Former Nottingham Forest midfielder Simon Gillett played at the City Ground for two years between 2012 and 2014.

The managerial instability that has held back the club's progress was already affecting matters at the two-time European Cup winners during his time there but he hopes that Aitor Karanka's appointment can make that a thing of the past.

FLW's Sam Preston caught up with Gillett to get his view on the season so far down at Forest and how it might end up under Karanka.

What are your thoughts on Karanka's appointment?

My good friend George Friend played under him at Middlesbrough, they did really well, getting into the Premier League. From what I hear he's got a good coaching staff with him and hopefully it's a bit more of a settled time with Forest.

The turnover of managers, even since I was there, is crazy. It would be good to get a manager with an ethos who can get them up. It's been too long, the club deserves to be there.

What are your thoughts for the rest of the season? 

He's going to be working with everyone else's players and it's always difficult for a manager coming in. Just a solid finish to the season would please everyone. I'm sure Karanka has got plenty of irons in the fire.

Do you fancy an FA Cup run after beating Arsenal in the Third Round? 

I was at the game there watching against Arsenal, I thought they did brilliantly. It was a good performance, a lot of young players did really well.

I know Arsenal underperformed but they still would have expected to beat Forest and Forest played really well.

The players love the cup and I don't see any reason why they can't go on a cup run.

Thoughts on the new owners so far at Forest?

It's been such an up and down ride with Forest in the last few years and the key is stability. Just stick with this manager. It would be good to have everything settled down and have someone there who really wants to get behind the club.

I'm sure the owners want that and hopefully that transfers over to the players and the coaching staff.