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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Sport
Luke McLaughlin

‘The Godfather’: fitness guru who breathed fire into Forest’s second coming

Pete Edwards of Nottingham Forest (right) takes a fitness session before the Uefa Cup quarter-final first leg against Bayern Munich in March 1996.
Pete Edwards (right) takes Nottingham Forest’s players through a session before the Uefa Cup quarter-final first leg against Bayern Munich in March 1996. Photograph: ANL/Shutterstock

Some people in football make headlines; others work behind the scenes to make them happen. Pete Edwards, Nottingham Forest’s head of performance in the era when Stan Collymore and Bryan Roy terrorised the Premier League, belongs in the second category.

As Nuno Espírito Santo’s side challenge for European qualification, evoking the club’s glory days, it is hard to see them matching the Forest team of three decades ago who finished third – and that, straight after promotion. The manager, Frank Clark, revived the club after Brian Clough’s departure, but according to many in that 1994-95 squad, Edwards was the catalyst for their success.

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