Nottingham Forest were bashed from every angle for taking Mark Clattenburg on in an advisory role last season.
Clattenburg remains close to Evangelos Marinakis but it was announced last season that he was no longer working with the Reds.
Forest appointed Clattenburg after a string of high-profile errors from VAR and match officials during the 2023/24 campaign.
Marinakis decided to call on the help of his friend and former colleague in Greece, but it had zero positive impact on the club.
Michail Antonio was critical of Forest for the appointment, and he wasn’t the only one with Gary Neville and Jamie Carragher also having their say.
Clattenburg is always on the end of a phone for Marinakis, and now he’s had his say on the highest profile decision Forest had go against them last season against Everton.
Mark Clattenburg shares what Howard Webb told him before Everton vs Forest
The errors in the game that Forest lost 2-0 to Everton last season was the one that cost the club £750,000 in the way of a fine.
That was down to a message that the club posted on X after the game that saw Forest question the integrity of Stuart Attwell, who was on VAR that particular day.
Clattenburg has been speaking to The Overlap about the build-up to that game and he’s delivered a shocking comment about Howard Webb’s involvement.
He explained: “It was a build-up, it wasn’t just that decision. A few days before, the club brought it to the attention that Stuart Attwell was a Luton Town fan and that set up a lot of bad feelings because they’d had such a lot of bad decisions over the season.
“It was brought to the club that they were going to bring it to Nuno’s attention that Attwell was a Luton fan and the club felt that it’d be better if Attwell wasn’t involved on VAR for that game between Forest and Everton. When I spoke to Howard Webb, he wasn’t aware that Stuart was a Luton fan, which surprised me a bit because you have to declare that. Howard was new but I felt that it’d have been better if Attwell wasn’t given that game.
“I’m not saying he’s impartial, of course I’m not, English referees are the fairest across the world, but it puts Stuart in a very difficult situation that if anything happens, people will always bring back the Watford ghost goal, and all of this comes out. It could have been avoided.
“All I said to Howard is that this is a difficult situation and if anything happens in the match, Stuart is going to get destroyed.
“In my professional opinion in that match, Stuart made two mistakes. People can argue he made three mistakes but I think he made two clear mistakes, the handball by Ashley Young in the first half and the foul by Young in the second.
“VAR is there to improve decisions and should get the final outcome right, but to make two high-profile errors in a match of such magnitude, I don’t think the VAR had the best game in that particular match.”
Forest manage to steer clear of VAR troubles during 2024/25
Thankfully, this season has seen Forest motor along nicely and currently the team occupies third place in the Premier League table.
Forest have had a couple of decisions go against them. The Premier League released a statement about Ola Aina recently, but in fairness, it probably was a penalty on that occasion.
The Reds have largely steered clear of too much controversy and thankfully, the players have ensured that the talk is centered around the football.
Clattenburg’s appointment probably didn’t get welcomed because, by the sound of these comments because he was talking far too much sense.
It was completely flawed to put Attwell in such a pivotal role on that game and thankfully, the outcome didn’t cost Forest their Premier League status.
Receive a digest of our best Nottingham Forest content each week direct to your mailbox
