An early morning walk around Weird Wiv. I passed some random who was wearing the pinstripe home shirt of last season. I’ve never seen this random around Weird Wiv before.

“U REDS!!!!”

A fist bump and a return of U REDS!!!! followed. This has to be an omen ahead of a possible third consecutive away win at Anfield, right?

Sticking with the kit theme and it was good to see the debut of Forest wearing their third strip, which was making its debut at Anfield.

Disclaimer: no football club should have a third strip. Modern football is rubbish, against modern football, etc. But we are where we are.

I can’t say I’m truly won over by the Sky Blue third strip of Forest. I don’t even really get the ripples of the Trent on the strip. But it looks a damn sight better than the late 80’s pigeon shit throwback that Liverpool ran out in.

The game kicked off and Ndoye looked lively right from the start. He was having a few issues staying on his feet, possibly wearing the wrong studs?

The aim of the first 15 minutes was always to keep Anfield quiet. 20-25 minutes later and it was job done. In your Anfield slums, etc.

It looked like Ola was playing for his place in the team, possibly in the squad. He put in a great early cross as a benchmark to show the OG what he’s capable of.

Meanwhile in midfield, McAtee was simply majestic. I was surprised to see him starting after such a lacklustre performance against Leeds in midweek. This was the McAtee that we were all led to believed we had signed a year ago.

The goal from Ndoye was superb. It’s happening again. You Scouse bastards. It’s happening again. Yep.

And then whaddyaknow? Liverpool get an equaliser.

But wait! What’s this? Oh gawd I bloody love VAR. I bloody love Michael Oliver. I don’t think anyone at the ground - or even watching on the telly - saw that as offside.

The inevitable legit equaliser then soon followed after half time. I had just posted on BlueSky that it looks as though Isak had gone AWOL. His goal in front of the Kop got the crowd going.

Delap came on and looked decent on his debut. Within seconds he had engineered a genuine penalty claim for Forest. How many of those have we had turned down over the years at Anfield?

I had hoped that Delap might step up to take it and absolutely TWAT the ball to score in his debut. Instead the ball was handed to MGW.

Oh dear.

Don’t stutter please don’t stutter. He didn’t stutter, 2-1, back of the net, GEDDIN.

An unlikely third consecutive away win at Anfield seemed likely. The second equaliser that followed was far from deserved.

Hey hoe.

An away point at Anfield is always something to celebrate. This might just be what finally gets our season going under The OG.

What a thoroughly miserable evening with very few positives to take. In fact there were zero positives to take. The best I can offer is the smile I raised when news dropped that Taiwo had scored early doors for Coventry. We’ll miss him when he’s gone…

Shortly before KO it was confirmed that Delap was about to sign for Forest. There’s some neat symmetry there. Farewell Taiwo, hello Delap.

I can’t but help think they are both very similar players in terms of confidence. Leeds at home in the League Cup would have been ideal for Big T.

I was reflecting earlier in the day about the epic League Cup semi against Leeds back in 1978. Yep, I was there. I still have the programme to certify this. That seemed like an absolute proper cup tie. Tuesday evening in August felt less so.

The team news wasn’t any great surprise. Five changes from the 1-0 home defeat against Leeds only three days earlier suggests that OG was taking this competition seriously.

I had to watch the game on crappy ITV. Sadly I couldn’t get Sir Colin of West Bridgford’s commentary as it wasn’t even available on the Forest app.

Forest walked out in what looked like a League Cup walkout kit. That’s going to become something of a collector’s item on eBay in years to come. Almost box fresh, worn once. Whatever did happen to those Europa League whistle and flutes?

Leeds really are a horrid side. I can’t take any team seriously that has a player in goal sporting a man bun.

Forest weren’t poor in the first half. They just lacked pace and attacking ideas. Ola seems to be making progress down his wing as part of his new role. Not so Neco, Surprisingly he was caught out more than once.

