Pick a Nottingham Forest greatest XI in any pub in West Bridgford and you will be there until closing. Two European Cups, a league title won by a promoted side, a record signing who became the first £1m footballer in Britain, and more than 160 years of history to draw on — the Reds have never been short of candidates. Here is our all-time team, picked in a classic 4-4-2, with the honourable mentions that very nearly made it.
Goalkeeper: Peter Shilton
No argument, and not much of a debate. Shilton arrived from Stoke City in September 1977 for what was then a British record fee for a goalkeeper, and Brian Clough always maintained that the signing was worth a dozen points a season on its own. He was behind Kenny Burns and Larry Lloyd for the title win and both European Cup finals, and he remains, for many, the finest goalkeeper England has produced.
Defence: Anderson, Burns, Walker, Pearce
Viv Anderson at right-back is a pick that carries weight well beyond football. A Nottingham lad who came through the Forest academy, he became the first Black player to start a full international for England, against Czechoslovakia in November 1978, and he was quick, brave and far better on the ball than the era gave him credit for.
Alongside him, Kenny Burns — a striker at Birmingham City whom Clough and Peter Taylor converted into a centre-half, a switch so successful he was named Footballer of the Year in 1978. Partnering him, Des Walker: two spells, the second stretching into his late thirties, and a defender so quick that opposition fans stopped bothering to chase the terrace chant. “You’ll never beat Des Walker” was less a song than a statement of fact.
At left-back, the captain. Stuart Pearce signed from Coventry City in 1985 and spent twelve years at the City Ground, collecting more than 70 England caps and two League Cups along the way. Psycho is the closest thing the modern Reds have to a patron saint.
Midfield: O’Neill, Keane, Gemmill, Robertson
Martin O’Neill spent a decade at Forest and won the lot — the league title, two European Cups, League Cups — before going on to a management career that briefly brought him back to Nottingham in 2019. He gets the right of a midfield four built for balance rather than muscle.
In the centre, Roy Keane and Archie Gemmill. Keane was plucked from Cobh Ramblers in Ireland, thrown into the first team in 1990 and sold to Manchester United three years later for a British record fee; those three seasons were enough to show everyone what was coming. Gemmill, signed from Derby County, was the relentless engine of the 1977/78 title team and, while a Forest player, scored the goal against the Netherlands that Scotland still talks about.
And on the left, John Robertson. Clough famously described him as an unremarkable-looking young man who became an artist the moment the ball arrived at his feet, which is about as Clough as it gets. Robertson supplied the cross for the winner in Munich in 1979 and then scored the winner himself against Hamburg in Madrid a year later. Two European Cups, two moments, one wide man. Our guide to Forest’s back-to-back European Cups covers both nights in full.
Attack: Francis and Collymore
Trevor Francis made Britain’s first £1m transfer when he joined from Birmingham in February 1979, and repaid a chunk of it almost immediately by heading the only goal of the European Cup final against Malmo — a competition he had not even been eligible for in the earlier rounds.
His partner is the pick most likely to start an argument. Stan Collymore was at Forest for barely two seasons in the mid-nineties, but at his peak he was close to unplayable: power, pace and a finish from anywhere. He left for Liverpool in a British record deal, a fee that still features high on our list of Forest’s biggest sales.
The Nottingham Forest greatest XI in full
(4-4-2) Shilton; Anderson, Burns, Walker, Pearce; O’Neill, Keane, Gemmill, Robertson; Francis, Collymore.
Unlucky to miss out
Plenty, and some of them with a real case.
Grenville Morris is the club’s all-time record goalscorer with 217 goals between 1898 and 1913, a Welsh international from an age that too few supporters know much about. Bob McKinlay made more than 600 appearances across nineteen years and holds the club’s appearance record. Nigel Clough scored well over a hundred goals in nine seasons and later managed the club. John McGovern captained the side that lifted both European Cups, which is a fair line to have on a CV.
Larry Lloyd was the other half of the great centre-back pairing and only misses out because Walker edges him. Ian Bowyer scored the goal in Amsterdam that took Forest past Ajax and into the 1980 final. Garry Birtles and Tony Woodcock both led the line in that period, Peter Withe was the centre-forward of the title season, and Ian Storey-Moore was the outstanding Forest player of the years immediately before Clough arrived.
Why the Clough era dominates
Nine of the eleven played under Clough, which is not laziness so much as arithmetic. Between 1977 and 1980 Forest won the First Division at the first attempt after promotion, two European Cups and two League Cups, and did it with a squad assembled for a fraction of what the era’s giants were spending. The full story of how that happened is set out in our long read on Brian Clough at Nottingham Forest, and the trophies themselves are listed in our Forest honours guide.
What the list also shows is how long the wait has been for a new name to force its way in. Forest have been back in the Premier League for five seasons now, and under Oliver Glasner the squad has just been rebuilt again over a summer that took spending past £100m. Morgan Gibbs-White and Murillo already have supporters making the case; club-record signing Liam Delap has time on his side. Whether any of them ever displaces Robertson or Pearce is another matter — and if you want to check the honours they would be measured against, the official Nottingham Forest website keeps the full record.
For now, the XI above is ours. Yours, we suspect, is different by at least two.
