Inside Ange Postecoglou’s 39 days at Nottingham Forest

In July, Evangelos Marinakis presented Ange Postecoglou with an award to mark the fact he was the first Greek-born coach to win a major European trophy. It was a poignant moment for the two men, who had become friends, bonded by their shared heritage and love of the game.

Yet by October, the Nottingham Forest owner was not even in the same building when, after only 39 days, Postecoglou was informed that his tenure as Nottingham Forest manager was over after Saturday’s 3-0 home defeat by Chelsea. He did not win a single game, never mind get within touching distance of any silverware.

Postecoglou was hired predominantly because of his success in winning the Europa League with Tottenham Hotspur last season. He was fired — after the shortest tenure of any permanent Forest manager — because the evidence increasingly suggested he might repeat the 17th-place finish he led Tottenham to in last season’s Premier League. Or, perhaps, even worse. Forest did not keep a single clean sheet during his tenure and conceded 20 goals in Postecoglou’s eight games in charge.

The former Celtic and Tottenham manager, who only moved into a new flat in the Nottingham area this week, was informed of his fate within roughly 10 minutes of the final whistle at the City Ground, during a brief conversation with George Syrianos, the global technical director, in the tunnel area.

This was only the third time that Postecoglou, 60, had been in the home dressing room as Forest manager. His last act in that role was to return there one final time, to share a few words with his players. He told them he was sorry he could not do more for them and wished them all the best for the rest of the campaign.

A few minutes after the 39-word club statement — one word for each day of his tenure — was issued confirming his departure at 2.40pm, Postecoglou was physically as well as metaphorically on his way out of the City Ground exit, leaving on his own and heading towards the car park.

At least he was spared the indignity of one final press conference and another round of questions about his future. Before the Chelsea game, he had bullishly reminded journalists of his habit of winning a trophy in his second season at his previous clubs. At Forest, he barely even made it into a second month.

But Forest’s performances had left Marinakis with little choice but to act. It was an appointment that felt doomed from the start, with all the criticisms that had haunted Postecoglou’s final months at Tottenham still hanging over him in Nottingham.

Marinakis had left the City Ground roughly an hour before, opting to depart once a positive first-half performance had been emphatically undone in the space of three second-half minutes that saw Chelsea take a 2-0 lead almost immediately after the break.

It is not unusual that Marinakis did not inform Postecoglou personally. Those duties would normally have fallen to Ross Wilson, the former chief football officer, but he joined Newcastle United in a similar role last week.

Postecoglou had not been specifically warned, before kick-off against Chelsea, that a defeat would come with ramifications. But for the Forest hierarchy, the manner of the performance was always paramount and, while the first half was full of promise, the second showed already familiar flaws — a level of inconsistency that underlined Postecoglou’s tenure with painful perfection.

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The ‘I’m a winner’ speech that will have been familiar to journalists and fans in London and the East Midlands was echoed by Postecoglou in his interactions with players.

On his first day in charge at the Nigel Doughty Academy, it was the overall theme of his opening message to his new squad: he promised that if they believed in his methods, it would bring success.

Training sessions were significantly more intense than under his predecessor, Nuno Espirito Santo, as Postecoglou and his staff tried to ensure the players could cope with the high-tempo, high-pressing style that was his trademark at Tottenham.

In the early days, Postecoglou felt it was important that his voice was heard; that he personally briefed his players on what was required. Many of them were enthusiastic about his approach, even if the demands were high.

At Tottenham, he was not always a hands-on coach, preferring to let his staff take many of the exercises and drills while he maintained a watching brief. In the opening weeks at Forest, he was more involved. Much focus was placed on the performance data that underlined whether the Forest players were ready for Ange-ball.

But it was never really the physical demands of such change that were the issue, more so the mental ones.

There has been little anti-Ange sentiment in the dressing room. Behind the scenes, he was seen as being a friendly, albeit highly driven character, with a deep well of confidence. Those outside of the playing staff forged a positive opinion of him.

His main problem, in numerous different senses, was that he was not Nuno.

The players were hugely pro-Nuno and there was widespread dismay over his departure. Ultimately, the degree of change that Postecoglou’s appointment signalled was just too much.

