Robert Rosario - Coventry and Nottingham Forest

Coventry and Nottingham Forest

Rosario struggled to make an impact with Coventry and scored just 8 goals in 59 games. He did not see eye to eye with Butcher's successor as manager - Bobby Gould - who for a while played Rosario in midfield. However, Rosario was a key provider of assists to the Coventry City attack of Peter Ndlovu and (after his arrival in November 1992) Micky Quinn. After Rosario was sold to Nottingham Forest for £400,000 on 2 March 1993, Coventry's goals dried up and they fell to 15th in the final table after spending much of the campaign in the top five.

Meanwhile, Rosario joined Nottingham Forest as manager Brian Clough made an attempt to guide Forest clear of relegation. It did not work, and Rosario would prove to be Clough's last signing. The night before Rosario was unveiled as a Forest player, the club announced that they had 'signed a well known Premier League player' to address their goalscoring problems. Rosario, unfortunately, was not the player that Forest supporters had in mind to meet what was required.

Rosario made 10 Premier League appearances, scoring one goal, as Forest finished bottom of the Premier League and Clough retired as manager after 18 years.

Frank Clark took over as manager of Forest and Rosario remained part of his plans for a Division One promotion challenge. He scored twice in 16 league games in 1993-94 and collected a Division One runners-up medal as Forest won promotion back to the Premier League at the first attempt, though he was not a regular first team player as both of his preferred positions were regularly occupied by other players - Stan Collymore and Lee Glover in attack, and Steve Stone, Lars Bohinen and Neil Webb in midfield.