Ange Postecoglou's tenure at Nottingham Forest is over.
Well, that was quick.
Just 39 days after succeeding Nuno Espirito Santo at Nottingham Forest, Ange Postecoglou was sacked on Saturday in the wake of a 3-0 defeat to Chelsea at the City Ground.
There was less than 20 minutes between full-time and Forest’s official announcement of the Australian’s departure.
Postecoglou leaves Forest with zero wins from his eight games in charge — his tenure bookended by 3-0 defeats.
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The 60-year-old had bullishly claimed after the first of those losses — against Arsenal on September 13th — that it would take him mere days to instill his preferred style of play into a Forest squad shaped by the defensively minded Nuno.
As discussedhere, Postecoglou made a rod for his own back. His self-defense increasingly came across as brash and arrogant. There was little substance to back up his claims.
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Forest owner Evangelos Marinakis never returned to the Directors’ Box once Josh Acheampong put Chelsea ahead, as the Tricky Trees were once again undone from a set-piece.
By the time Reece James volleyed in to make it 3-0 late on, the City Ground was half-empty — Forest fans, who had gone into the season with such optimism, leaving in their droves.
Postecoglou cannot take all the blame.
The summer was chaotic. It was a return to the Forest of 2022 and 2023, when Marinakis seemed to want to get his hands on any player in sight.
Nuno prefers a small squad, and then neither he nor Edu could put their differences aside — and Marinakis backed the man he had lured away from Arsenal to be his Global Head of Football.
But Marinakis’ next choice was truly strange.
Postecoglou may have felt he was hard done by for being sacked by Tottenham, given his Europa League success, but the Premier League is the bread and butter and Spurs finished 17th.
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Where it all started to go wrong for Postecoglou could arguably be pinpointed to another home defeat to Chelsea, this time at Spurs, in November 2023.
The Blues won 4-1 as Spurs, despite seeing both Cristian Romero and Destiny Udogie see red, continued to play Postecoglou’s way, with their high back line exposed time and time again.
Between that result and the end of last season, Spurs shipped 117 goals in the top flight — more than any other Premier League team.
The tale has been similar at Forest. During Postecoglou’s tenure, they have conceded 10 league goals, more than any other team in the competition in that time, while only Sunderland and Burnley have faced more shots.
But it was always a strange match. Forest punched way above their weight last season, and their scattergun recruitment this summer was more quantity over quality. It was a squad developed by Nuno, with some fine players — Morgan Gibbs-White, Matz Sels, Murillo, Elliot Anderson and Nikola Milenković would get in most teams in the division, while Chris Wood had a career-best season — but this was not a team built for Posetcoglou’s style of play.
At 39 days, Postecoglou’s tenure is the second-shortest in Premier League history, longer only than Sam Allardyce’s doomed, 30-day spell at Leeds United in 2023.
The manner of his dismissal will no doubt sting. That is Marinakis — ruthless and chaotic. Postecoglou spoke to his players after full-time, but Forest midfielder Ryan Yates claimed the squad were unaware their head coach had subsequently been sacked.
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What next for Forest? Already, it seems there are two clear candidates.
Sean Dyche is the favourite. A Nottingham local, who played for the club in his youth and regularly attends matches. On paper, this is a squad suited to Dyche’s style of play, but as Everton fans will attest, his approach can quickly become stale. Dyche has not developed in the same way he could have done from his Burnley days. He is what he is, and he is certainly not the kind of Hollywood name Marinakis would like; quite how Dyche would work with someone like Edu, too, would be intriguing to see.
Dyche is, though, capable of steering teams to safety. He proved it at Burnley and in extremely trying circumstances for 18 months at Everton. The doubts are whether he can get a tune out of players who do not want to play purely old school football — Nuno may be pragmatic, but Forest were thrilling at times on the counter-attack last season.
Then there is Roberto Mancini, the former Italy, Manchester City and Inter boss who is out of work after leaving his role in charge of Saudi Arabia last year. In terms of trophies, there is no comparison between him and Dyche, but is he the man to steer Forest away from a relegation battle?
Marinakis will make that call, but it is probably about time those Forest fans who were streaming for the exits on Saturday perhaps begin to direct some of their ire at the club’s leadership.
The only positive from this whole, sorry stint is that Postecoglou failed quickly. But Forest must quickly find a way to stop the slide.