Meanwhile Kalimuendo seemed to be playing for his place ahead of the transfer window. It was disappointing to see Diomande look so shaky on his home debut.

It was round about here that I started to lose interest as the first Leeds goal went in. It had been something of a long work day and I confess to resting my eyes on more than one occasion.

I was just about present and correct to see that we’re still as shit as ever at defending set pieces - or even taking set pieces. I can’t see what Delap brings to the table on this front.

The inevitable second goal followed. Heads dropped, the body language looked shocking for Forest. It looked proper miserable to actually be there at the World Famous.

And so we crash out of the League Cup once again in the early rounds. At best this was a Forest performance on par with peak Dyche. SHIT THE BED. That’s saying something.

The four hours or so leading up to kick-off for Forest’s first home game of the season against Leeds United on Saturday were spent with some serious podcast action catching up.

I had hoped that the pre-season would mean a bit of a break from all the Forest obsessive pod listening. Time to concentrate on the cricket, right?

But nope. The content has been relentless. Back in the day I used to look forward every evening, reading the Nottingham Evening Post sports section from start to finish. If I missed out on a minor paragraph about Gedling United then my knowledge of local sport was incomplete.

I find the same OCD absorbing of online digital content playing out 40-odd years later. MY Forest world isn’t happening unless I’ve listened to all the audio, right?

The end result was that shortly before kick-off and ahead of Sir Colin of West Bridgford addressing the nation on BBC Radio Nottingham, I was all caught up.

I knew that we were in for an optimistic season with a finish anywhere between eighth and twelfth. We will go deep in one of the cup competitions. Europe would be on the cards once again.

The OG dropped a few curve balls in his first team selection. Starting in defence was Brazilian Jair Cunha ahead of new signing Diomande. It was also interesting to see McAtee being given something of a forward pressing role alongside MGW.

The most important selection in the matchday squad was young Zac Abbott. It seems that the OG is not only aware, but also respects Forest’s proud record of having an academy player in every squad dating back to the early 1940s.

Kick-off came. Earlier in the day I had panic buy session with a slightly pricier than expected renewal of Peacock TV. I was all in place with the us telly pics and Sir Colin in my AirPods synced up.

Forest got off to a shaky start. Matz Sels kept us in the game early with a half-decent save. Down at the other end and the header from Jesus could have got us going for the season.

The yellow card for Ola seemed about fair. A red card would have been bloody awful so early on in the game. Leeds, however, were able to live up to their dirty, dirty tag without being punished.

Wilson’s effort putting the ball in the net and then being judged offside was an early warning sign. Leeds were clearly here to play the perfect road game: hit them on the brake and then bugger off as quickly as possible with three points in the bag.

Forest were much improved in the second half. We seemed the most likely to score. Once again Matz Sels in the middle of our goal kept us in the game.

McAtee came and went. He was withdrawn. Everyone seems to talk him up behind closed doors but he has yet to ultimately deliver where it matters.

This was a game that was there for Forest to win. Conceding late, late in the game was pretty poor. The free kick was decent but Selz could have kept it out.

Leeds pissed off back up the M1 with a perfect smash and grab job.

See you next Tuesday etc.

The missing piece in my quest to try and buy up all the old Forest tops that I either once owned and flogged on, or some retro ones that have been reproduced.

Here we have a blackout kit. I know, I know. It’s what all the cool hipsters are wearing down at Selhurst.

Maybe I should clarify that: all the cool hipsters down at Selhurst aren’t wearing Forest blackout kits, but you get the idea.

This is actually a really great design. It’s based on the legendary Forest 92 green away kit that was never worn in any competitive match. Replacing the green is… black.

I’m being drawn towards black an awful lot of late. It’s a black and white world - or rather it’s a black and white world when you have a body mass that is covered in more black ink more than naked flesh.

Forest would look cool as fuck to be honest these days if they did have a black kit. Chris Wood would look the bollocks in it.

