Martin O’Neill says one Nottingham Forest star had ‘real power’ during his CG tenure

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Martin O’Neill has claimed that Ben Watson was the only player with any real power at Nottingham Forest when he was in charge of the club. The former Reds incumbent has been speaking to the Garibaldi Red podcast this week to promote his new book.

O’Neill’s spell in charge didn’t exactly go according to plan. He won and lost 42% of his fixtures, with three of the 19 games he oversaw ending in a share of the spoils.

That form saw Evangelos Marinakis act. He dismissed the manager after just 19 games in charge, appointing Sabri Lamouchi ahead of the 2019/20 campaign.

It’s clear that O’Neill is disgruntled with how things panned out at the City Ground. He felt he could get the team promoted had he been given some more time.

There has been a notion of player power in the dressing room being the reason for O’Neill getting the boot. The 70-year-old believes that wasn’t the case though.

He told the Garibaldi Red podcast: “I noticed there’s this idea of player power against me.

“I’m not too sure that there were that many players of great power in the dressing room.

“Ben Watson had won a medal but I’m not so sure it was littered with gold dust after that.”

Although Watson likely had power having been a winner during his career, it’s unlikely he was a bad egg. Watson always gave his all for Forest and after O’Neill left the club he was brilliant under Lamouchi.

The experienced midfielder was incredible during 2019/20. He captained the team and almost helped the team reach the Championship play-offs.

O’Neill claimed Watson was the only Forest player with power of winning trophies

Interestingly, O’Neill recognised that Watson was probably the only winner of a major in the Forest dressing room. Yet, bizarrely, he never really played him on a regular basis.

The former Reds winger is also forgetting about Costel Pantillimon. O’Neill’s regular goalkeeper had won the Premier League and League Cup with Manchester City prior to signing for the Reds.

A lot of the O’Neill stuff just seems to sound like excuses. Ultimately, Forest probably appointed him four or five years too late and they suffered because of it.

Mariankis was edging towards the idea of a progressive young coach. Indeed, in recent years, that’s clearly worked with Steve Cooper now held in regard at Trentside.

O’Neill will always be welcomed at the City Ground for what he did as a player. As for his time as a manager, the club moved on and now he must do too.