Nottinghamshire

This week, we are asking you to share your stories and photos about why you fell in love with Forest.

Here is a selection of your submissions:

Guru: When I was a lad growing up in Kenya in the 1950s, our window to the outside world was BBC World Service. On Saturdays, I used to be mesmerised listening to the football scores. One team always stuck in my mind - Nottingham Forest. In my mind, it had associations with Robin Hood.

Back then, I was not to know that eventually I would come to live within 17 miles of City Ground. One of the first things I did was get a season ticket, which I then had all through the glory years. How I wish I still had it!

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Nicola Pearson
BBC Sport journalist

Image source, Getty Images

'Why did you fall in love with your club?'

This week, we have asked hundreds of football fans across the world that very question and got hundreds of different answers.

Yes, the themes might be similar - born near a ground; family supported the team; watched a certain player - but the individual story will be unique to each supporter.

The relationship between a fan and their club should not be underestimated, with people ploughing uncountable amounts of money, time and emotional energy into their support for their team.

But what is that makes us love our clubs the way we do?

"A lot of it comes down to our identity," researcher and co-writer of the Routledge Handbook of Sport Fans and Fandom Danielle Sarver Coombs told BBC Sport.

"We become part of this group that means so much to us. It becomes a way to find a community that you're a part of and to find a group of people that, no matter where you are, you could find a pub with other fans of your team. You have that kinship.

"In a world that's increasingly quite lonely, this provides one of the ways that we can have connections so we can have the feeling that we're part of something bigger."

Connection and identity plays a big role in someone's love for their club - particularly when it is a family link.

Many fans talk of being born into who they support - that the connection is so strong there was no other team they could, or would, have chosen.

"The great thing with football is that there's such a strong heritage component to it," Sarver Coombs said. "Often, your grandfather, father, mother or whomever was a fan of the team, so it's part of your family's tradition.

"It's handed down from generation to generation."

The uniqueness of football fandom is something researchers are increasingly investigating.

An article, external published earlier this year in psychology journal Frontiers discusses how football fans often follow follow teams with 'significant attachment and commitment, sometimes to the bewilderment of those outside of the game'.

"With football clubs, you have decades of tradition that you can tap into and it's going to keep coming," Sarver Coombs added.

"Players come and go, managers come and go, shirts change, badges change, but the club itself - the heart and soul of it remains constant. You always have that piece that you're tied to, so the longevity of clubs is a really important part.

"But also, that constant in-person opportunity to be present in a community space really sets football apart from other passions that may be transient or do not have that constant engagement."

Share your story in our My Club My Passion campaign

We know the relationship between a football fan and their club is a special one so, as we gear up for the new season, we asked you to share why you fell in love with Nottingham Forest and some of your favourite moments supporting them.

Here are some of your submissions:

Edward: The origins are lost in the mists of time, but as a seven or eight-year-old I was looking for a club to follow. I didn't want to follow the same clubs as my friends did.

So I chose Nottingham Forest. Was I attracted by the name? Probably. Did I know they were European champions? Possibly. Did I watch John Robertson score in Madrid? Definitely. By then, I was hooked.

It has largely been thin gruel, but that only makes the high points even higher. Being a Forest fan became entangled in my identity. I didn't meet another Forest fan for over a decade and nobody in my family or social circle knew another one. As Nick Hornby described his Arsenal fandom in Fever Pitch, I was the embodiment of Nottingham Forest for anyone who had a passing interest in football during the turbulent 1980s.

The advent of an Irish supporters' club, a few bob in my hand and a gang to cross the Irish Sea with meant I could travel to my East Midlands home. The concept of a place where there would be tens of thousands of Forest fans had never really hit me so I had full sensory overload on my first visit to the City Ground. Every visit since has given me a buzz.

I know nothing else and I know no better. I will carry Nottingham Forest with me to the grave.

Alexander: As a seven-year-old in1940, I was taken to watch my first soccer match at the City Ground - a wartime friendly. The result was Forest 2-4 Lincoln City. The following Saturday, I was taken to Meadow Lane and this result was Notts County 1-5 Grimsby Town. Even then, my arithmetic was good enough to decide Forest were the better of two lovers. Never once in the ensuing 85 years have I regretted that decision.

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Image source, Getty Images

We asked for your views on the upcoming season after a run of no wins in five pre-season friendly fixtures.

Here are some of your comments:

Peter: I honestly can't believe all this hysteria about pre-season. Get a grip everyone, this is all about minutes in the legs and trying different things out. Gee whizz.

Ian: I'm worried. Losing runs are hard to stop. It began towards end of last season. I was hoping pre-season would reset that run but it hasn't. I know Nuno has to experiment, but the two remaining home games must show a marked improvement or we'll have little confidence to start the season.

Andrew: Man-management is Forest's secret weapon. We can get too hung up on the departure of key personnel like Anthony Elanga, Brennan Johnson and, of course, Steve Cooper. Our success again this season will stem from Marinakis' handling of Nuno and his close connection to the players, and how well the club quickly integrates new signings.

Paddy: We need to speed up the recruitment of quality players in key areas. We don't have enough goal threat and just two decent full-backs. Not panicking just yet, but definitely concerned.

Robin: Very, very concerned. Not only the fact that the rest of the Premier League have worked out how to play against us, but the midweek away games in the far flung ends of Europe will be a killer. Plus the fact that we now have another team who hates us and are bound to get six points off us - Crystal Palace.

Ian: One goal in five pre-season friendlies hardly fills supporters with confidence ahead of the new season. The lack of goals is a worry but so is the lack of chances being created. People will say they are only friendlies and that Nuno has played a lot of reserve and fringe players in these games - but it doesn't bode well for the future.

John: Not feeling confident about this season. OK, we've held onto Gibbs-White for now and replaced Elanga. But we've added two cheap Botafogo players and shipped a lot more out. The squad is already a lot smaller than last year. I think we'll not get far in Europe and see us in the bottom quarter of the Premier League this year.

Image source, Getty Images

New Nottingham Forest signing Dan Ndoye featured as the Reds went down 1-0 to Birmingham City at St. Andrews.

Jay Stansfield netted the only goal of the game as Nuno Espirito Santo's side continued their winless summer run.

Forest have no wins in five friendly fixtures and have scored once - in a 3-1 loss to Fulham - during the summer run.

The Reds face Fiorentina (5 Aug) and Al Qadsiah (9 Aug) at the City Ground in their final two summer friendlies.

How are you feeling about the season to come?