And so the first pre-season for Forest with a short trip made across the Trent to take on Notts County. Blimey, the World Cup hasn’t even finished yet.

Poor old Notts. Meadow Lane is falling down, etc. I’ve always had a soft spot for the Barcode Boys on the other side of the Trent.

This dates back to the mid-1970s when we were given freebie tickets to watch the Pies at school. Forest were in no such need of having to entice young ankle biters into the World Famous City Ground even back then.

Charlie Palmer Day was not so great, but I do have fond memories of watching Colin Wanker’s team during their consecutive promotion years down at the Lane. We had the last laugh though a year later when Lars Bohinen completely destroyed the Magpies midfield.

But yeah poor old Notts, the more they hate us the more we like them. Bring back the County Cup I say.

I did ponder about forking out the £1.99 for the Forest stream. I’m such a tight arse that I even did a momentary search for some dodgy internet feed. In the end I buckled and reluctantly handed over my dosh.

It was worth it alone to hear Jason Lee on comms. He has a foot in both camps.

Forest had an incredibly strong starting 11 for OG’s first match. In charge. I wasn’t expecting that.

I also wasn’t expecting to see Yates still wearing the Captain’s armband. No complaints, Yatesy scores we’re in the Trent etc, but from which side will he be entering?

The new shirt still looks shit. I can’t get over that blob that is supposed to represent the mist rolling in. It was rather pleasing, however to see no sponsor’s logo as yet, leaving a rather fresh feel to the Garibaldi red.

It’s three years since we last played this slot in a pre-season. Both clubs have come a long way since then.

Forest more or less managed to improve with every transfer window; Notts have finally got themselves back into the old Third Division. It’s always good to know where you belong.

Kick off came Both teams were a little rusty, as to be expected. Notts are slightly ahead of us in their pre-season preparations. Hutchinson in particular seemed to struggle.

Also struggling was the fella doing the main commentary. I didn’t catch his name, and he certainly didn’t capture the name of Forest’s leading man. It seems that we have signed Morgan Rogers - surely some mistake.

The first goal came from Jesus. He walks on the Trent as the song says. It was a very cool finish as he ran straight down the middle.

Notts really struggled. They are even worse at set pieces than Forest. I didn’t think this was possible.

I did doze off ever so slightly at the start of the second half. I woke up feeling rather confused, seeing the complete change of personnel. This meant the annual appearance of Omar Richards.

When’s the next flight out to Greece?

Kalimuendo took his goal very well. He reminds me very much of Keinan Davis, being something of a battering ram up front.

We may just have solved our striker dilemma. There’s no need to go splashing the cash with Kalimuendo looking so sharp. Cheers Dyche for setting him back six months or so with a complete lack of confidence.

Elsewhere and Taiwo looked more than capable as well. I love the way he surprises us each season, always proving the doubters wrong. He looked mean and fighting fit.

And so a 2-0 win on the other side of the Trent for OG’s first outing. We picked up no injuries and there looked to be plenty of depth in the squad.

Next up: some more new signings and some shiny new toys please.

Crime of the Century? Talk about nominative determinism. This is basically pop Pink Floyd. I’m all for prog and certain elements of pop, but it’s a most unlikely alliance of genres trying to be welded together. I’d rather listen to this than what pop troubles the charts these days, but that’s just the old man shaking his fist at a cloud. Dreamer almost gets me having a little jig, but that’s about the best that it gets.

⭐ ⭐

And so Forest tease us with New Kit Day, which drops at 8:00 am tomorrow morning. Whoop de do.

The kit has been leaked online for a number of weeks now - or at least various knock-offs and interpretations have leaked. Some of the early designs even suggested a Fred Perry-style polo shirt trim Sadly that’s not to be.

In the end we have a rather bland generic red Forest kit. It will look even more crappy once all the sponsors' logos and extra Premier League badges get attached to it. We crave simplicity. We get something over than modern football is rubbish design.

