After pondering which club to join for all of 10 minutes a decision was decided to relieve David Platt of his duties and take over the reigns at Forest. With a decent squad there already and money in the bank the future looked promising. My aim was to achieve promotion within 3 seasons!

I began by allowing a few squad players to leave and pursue their future someplace else. This brought in more transfer funds which was now close to 12 million. With my influential striker Stern John injured for 3 months i brought in Paul Warne from Rotherham for 750k. I also brought in a few bargain buys such as Jeff Kenna(1m), Carlo Nash (90k) and Kevin Muscat (2.5m) + 2 youngsters.

I got off to a good start and by the time Christmas came I was in the playoff places and had Stern John back from long term injury. All was going well when after C'mas i went on a run which consisted of me winning 7 of my last eight games and unbeaten in 12!

Meanwhile we were flying in the FA cup with wins over Luton town and Arsenal. We drew 2-2 with the Gunners, with Henry scoring in the final minute to bring the game to a replay, but we ended up with a 4-2 victory in Highbury with 2 goals from Paul Warne and 2from the on loan Danny Murphy.

With the season coming to a close I was voted manager of the month and we were on top of the 1st Division!!! With Grimsby and Blackburn biting at our heels we knew it would be tough holding this position but when we beat Southampton in the q-final and Sunderland in the semis we had an F.A. Cup final and automatic promotion ahead of us. Already I had done enough to secure my future at the City Ground for at least another 3 seasons.

We improved the squad with a record transfer fee of 3.3m for Noel Whelan who was finding it hard to settle down. Come the end of the season Grimsby beat us to the championship but with 2nd place we were more than delighted with Stern John and Paul Warne proving to be unstoppable with 54 goals between them. An FA cup final was then played but proved too much for us coming up against The Boro (3rd in the Premiership) who beat us in extra time with a Hamilton Ricard goal in the 118 minute after Danny Murphy had put us ahead. We enjoyed the day though and we proved that we could mix with the big boys next season.

A hard preseason then began with the board delighted with my achievements so far and telling me to fight bravely against relegation from the Premiership I won the Umbro Cup with cictories over Napoli and Blackburn. Because there was money to be spent I took a few gambles bringing in two Italians. Mauro Milanese(4m) and Bordichini (3M) bolstered the squad making the squad look great on paper. Ronnie Wallwork(1m) and Chris Kirkland(2.75m) then joined which was what looked a very capable squad.

5 games gone, 4 points taken was dissapointing as we had lost narrowly in our games. This proved to be our season all over. Crashing out of the FA Cup in the 4th round was also hard to take as our season went into freefall. It wasnt all doom and gloom though with Stern John still producing the goods but with a minimum release clause of 4 million a big worry! Noel Whelan was placed on the transfer list with a long run of poor form. 10 games to go we were placed 2 places from the bottom and trailing Derby who were 4th from bottom by 5 points, the job wasnt beyond me.

Ontill Everton FC sacked their Scottish manager Walter Smith and I applied for the Job. 2 weeks later Everton offered me the position of manager and with Liverpool and Juventus rejecting my offer to take control of their clubs I decided to jump a sinking ship and take over the reigns of the Toffees.

Forest got relegated and I saved Everton from dropping the division with 17 points from a possible 24!