Nottingham Forest won promotion to the Premier League on Sunday and within hours Evangelos Marinakis had issued a defiant message.
The Greek owner gave rare appearances following Forest’s win over Huddersfield at Wembley. It would appear that he’s not in the mood for messing around this summer.
In a piece with The Times, Marinakis suggested that he will hand Steve Cooper the relevant funds. It would seem that he sees Forest as being competitive, rather than merely making up the numbers.
The man who also owns Olympiacos has big ambitions. He doesn’t want the objective to be survival, much like Wolves and Brighton, he wants Forest to kick on and be successful once again.
There should, however, be some caution if a summer of big spending is in the mind of the Reds owner.
In recent times, several clubs have got their maiden season back in the Premier League badly wrong. Fulham during 2018/19 and Aston Villa during 2019/20 are two examples that spring to mind.
Both of those clubs spent close to £100 million and both were predicted to do alright in the top flight.
In the case of Fulham, they went down with nothing more than a whimper. Villa took it to the last day and did manage to survive before kicking on during last season.
At the time the Daily Mail went to town on Fulham. They called it the worst £100 million ever spent and they had a point!
Fulham finished 19th in the Premier League during that ill-fated season. They conceded a staggering 81 goals and only Huddersfield finished below them.
Forest must use inspiration from the Cottagers over how now to spend their promotion cash ahead of next season.
Marinakis defiant and he will hope Forest can avoid doing what Fulham did
The Cottagers had Slavisa Jokanovic and then Claudio Ranieri in charge of the team during 2018/19. Scott Parker picked up the pieces from February.
There is an argument that Cooper is far more shrewd than any of those three; with more emphasis places on younger players with bast potential.
Likewise, Marinakis is a shrewd businessman. He constantly cuts his cloth accordingly with Olympiacos and he’s been desperate to get Forest into the Premier League.
Now, the world could be his oyster. He will have more flexibility with regards to spending and this could be a really exciting time to be a Forest fan.
There are plenty of examples out there of how not to do it in the Premier League, however.
Fulham’s disasterclass of 2018 are right at the top of the list and Forest will hope to avoid a cock-up of similar proportion.