It needn’t be this way. It could be oh so easy but with Adidas. The legacy all that Forest fans crave for is a slightly updated version of that championship winning crisp Adidas design.

We’re worthy of the old Adidas logo, along with other legacy clubs such as Newcastle United and Manchester United. Give us a very simple design that Robbo would have been proud of and it would sell by the truckload.

This new kit is fleecing fans at £85 a pop - and that’s just for the top. No thank you, I don’t think so.

No doubt there’ll be the usual lavish online launch come the morning, with plenty of teaser videos and then some full length Hollywood feature style three minute promo clip to celebrate the kit.

At least it’s been rushed out in time for the glamour game of Notts County away on Saturday. I do miss those County Cup finals.

I’ve not bought a new kit for many, many years now. Instead I’m stocking up with my wish list of retro designs that I want to catch up on.

All that I’m missing from the collection is the blackout that COPA manufactured. This is currently going for around £45 for new on various platforms; £25 is my top price.

New Kit Day should be a very close second behind Fixture Release Day in the football calendar. But when this kind of crap comes out then it’s hard to get excited.

No doubt Forest and Adidas will try and spin the story that the splodges on the main body design represent the mist rolling in. You can even see Mist Rolling In woven into the shirt collar. It looks more like someone has had four cans of SPESH and then made a mess over their new £85 kit.

As I say, modern football is rubbish.

FFS, Forest. Here we go again.

And so Romano is reporting that Vitor Pereira is unlikely to start the new season as head coach at the World Famous. Oh Lordy, that’s just what we need ahead of the players about to return for pre-season.

We’ve been here before of course, many, many times. I was really hoping that the new season ahead for Forest would be one of stability, starting with the same coach as last season - and preferably ending with him.

A top ten finish would be fine. A decent cup run and a possible Wembley appearance is all that we ask for.

But nope, Marinakis wants it all. You have to applaud the Big Fat Greek for his ambition but I’m not sure we have the infrastructure, or even the current fan mentality, to be able to match the dizzy heights in which he has set.

Something has to give. You keep on pushing for more and more and then eventually something breaks at the seams. Just look how the bubble imploded at both West Ham and Leicester.

Sure Pereira didn’t exactly trail blaze us into an end-of-season glory, but he was very, very good with his tactics. He did the job in keeping us up, something we were told was the main criteria in hiring him.

He skilfully managed the demands of Thursday in Europe and then Sunday back in the Premier League. A semi-final appearance in a major European competition is simply stunning for a club the size of Forest.

We came so, so close. Villa were a far better side for the away leg, and were tactically organised sufficiently to get the job done.

I really thought Pereira would survive at least until Christmas. There have always been whispers about his start of the season at Wolves last year. As long as he didn’t have too much say in the transfer window then I was confident that his coaching would be all that was required.

There was the red herring of a possible move to the Saudi Super League. Maybe that wasn’t a red herring? It all did feel a little odd when the contract talks were on and then both sides diplomatically said they were happy for them to be put on hold.

I get tired of saying trust in the process, trust the Big Fat Greek. Each time he more or less seems to deliver with the right person waiting in the wings.

But for every Steve Cooper and Nuno there’s also a Martin O’Neill and Sean Dyche. Oh Gawd, how Dyche must be pissing himself right now.

This is all so unsettling for the players. Elliot Anderson is about to kick off in a few minutes in a World Cup knockout match. Technically he’s still a Forest player. I doubt the news has even reached him that his club coach is on the verge of being replaced.

I really can’t be arsed to look online for the odds as to who is favourite to replace Pereira should the Big Fat Greek pull the trigger button. Marco Silva would be the fans' favourite but that ship has long since sailed.

I was getting a little excited about pre-season. I even thought through the possibilities of a trip back to the Fair City for the Notts pre-season.

I can’t be bothered now, knowing that there is so much uncertainty behind the scenes.

I really want to be part of a club that is pushing forward together, on and off the pitch. That’s the cliche that Forest fans sing but the reality is far from different.

