Nottingham Forest could be playing in the Championship or Champions League next season
Stuart Pearce would love to see Forest reach the Champions League – and the problem that would come with it(Image: Robbie Jay Barratt – AMA/Getty Images)
Nottingham Forest could go from battling to retain their star players to needing to add even more, according to Reds legend Stuart Pearce.
While much of Vitor Pereira’s thinking will be geared to making sure Forest stay in the Premier League next season, the Portuguese coach will also be plotting a way past Porto in the last eight of the Europa League.
The Reds play the first leg in northern Portugal on Thursday, April 9 and the return game at the City Ground a week later.
Sandwiched in between is a vital Premier League game with fellow Europa League hopefuls Aston Villa as Forest go into the final stage of the season with seemingly everything on the table.
Relegation to the Championship is one possibility, staying in the top flight and qualifying for the Champions League is another, with the next few weeks dictating whether they can hold on to the likes of Elliot Anderson, Morgan Gibbs-White and Murillo.
Pearce, who played for and managed Forest, says winning the Europa League and reaching the continent’s elite competition would present very welcome problems.
“All of a sudden playing in the Champions League, they go from potentially selling their best players to needing to add three or four top-quality English players, or top-quality international players so they can run a campaign in Europe at that standard – otherwise you’ll get absolutely decimated,” he told Betway.
“But I think it’s brilliant with Forest, you can’t lose track of the fact that they’ve been outside the Premier League for 23 years. They’re now playing in Europe at a quarter-final level, that’s fantastic. But they need to make sure they secure Premier League status next year.
“Personally, I think there’s better teams in the Europa League and Forest have not shown enough consistency. Their consistency has probably been better in Europe more so than in the Premier League. So I worry whether they’ve got enough goals in their ranks to actually win.”
Pereira is Forest’s fourth manager of the season, after Nuno Espirito Santo, Ange Postecoglou and Sean Dyche and has so far made a modest start to this City Ground tenure with three wins and four defeats in nine games – but only one Premier League victory.
That came against Tottenham Hotspur last time out and massively improved the Reds’ hopes of avoiding relegation. Pearce thinks if they stay up, Pereira will have earned the right to see out the final year of his 18-month contract.
“I think if he keeps them up and has a run that goes beyond the quarter-final in Europe, I think that would dictate that they would have to stick with him,” the former defender said.
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