Some comments made by Nottingham Forest owner Evangelos Marinakis in 2020 about Mark Clattenburg now look very interesting based on Gary Neville’s comments.
Forest are once again in the firing line and they’re developing quite a reputation this season – and not all of it is proving positive.
Last week, the club announced massive season card price hikes and on Sunday, Forest essentially questioned the integrity of Stuart Attwell.
Alan Shearer and Micah Richards were very critical of the Forest statement and others have weighed in too.
Neville was perhaps the most scathing, suggesting that Clattenburg should essentially resign from his role as the club’s referee analyst immediately.
Now, some comments released on Clattenburg in 2020 by Marinakis’ other club Olympiacos look extremely interesting indeed.
Clattenburg comments from Marinakis in 2020 are now intriguing
Well, based on what was said about Clattenburg back in 2020 by Olympiacos, it’s a mystery that Forest ever employed him.
It was claimed in the statement that Olympiacos withdrew their confidence in Clattenburg.
The whole situation came about when Clattenburg was the head of referees in Greece, with Marinakis of the belief that the standards had slipped.
Olympiacos were unhappy with the officials that Clattenburg was picking for certain fixtures and asked him to explain his decisions.
Ultimately, that was four years ago and clearly, there was some sort of truce when Clattenburg vacated that role.
Neville has no right to tell Clattenburg what to do
It’s a bit rich of Neville to inform Clattenburg to resign. Okay, Forest shouldn’t have questioned the integrity of Attwell but it’s none of his business.
Neville clearly has some form of axe to grind with Clattenburg and it’s blatantly obvious at the moment.
The former FIFA referee is only acting as an advisor at Forest and Clattenburg is trying to help the club understand why certain decisions happen.
It would be fascinating to understand how he feels about this particular statement from the club on Sunday but a resignation looks highly unlikely at this stage.
This statement from 2020 is intriguing given that Marinakis has now employed Clattenburg at Forest.
However, nothing surprises us these days at Forest and in our view, just one normal day at the City Ground would be deemed a success at the moment.
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