All eyes are firmly on West Ham United for Nottingham Forest this weekend.
The huge Premier League clash will take place on Sunday, with Nuno Espirito Santo looking to get back to winning ways after last weekend’s draw with Crystal Palace.
Espirito Santo is sitting down with Evangelos Marinakis this week, with Edu in the dock after annoying the Forest head coach regarding some of the transfer activity that has taken place.
Before the game, however, Forest’s focus will flick to the Europa League and the draw for that competition is made on Friday afternoon.
After the Champions League qualifiers took place this week, the final teams were confirmed for the competition, with a number of teams joining Forest after missing out on the Champions League.
Nuno Espirito Santo and Evangelos Marinakis after Forest draw 2-2 with Leicester.
Photo by JUSTIN TALLIS/AFP via Getty Images
Brendan Rodgers could now face Nottingham Forest
Rodgers was linked with Forest last weekend when the speculation was particularly rife about Espirito Santo and now he could find his Celtic team coming up against Forest.
Intriguingly, both Old Firm clubs will be in the pots alongside Forest, with the Scottish Premiership holding no representation in the Champions League group stages this year.
Celtic were stunned by Kazakhstan outfit Kairat on Tuesday night, with Rodgers seeing his team lose on penalties following a 0-0 draw.
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It will perhaps be a result that makes alarm bells ring in the head of Marinakis, with Rodgers perhaps beyond his best during his second spell in charge of Celtic.
As for Rangers, they will join Forest in the Europa League after being completely battered by Club Brugge, who left Russell Martin’s job hanging by a thread following a 9-1 aggregate win.
Forest should keep Espirito Santo
The Portuguese incumbent needs to be given the chance to continue the good work and he also deserves the chance to get excited over the Europa League campaign.
Ange Postecoglou has also been linked with the Forest job and given the style of football that he likes to play, his appointment really doesn’t bear thinking about.
If this were 10 years ago, Rodgers might have looked like a very shrewd appointment but it’s hard to imagine him coming in and making an impact now, given how his final season with Leicester in the Premier League went.
Forest have to continue their strong work under Espirito Santo and it will be fascinating to see what is said this Friday when his pre-match press conference takes place.