Gary Brazil: Players focused on beating Rotherham – despite Nigel Clough saga

Gary Brazil says Nottingham Forest’s players are focused on securing three points against Rotherham on Tuesday night despite Nigel Clough being linked with the Reds hot seat.

Interim boss Brazil says that, although chairman Fawaz Alhasawi has spoken to the Burton Albion boss about the prospect of taking over the managerial reigns of the club his father steered to back-to-back European Cups, his only focus is on picking the right team to thwart the Millers.

However, it was widely reported on Monday night that Clough has now turned down the opportunity – and Brazil says he and Jack Lester will continue to work to the best of their ability for the foreseeable future.

“I know the club have spoken to Nigel,” Brazil said.

“At this moment I’m overseeing the position and [Jack Lester and I will] continue to do the best of our ability until we’re told otherwise. We’ll continue to hold the reigns and make sure the training’s done correctly.

“We’re focused on making sure we put out, what we believe, is the right team to take three points from tomorrow night’s game against Rotherham.”

Brazil is targeting his second win from three in the Forest hot seat, the Reds beating Bristol City and losing to Leeds United after the academy director stepped-up to the plate to take temporary charge of the club following the dismissal of Philippe Montanier three weeks ago.

Gary Brazil addresses the media ahead of tomorrow night’s game against Rotherham.

Forest sit 19th in the Championship and five points clear of the relegation zone. The Millers, meanwhile, are rooted bottom of the second tier.

“We’re working on a game-by-game basis,” he said, “We’re making sure we understand the opposition we come up against. Myself, Jack and Rob Page went up to Rotherham on Saturday and watched them play Barnsley.

“We know everything about Rotherham; we’re ready to go for that. We’ll make sure we’re properly prepared to play against Aston Villa on Saturday. If it goes beyond that, we’ll continue on the same path.

“I love this football club very much and I’ll do whatever’s asked of me. It’s a privileged position to be manager of Nottingham Forest, even if it’s on a temporary basis. We’ll do it to the best of our ability.

“When the point comes to someone else coming in, we’ll stand down and get on with our other jobs.”

Forest yesterday confirmed the signing of Aaron Tshibola on a season-long loan deal from Championship rivals Aston Villa.

The 22-year-old is in the squad for tonight’s game and Brazil is confident of getting further deals over the line before the January transfer window slams shut at 11pm.

“There’s a list of players that we’re very, very interested in – Joao’s [Teixeira] on that list.

“January’s such an awkward window to get players out of clubs. We’ve got a very big list we’re pushing through.

“I’m very hopeful that, in the next 48 hours, we’ll see some more players coming in. What we wanted to do was to have a stronger squad at the end of January than we had at the end of December. That’s what we’re trying to work towards.”

(Visited 105 times, 1 visits today)