Rome wasn’t built in a day — but that’s okay, because it also wasn’t destroyed in a day. But if Rome were a city in England best known for Robin Hood and a half-decent football team, it was most certainly destroyed on Sept. 8.
Nuno Espírito Santo was hired as Nottingham Forest Football Club’s manager on Dec. 20, 2023. At the time, Forest looked more like a deforested patch of woodland, sitting No. 17 in the Premier League and just two points adrift of the relegation zone.
By the end of the season, Nottingham was still No. 17 — but this was a transitional year for Forest. They struggled off the pitch — with basic math, that is — after a four-point deduction for breaching the Premier League’s Profit and Sustainability rules. They clearly struggled on the pitch as well — since Nuno took over midway through the season, he had less time to implement his ideas.
But after a full preseason training camp in the summer of 2024, there was an air of hope for Nottingham. The players knew what the manager expected of them, and they knew how he wanted them to play.
And boy, oh, boy, did they play! A team once considered genuine relegation contenders managed to finish seventh.
Nuno had taken Forest fans from cowering at the threat of relegation to dreaming of Champions League football. While seventh place would normally have earned a spot in the Conference League, UEFA’s dodgy rulebook instead sent Forest to the Europa League — at Crystal Palace’s expense. Either way, it marked the club’s return to European competition for the first time in 30 years.
And what a journey it had been. From beating eventual title holders Liverpool at Anfield, shutting out Manchester City, dismantling Brighton 7-0 in what was perhaps the most painful morning of my life to somehow turning Chris Wood into a 20-goal striker — Nuno had finally made Forest a team worth rooting for.
So he went and created a dynasty there, right? Right?
No. After just three Premier League Games, Nuno was sacked last month in a statement as blunt as the dagger plunged into fans of the Tricky Trees everywhere.
Truth be told, the relationship between Evangelos Marinakis, the owner of Nottingham Forest, and Nuno had been strained for quite some time.
Following an injury to striker Taiwo Awoniyi, Nuno and Marinakis had an animated — and well-publicized — exchange on May 13, drawing criticism toward the Greek billionaire.
Then, on Aug. 22, in an interview with The Athletic, Nuno said his relationship with Marinakis had changed, and that the pair were “not so close.” When asked about his job security, Nuno went as far as to say, “Where there’s smoke, there’s fire.”
Later, according to a Sept. 10 article, sources close to the Portuguese manager said they even believed he expected to lose his job before the season started.
After Nuno was sacked, fans and pundits were left befuddled by his replacement: Ange Postecoglou.
It’s important to note that Nuno and Postecoglou favor very different styles of football. Nuno is pragmatic — he sets his team up solidly, they grab a goal and they’re happy to sit back and defend. Postecoglou is attack-minded, and nothing — not even going down to nine men against a fit-and-firing Chelsea side — would change that.
Over the course of four days, every Forest player had to get over the loss of a well-liked manager and replace a tried-and-tested system of football.
Did it work? Yes — for every single one of Nottingham Forest’s opponents.
Postecoglou managed eight games before being sacked, with a dismal record of six losses and two draws.
He certainly played attacking football — in the sense that his style made it easy for opponents to score. And they did score, conceding 18 goals in those eight games.
G’day mate? It was definitely a g’day for his opponents. Postecoglou would leave Nottingham Forest after the second-shortest stint of any manager in Premier League history, being sacked just 18 minutes after the final whistle in a 3-0 defeat to Chelsea.
What’s next for a club with more managers than wins this season? And where does one draw the line on an owner’s involvement?
That’s a bit of a mystery. But with Forest considering Sean Dyche as a managerial option, it seems they might have their heads on straight again. While Ange was a winner in his own right, it did seem a bit naive to adopt progressive football just for the sake of it. Reverting to Dyche’s football means accepting past mistakes and building upon a platform years in the making.
For a team that hasn’t lifted a trophy in 35 years and finds itself lumbering — pun intended — in the relegation zone again, you need stability — and Dyche is nothing if not stable.