It’s time for the Big Fat Greek to recognise that a compromise is needed for what his ambitions are and what the fan base wants. We want stability, we want certainty. We want glory but not at any price.

A Stuart Pearce The Leader T-shirt from around 1993. I actually had an original of this back in the day. I pretty much didn’t take it off for a two-year period, and that included running half marathons in it.

I’ve still got the photo of me looking not quite so fresh-faced, wearing The Leader as I crossed the finish line in the 1993 Robin Hood half. Betcha I could still duck under my one hour 45-minute timing for that particular race.

I have questions about this T-shirt. The first is that The Leader is obviously playing on the popular song title of a convicted paedophile. Oh dear. You couldn’t get away with that these days.

There’s also Stuart Pearce Promotions. It’s not an official Forrest product, but something that Psycho obviously went about doing himself. I don’t think image rights were a thing for professional footballers in the early nineties.

Then there’s that iconic picture: on my days, those thighs, that bulge in his shorts. Don’t focus on that bulge in his shorts, Jase.

I think it’s the celebration following the goal in the 1991 FA Cup Final. That had a happy ending, right?

The T-shirt itself is in surprisingly good nick for something that is over three decades old. I can’t see any visible sweat marks under the armpits.

I did have the thought that maybe it is my original that I sold around 10 years ago that has now come back to me, but the lack of sweating under the armpit suggests not.

Christ, he was such a hero of mine at the time, and remains so to this day.

And so farewell the Geordie Maradona. There’s been some uncertainty over the overnight price quoted for the sale of Elliot Anderson to Manchester City. Was it £116 million or £130 million?

I get confused by football finances these days. Long gone are the days when Trevor Francis was sold for one million pounds and you knew where you stood. There were reportedly no add-ons, no obligations, and no hidden costs down the line (although technically it wasn’t a one million pound transfer fee…).

But anyway, back to the Geordie Maradona. He’s been bloody brilliant for Forest hasn’t he? A £35 million pound purchase to a £130 million pound sale doesn’t tell the whole story.

he weird PSR deal that saw the Greek fella head in the other direction towards Newcastle makes it more like a £15 million pound purchase being flogged on for whatever the final price is. Job’s a good ‘un.

I remember hearing loads of hype over the summer when we signed him. Endless podcasts raved about how good he was. I have to confess I’d never heard of him.

There wasn’t even any consensus as to where he would play. It seemed at first that he would be an MGW in waiting. The thinking was that we would get one more season out of Morgan, then Elliott would be able to step up and fill in that central role in the middle of the pitch.

I’m not even sure he knew what his exact role would be at Forest but it’s testament to the player that he pretty much manufactured it for himself. He found a way of playing that made it impossible for our long list of Head Coaches to leave him out. Put simply, he just dominated everything in midfield.

He goes about the job so quietly as well. You don’t want to get too star-struck over these extremely well-paid footballers, but judging by his profile and his rare media interventions, he seems like a thoroughly bloody well-rounded and decent young man. That’s a rarity in the modern game.

Unfortunately I’ve never got to actually see him play live. Getting a Forest ticket at the World Famous these days is near on impossible. Watching him on the telly gives you some degree of understanding as to how he dominates games. I would have loved to have seen him at the World Famous up front and how he can dictate the entire play around the pitch.

I think Forest played a blinder here. We turned down the initial two bids. It seems that the intention was always to agree to the third bid. Man City probably knew that as well. Both sides played the game well.

It works out well for Forest, saying they sold a player for the current highest British transfer fee. Ditto for Man City. He is a marquee signing for what is supposedly a marquee club in English football.

It does leave us with a what next question. We simply can’t replace him, but the money gives us options to buy up to two or even three players that we need to fill that gap.

And so farewell to the Geordie Maradona. In decades to come we will be speaking about him in the same hushed tones as the likes of Archie Gemmill, Neil Webb and Roy Keane, although to be honest I think he tops that list even now.