Former Nottingham Forest defender Kelvin Wilson has been speaking to Open Goal, as seen on YouTube, about how his first spell at the City Ground ended.
Wilson had a couple of stints with his hometown club, although his maiden spell ended in acrimonious fashion in 2011.
The Nottingham-born defender had played a large part in guiding Forest to back-to-back play-off campaigns but departed for Celtic following a ‘ridiculous’ contract offer.
Wilson went onto play Champions League football for the Hoops before returning to the City Ground in 2013.
The first departure left a sour taste for Wilson who didn’t feel he was valued by Forest; despite playing the best football of his career.
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He told Open Goal: “My contract was coming out. I’d had an unbelievable season; best season I’d had for my whole career, but they wouldn’t offer me any more money.
“Players were on X amount of money, and I was down near the bottom, and you want to just be on a level playing field. You earn your contracts.
“But they seemed to think, at the time, the Nottingham lads, they were doing you a favour by letting you play for Forest.
“They offered me a contract which was absolutely ridiculous. I said ‘no’. I had interest from West Brom again and West Ham as well. But then Lenny (Neil Lennon) made the call, and I could sign a pre-contract, so that makes it a bit more secure for yourself.”
Wilson admits he was anxious about moving to play in a league which is considered as a downgrade on the Championship.
“You think, ‘Scottish league, do I want to go up there?’. Then I came to have a look around and as soon as I came to Celtic Park you think, ‘Jesus Christ’. I knew straight away, ‘I’ll sign’,” Wilson continued.
Disappointment
The man who played 169 games for Forest in total said that he was gutted with how it all ended the first time around.
He said: “It wasn’t emotional because I didn’t know it was my last day. I got put on gardening leave because I’d signed a pre-contract.
“I was gutted with how it ended.”
Wilson was a vital member of the team during his first spell with Forest and was an instrumental part of a relatively successful team.
Although delighted to get the chance to return to the club two years later, he claims the club wasn’t the same one which he had left two years previous.
On the second stint, he said: “It was good to get back, but it was a different club to when I left.
“It was the new owners. Same manager, because Bily Davies got the job again and he brought me back.
“It wasn’t the Forest that I left, it wasn’t like a family club anymore. It was more vicious and not a nice place to be.”