Nuno had given Forest an identity, a way of doing things that worked. He had recognised the need to evolve and grow, to become a side capable of keeping more possession and of stamping their influence on games, not least because he won only three of his final 11 games in charge.

Things were far from perfect before Nuno’s departure in September, which saw him effectively talk his way out of a job after twice publicly questioning his relationship with Marinakis and an earlier fallout with global head of football, Edu. But Postecoglou’s most costly failure was his inability to forge the same bond with fans as Nuno and Steve Cooper had before him.

In a five-minute answer to a question in his final pre-match press conference, Postecoglou launched into an impassioned defence of himself. But, while he pledged that he would bring success if he was given the necessary time, the majority of his comments were a defence of how he was unfairly judged at Tottenham, rather than how he wanted to build something positive in Nottingham.

Postecoglou might argue he did not have time to do so, but fans never felt that he properly embraced the club or the city in the same way his predecessors had. When he suggested that people did not see him as being a good fit at Forest, he was more correct than he might like to think.

At the start of the season, Forest believed their £200million ($270m) recruitment drive, which saw them sign 13 players last summer, had given them a squad that could push to improve on last season’s seventh-placed finish — and challenge to win the Europa League.

Their sense of ambition was fuelled by the fact that they felt they had assembled the best squad the club had ever had. Numerous coaches, managers and executives at other clubs had congratulated them on the work they had done.

Yet only two of those new additions were in Postecoglou’s final starting XI, Douglas Luiz and Oleksandr Zinchenko. Around £120million worth of those new signings — Dilane Bakwa, Omari Hutchinson, James McAtee and Arnaud Kalimuendo — were sitting in the stands.

Postecoglou never made fewer than three changes to his starting line-up in his eight games in charge. There were five against Chelsea. It was impossible to predict his team selection or his formation. The decision to start Taiwo Awoniyi — a player the club had been open to selling in the summer and who had not played a single minute of football since — felt like something of a Hail Mary. Awoniyi played well against Chelsea but was substituted at half-time after he ran out of gas.

Now there is more change on the horizon. The club are working to appoint their third manager since September and the aim — initially at least — is to calm the sense of chaos.

For now, they have had more managers than wins this season.

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Historically, Forest owner Marinakis has been a man who likes to have a plan B in place before abandoning plan A. Managerial change does not generally come until a replacement has been lined up. That was true when Nuno replaced Cooper and again when Postecoglou took over last month.

And, during the recent international break, work began to source potential alternatives once again.

Marinakis remains a fan of Marco Silva, who worked under him at Olympiacos, but the potential pay-off to secure the Fulham manager is prohibitive.

Sean Dyche, 54, was highlighted as being a man who could steady the ship in the short term, with the former Burnley manager having successfully managed a crisis by steering Everton away from relegation in his last managerial role. Talks have been held over the former Forest academy graduate and he remains an option for the position. The prospect of Forest favourites Ian Woan and Steve Stone returning as part of his coaching staff would be popular with fans.

But there is a desire from Marinakis to appoint somebody who can be a longer-term solution. And while Postecoglou regarded himself as a winner, he is not in the same ballpark as Roberto Mancini.

The Italian led Manchester City to FA Cup glory in 2011, before following up with a Premier League title a year later. He had won three consecutive Serie A crowns between 2006 and 2008 with Inter, as well as two Coppa Italia successes. In his first job at international level, Mancini led Italy to victory at Euro 2020.

After seeing all the defensive resolve that had been established under Nuno go out of the window under Postecoglou, the prospect of Mancini — a coach with a proven track record of instilling such qualities — is seen as appealing.

Mancini, 60, is a serial winner and, more than that, somebody who would send out a clear statement of intent.

In appointing Cooper — the man who led Forest back into the Premier League for the first time in 23 years — and Nuno — who took them back into Europe for the first time in three decades — Marinakis made two outstanding, era-defining appointments.

It is hard to escape the notion that appointing Postecoglou was just an error, but Marinakis has been swift to address that. His challenge is to make sure that his replacement is capable of leaving a longer-lasting legacy.