Nottingham Forest manager Oliver Glasner is clearly a fan of Aston Villa. And he’s not afraid to discuss that admiration for them publicly either.
Earlier this week Sport Witness reported comments from the Nottingham Forest manager about his ambitions for the club.
He detailed clearly how, between him and owner Evangelos Marinakis, they were looking at Aston Villa as something of a benchmark.
“Expanding the stadium is a first step toward creating the necessary conditions,” Glasner explained, before posing the question:
“But why shouldn’t it be possible to become like Aston Villa? In other words, getting a taste of the Champions League, even if you might miss out on it again later.”
Aston Villa comparison
That was the first time that he mentioned Unai Emery’s side being in their sights. And now, speaking to Kicker, he’s used them as an example again.
He was asked if Nottingham Forest’s goal is to ‘annoy’ the big clubs moving forwards. Glasner didn’t like that idea. Instead, he made it clear the plan is to be like Aston Villa and establish themselves among the big sides like them.
“The goal is not so much to annoy the big ones, but our goal is to get closer to the big ones in order to become a big one again and again,” he told Kicker.
“Now we also have to be so realistic but here you can see the ambitions. So, the club has now got the okay to expanded the stadium in the first step to 45,000. (That’s important) because with 30,000 it’s difficult to play with the really big names in the league.”
Step by step
The Nottingham Forest manager isn’t jumping the gun, though. He knows that such developments have to be done step by step.
“And that all has to go step by step,” he added.
“We have to create the conditions in the organisation, of course also in the team. I don’t know if we can ever get as big as Man United or Arsenal now or Liverpool, but why shouldn’t it be possible to become like Aston Villa, who always sniff at the Champions League.
“Yeah, and if it’s not the case, they can also miss out on Europe, but our goal is not to stay small Our goal is to get bigger and to dock with the big boys.”
