What a difference a year makes...

From the Through the Seasons Before Us blog on 17th June 2008 at the end of Forest's successful League 1 campaign.

" This has come as a bitter disappointment to me; today Sammy Clingan has agreed to sign a deal for two years at Championship rivals Norwich City once his contract at Forest expires at the end of the month.......

Sammy tends to get mixed reviews from Reds fans; personally I’m a huge fan of his contribution since he’s been with us. For us his energy has largely been deployed as a combatitive holding midfielder rather than the forward-bursting role he plays for his country. I’ve seen him referred to as ‘Sammy Sideways’ and ‘Sammy Centre Circle’, which I feel does him a massive disservice. He’s been excellent at breaking up play this season, and to me I think he’s a massive pair of boots to fill.

Sammy himself declared Norwich a ‘big’ club compared to Forest’s mere ‘good’ club status, it doesn’t bode so positively for Forest that he singles out the manager and facilities as his motivation for choosing to move on.

“I’m absolutely delighted to be joining a big club like Norwich City. I’m leaving a good club, Nottingham Forest, to join Norwich and I’m really looking forward to trying to get them promoted to the Premier League.

“Once I had spoken to Glenn Roeder and viewed the fantastic facilities at the Club it was an easy decision to make. I knew of Glenn’s managerial reputation, working with big name players in the Premier League and hopefully he will help me become a better player too. I was very impressed with what he said and his plans for the future – it really caught me and now I can’t wait for the first game.”

Interesting to note that in his interviews so far with the club and the Telegraph he hasn't mentioned "big club" or "promotion to the Premier League" though he does talk about our fantastic stadium and Coalman being a good young manager. Let's hope he is as thoughful in his pass selection as he is in his choice of cliches and that "Sammy Sideways" is not the heir to Boozy.