Billy Davies has revealed he was offered a third go at the Nottingham Forest job after twice being axed as manager.
The Scot returned to the City Ground in February 2013, two years after his first stint in charge had ended. He was dismissed the following March and has been out of work since.
But according to Davies, former owner Fawaz Al Hasawi tried to convince him to come back to the Reds a matter of months after he had been given the boot by the Kuwaiti. And Davies says that wasn’t the only time Al Hasawi made a bid to link up with him again.
“I got sacked on March 14,” the 60-year-old recalled of his second spell with Forest when speaking on the Open Goal podcast. “On November 15, I got a call from the chairman (Al Hasawi) to come down to Forest because he wants to offer me my job back again.
“I go to Mayfair and there was him and his entourage. Nice man, lovely man and I had a great relationship with him. But I sit there and eventually the question I asked of Fawaz is, why am I here? He said: ‘Billy, I’ve listened to the wrong people, I want you to come back as manager.’
“It doesn’t happen for certain reasons. Fast forward to January 15, I’m walking my dog and I get a call from the owner again, pleading with me to come back to the club as manager. On June 19, he tries to buy Bolton Wanderers and phones me up and asks me to come back as manager of the club.”
Al Hasawi was owner of the Reds before Evangelos Marinakis took over in 2017. His tenure ended with fans protesting against the way the club was being run, but there was no doubt about his ambition as Davies says the goal was to win a third European Cup.
Discussing his return to Forest for the second time, Davies added: “When I go and speak to Fawaz Al Hasawi, he tells me he wants me to come back to the club because he wants to put a third star on the jersey.
“He was throwing big money. Before I came in he’d already spent I don’t know how many millions. This guy was throwing big money to try to get something working.”
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