Steve Cotterill Fears Nottingham Deforestation

Nottingham Forest boss Steve Cotterill has been left dismayed at the number of players who are out of contract at the County Ground in the summer, according to BBC Sport.

Forest have enjoyed an upturn in form in recent weeks, unbeaten in four of their last six matches including a cricket-like 7-3 win over Leeds at Elland Road on Tuesday night, but Cotterill faces losing several key players over the summer.

Amongst those out of contract are Garath McCleary, Paul Anderson, Joel Lynch and captain Luke Chambers, something that has left the Forest boss fuming:

“Desirable players going out of contract is ludicrous. I don't understand what has happened.

"If I could have [sorted new deals], I would have done before Christmas" said Cotterill to BBC Radio Nottingham.

"Players getting into the last year of the contracts is not an ideal situation - let alone when there is five weeks of the season left.

"One of the first things I said when I came in was that players needed to be tied down on contracts now and we haven't been able to do that for one reason or another" he went on to add.

McCleary is the club’s top goal scorer with nine goals, whilst Chambers has featured 34 times this season, highlighting the calibre of player possibly exiting the County Ground in the summer.

Underneath his West Country accent lays a stinging point, that Forest could start next season without the players that have barely managed survival this campaign, at one point going seven matches without scoring a single goal and losing six of those fixtures.  

Cotterill could have a busy few months doing his best impression of Simon Cowell, trying to sign as many contracts as possible with his players before Forest face a exodus only matched by Armageddon. 

@AlexOLoughlin18

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