Davies can be Reds’ Special One

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There’s an age-old saying in football that you should ‘never go back’.

However, I’m not sure Chelsea fans would agree following the return of the ‘Special One’, and the same can also be said for Nottingham Forest and Billy Davies.

In fact, the Championship seems to be the most popular place to smash the theory of ‘never going back’ firmly into Row Z.

Leicester City manager Nigel Pearson is in his second spell at the King Power Stadium and was unlucky not to take the Foxes to Wembley through the play-offs last season.

Bournemouth have turned to Eddie Howe once more following a less than convincing spell at Burnley and were rewarded with promotion from League One last season.

Gary Johnson is also in another spell with Yeovil, while Gary Bowyer at Blackburn and David Flitcroft at Barnsley had caretaker spells as managers previously before being given the job permanently.

Tony Mowbray at Middlesbrough and Chris Powell at Charlton can be also be debated if you are willing to take previous playing history into account.

So is it a case of ‘why not go back?’

Davies has always spoken of ‘unfinished business’ on Trentside and who’s to say you can’t learn from your past mistakes and embrace the familiar surroundings of a club to become a success in your second spell?

It’s difficult to argue against it that’s for sure. There are other strong cases for it such as Graham Taylor at Watford, Walter Smith at Rangers, and players like Jurgen Klinsmann at Tottenham and Thierry Henry at Arsenal.

Only time will tell on Davies, but the early signs are certainly encouraging.

A strong start to the campaign sees the Reds sitting pretty at the top of the table after three wins against Huddersfield, Blackburn and Bolton.

In fact, if you include Forest’s pre-season and the Capital Cup, Forest are unbeaten in 11 matches since reporting back from their summer holidays.

The Reds face two tough tests shortly, though, starting with Watford away live on Sky Sports this Sunday and Wigan away the following week.

Owen Coyle has strengthened strongly and still has the core of the side that was playing Premier League football last season so, despite the Latics’ recent form, it will not be easy.

But Forest have strengthened themselves and now look to have a squad that is likely to be competing at the top end of the table this season. Davies still believes the squad is ‘two or three’ players short but I fully expect us to better last season’s eighth-placed finish with or without any more players.

You’ve always got be lucky with injuries and refereeing decisions but, as we know with Championship football, as long as your home form is good and you can pick up the odd point away from home, you won’t be far away come May.

Should Davies manage to take Nottingham Forest back to the Premier League for the first time since 1998-99 then he will be Nottingham’s very own ‘Special One’ indeed.

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