, "but one flash of brilliance has shattered them!"

"And listen to that away end—this could be a season-defining goal!"

Nottingham Forest 0 – 1 Manchester City

It wasn’t pretty. It wasn’t dominant. But a win was a win.

Yet what should have been a happy ending quickly turned into chaos.

The reason?

At the bottom of the table, the situation was brutal: 𝓯𝙧𝓮𝓮𝒘𝓮𝙗𝙣𝒐𝒗𝒆𝓵.𝓬𝓸𝒎

18. Charlton Athletic — 33 points

19. Blackburn Rovers — 31 points

20. Nottingham Forest — 24 points

Relegation was no longer a threat—it was staring them in the face.

As the final whistle echoed across the City Ground, silence hung for half a second—an unnatural pause, as if the stadium itself was holding its breath.

Then it broke.

Boos poured down from the stands, raw and furious. Some fans hurled scarves to the ground. Others turned their backs on the pitch, unable to watch their club sink any further. The banners that had been raised before kickoff were lifted again—this time shaking with rage.

"Hooijdonk Out!"

"You’ve ruined our club!"

Even on the streets, the tension was impossible to ignore.

The fans were split into two factions: one dominated by extreme supporters staging protests, while the other rallied behind the current Forest side. They held banners along both sides of the road, forcing the City players and staff to pass through a corridor of anger and defiance, leaving the bus in a somber silence.

Originally, nothing here was meant to affect them. But with only two matches remaining in the Premier League season, everyone—especially the players—couldn’t help but wonder: Would their fate one day be the same?