Sean Dyche has succeeded Ange Postecoglou as manager of Nottingham Forest, but the appointment is not for everyone
Richard Garnett
14:01, 22 Oct 2025
Simon Jordan on talkSPORT.
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Simon Jordan on talkSPORT.(Image: talkSPORT)
The appointment of Sean Dyche as the new manager of Nottingham Forest will not deliver what owner Evangelos Marinakis wants, according to Simon Jordan.
Former Everton boss Dyche was handed control of team affairs on Tuesday after Ange Postecoglou's disastrous 39-day reign was brought to a premature close immediately after a 3-0 defeat to Chelsea at the City Ground last Saturday.
The result has seen Forest drop into the Premier League relegation zone, having only won one game all season. Dyche's first job will be to firm up a leaky defence that has conceded 15 goals in eight matches.
Although the 54-year-old has a reputation for hard work and defensive solidity, former Crystal Palace owner turned football pundit Jordan is not convinced that the ex-Burnley gaffer can deliver the real aim of returning his new team to one that wins trophies.
Appearing on talkSPORT, when host Jim White asked Jordan what Dyche's remit will be at Forest, he said: "Well I suppose the person that penned those various press releases is not ambidextrous, because one hand is writing with one set of sentiments, and the other is writing with another.
"Because clearly the ambition for Nottingham Forest, and it's always been the ambition - a stated ambition for Marinakis - is to win things. It's to be back at the top of the tree where Nottingham Forest once were under that unique phenomenon called Brian Clough.
"You look at it now, Sean Dyche's modus operandi - as much as Sean Dyche might want to protest it - and does protest it quite vehemently, is that he managed on a needs-must basis.
"He managed Everton on needs-must. They had no money, they were in special measures, the club was being policed by the Premier League in terms of what they could and couldn't buy, so they were maintaining the status quo of staying in the division.
"His de facto position - with the exception of one outstanding season of getting Burnley into Europe [seventh, 2017/18], was keeping Burnley in the division. So if we've morphed now into a situation of Nottingham Forest's stated ambition, primarily from a default position, is to stay in the division..."
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Forest finished last season in seventh place, just a point behind fifth-placed Newcastle and four points off the top four. It was ultimately enough to qualify for the UEFA Europa League after FA Cup winners Palace were demoted to the Conference League because of conflicting ownership issues.
But it has all been downhill since then with both Nuno Espirito Santo and his successor Postecoglou both axed before Dyche has been brought in to steady the ship.
Jordan continued: "Marinakis has made such a song and dance and dog and pony show about winning things, that as much as I like Sean and rate him as a manager, this is not a progressive appointment.
"This is an appointment to hold order, to keep the club probably in the Premier League and to give it's best possibility maybe somehow to make it through the Europa League."
When asked by White what he envisaged for Dyche's long-term future, Jordan added: "You can't answer that, because Marinakis is unpredictable. The one thing that you can predict is his unpredictability; he will do what he sees fit.
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"It's baked into your thinking, if you go work for Marinakis, don't expect a placid, easy owner that sits there, not letting you know what he thinks. You won't have to worry about what he thinks, he will tell you."