Pundit Troy Deeney expects speculation about the future of Nottingham Forest head coach Nuno Espirito Santo to ‘blow over’.
Italian journalist Matteo Moretto has claimed on X the Reds are ‘considering sacking’ Nuno. However, sources at the club have dismissed the report and poured cold water over rumours about the Portuguese.
Talk about Nuno’s job coming under threat follows the Forest boss admitting to concerns about the make-up of his squad last week. The Reds went on to beat Brentford 3-1 at the City Ground in their opening Premier League game and took their total number of summer signings up to eight with the arrival of Douglas Luiz on Thursday night.
Put to him that axing Nuno would not go down well with Forest fans, Deeney said on talkSPORT: “And the players. It wouldn't at all.
“You've been very, very successful. You've won the first game of the season; everyone's on a high.
“Even these rumours coming out now, you start to be like, what's going on? Some of your senior players, like your Chris Woods, will certainly be in a position where he can say to the gaffer walking off the training pitch today: ‘Any truth in this? What’s happening?’
“If the gaffer says yeah, maybe, or something, then that could be a really difficult situation. But you'd expect it to hopefully blow over and this is just a bit of emotional chatter over the disagreement.”
In a translated post on X, Moretto said: “Nottingham Forest is considering sacking Nuno Espírito Santo. Tensions between the ownership and the Portuguese coach, also stemming from certain signings during this transfer window.
“This is what Nuno told Sky Sports a week ago: ‘We are very far off in terms of the squad. The plans we had didn’t work out. The preparation in terms of the squad was not ideal. We don’t know what squad we have. We have players working here who know they are going out on loan. We have a big problem.’ The English club is already evaluating other coaches.”
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Sky Sports deal
Nuno put pen to paper on a new deal at the City Ground earlier this summer. He signed a three-year contract to keep him at the club until 2028.
Owner Evangelos Marinakis said at the time: “Nuno has made a great impact and performed very well during his time with us so far. He has demonstrated that he maximises player performance and is an expert at developing players, whilst also embedding our young talent into the first team set-up.
“We enjoy a strong and solid relationship together and, above all, we share the same dream and ambition of writing a new history for Nottingham Forest, competing in the Premier League and in Europe and winning trophies for our great club!”
Nuno admitted to worries about his squad prior to the Reds’ opening-weekend victory over Brentford. They brought in winger Omari Hutchinson and attacking midfielder James McAtee ahead of that game, and added striker Arnaud Kalimuendo the day after their 3-1 success.
On Thursday evening, midfielder Luiz became the club’s latest recruit. The former Aston Villa ace has joined on an initial loan deal from Juventus.
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