It was always going to end this way. Not because Nottingham Forest are the Premier League’s most chaotic club, though they probably are. It doesn’t really matter in this case. No matter how effective the organization around him, Ange Postecglou could never have made it work at Nottingham Forest.
One of the sport’s most didactic coaches, at the helm of a squad as ill suited to his philosophy as any? If anything it is remarkable he even got to game eight, a 3-0 defeat at home to Chelsea for which Postecoglou’s presence at the post match press conference was not required.
“Nottingham Forest Football Club can confirm that after a series of disappointing results and performances, Ange Postecoglou has been relieved of his duties as head coach with immediate effect,” read a statement posted so briskly that there was not even time to include the customary somber corner flag picture. Evangelos Marinakis marched into his box in the 67th minute and it was obvious that that was that. He didn’t need to see Reece James add a third to know what was coming. Nor did the City Ground, who have never really taken to the man who replaced the beloved Nuno Espirito Santo. “You don’t know what you’re doing,” was the cry when Callum Hudson-Odoi was substituted on after Chelsea’s opener.
Postecglou must have known what he’d be doing tomorrow though. He departs on his 39th day in the job, the shortest tenured permanent manager in Premier League history. It seems appropriate that that record should belong to this particular iteration of Forest, a team who entered the Premier League club having headily overindulged at the pre-drinks. They’ve barely sobered up since.
Barely into their fourth season in the top flight, Forest have cycled through 80 permanent new signings, two head coaches beloved by the City Ground and a string of controversies that could probably stretch the length of the River Trent. They are a club indelibly in the image of their owner, for good as well as ill. Few are as demanding as Marinakis, even fewer are rewarded with a rise from Championship to Europa League.
The eight years since Marinakis bought into the English game have delivered highs that Forest fans have not seen since the days of Brian Clough and his immediate predecessors. The price to be paid for that is continual turbulence, the sense of a club pirouetting on the edge of a volcano. It is less than half a year since the owner bawled out Nuno on the City Ground pitch. A further 160 days earlier it would have been unimaginable that Forest would be in the mix for Champions League qualification at the time.
Marinakis seems combustible. His club certainly is. Nuno lost his job not because of his bust up with the owner but with the head of football. Anyone who knew Edu from his time at Arsenal would speak glowingly about his ability to bring colleagues together, to create a family atmosphere across a club. Nuno himself was hardly known to blow his top without provocation. This was a head coach who had dealt quite ably with tempestuous ownership at the highest level of the Saudi Pro League but who felt compelled to blow up his position inside three games.
Sources with knowledge of the situation at Forest have argued that Nuno’s behaviour in his final weeks left Marinakis with no choice. One thing that can certainly be said to the owner’s credit is that he does not dally over decisions. Postecoglou had to go. The cavalier high line that is his calling card was always going to be a challenge for the likes of Nikola Milenkovic. Forest may have been out over their skies in terms of results last season but much of the reason for their rapidity was in the aggressive countering wing play personified by Hudson-Odoi, who has not seen a Premier League starting XI since Postecglou’s first game. The chopping and changing of lineups would have continued but, even after a summer of acquiring younger, more technical players, Forest’s squad was still one poorly designed to play the Aussie’s football.
The fans weren’t having him and Postecoglou’s ever more spiky approach under questioning was not going to ingratiate him. It is now 31 defeats in his last 50 Premier League matches. His style of play demands a talent imbalance but he has not proven himself capable of dealing with the spotlight that comes with such squads. His time in the Premier League may be over.
For Forest to avoid following him out of the top flight then they will surely need to revert to an approach closer to Nuno’s. That is reflected in their thinking over who might step in. Sources with knowledge of Forest’s thinking expect former Burnley and Everton boss Sean Dyche to receive serious consideration. He is as good an insurance policy against relegation as exists on the managerial market right now, something which must seriously enter Forest’s thinking. They are 18th in the table with all three promoted sides above them. Their expected goal difference suggests they could dragged into the mire with West Ham and Wolves at a time when Sunderland, and perhaps Leeds as well, look capable of breaking the failure streak of the newly promoted clubs.
If it is to be Dyche you can rest assured that it won’t be for the long term. Emerging links with Roberto Mancini are much more reflective of the sort of club their owner expects Forest to be. Marinakis’ actions have made clear that he will not simply tolerate ongoing Premier League football at the City Ground. He demands more from Nottingham Forest, no matter the chaos that getting his will brings.
