Sean Dyche has been dismissed and Nottingham Forest are looking for their fourth manager in what is turning out to be a calamitous season.
Wednesday night’s 0-0 draw with hopeless Wolves forced Evangelos Marinakis to pull the trigger once again. With his club sitting in 17th place and only three points above the relegation zone what should have been a season of excitement has turned into a nightmare.
Having gone through Nuno Espirito Santo, Ange Postecoglou and now Sean Dyche, Forest are in the last chance salloon – we asked our team of writers if they are more or less likely to be relegated after removing Dyche.
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Sarah Clapson, Nottingham Forest reporter
Here we go again, then. Another roll of the dice. Another manager in a season lurching from one calamity to the next.
Four head coaches in the space of six months screams a potential disaster waiting to happen. The only way Forest avoid it and somehow keep their heads above water is by getting this next appointment absolutely bang on the money - something they have failed to do with their last two.
Up until this season, Evangelos Marinakis’ reputation as a trigger-happy owner had largely been an unfair one where Forest were concerned. More often than not, he had afforded time to those in charge and had kept some in situ longer than he perhaps should have done.
He has got a lot of previous appointments right, too. But not this season.
No club wants to burn through three managers before spring has even sprung, but the worrying thing is a case can be made for dismissing two of them (Ange Postecoglou and Sean Dyche) and the other, Nuno Espirito Santo, was left in an untenable position due to a falling-out behind the scenes.
With 12 matches remaining for the Reds to save themselves in the league, Marinakis has gambled again. The stakes simply could not be higher
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Brian Dick, Reach Football Correspondent
If Forest do get relegated – and I genuinely think they might, it won’t be because they sacked Sean Dyche. It’ll be because Evangelos Marinakis has presided over a series of decisions that have completely undermined the club.
The feelgood factor and momentum from last season has been chucked away in a matter of months and if we’re honest it traces back to the difficulties between Nuno and Edu.
Before a ball was even kicked hope and expectation had turned to fear and anxiety as Nuno complained about the transfer window. That show of dissent was only ever going to end one way.
The decision to appoint Ange Postecoglou was brainless. The decision to appoint Dyche was ill-conceived. Quite frankly I don’t have much confidence in the next decision.
I don’t know if Dyche would have kept Forest up, what I do know is these players have been messed around to the point where they are confused and lack confidence.
I think Forest are going to pay with their Premier League status and the finger points firmly at the owner who has backed the wrong horse.
Nuno Espirito Santo has been sacked as Nottingham Forest head coach
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Nuno Espirito Santo was sacked as Nottingham Forest head coach(Image: PA)
Leigh Curtis
Given Marinakis' history, it's doesn't come as a surprise. Dyche never seemed an appropriate long-term fix and was completely the wrong choice to begin with.
Forest have some exceptionally bright, skilful, talent in the likes of Eliot Anderson and Morgan Gibbs-White and yet you hire a manager who has a reputation for agricultural football.
You may get the initial lift in results, as they did, but long term it was never going to work. Forest seem to have lost a clear sense of direction. But they have to get this appointment right because West Ham smell blood.
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Steve Wollaston, Head of Sport, Midlands
It can't always be the manager can it? The instability at a club has to come from the top down.
Evangelos Marinakis should never have sacked Nuno Espirito Santo, in my opinion.
The Ange Postecoglou debacle was just a farce, and now with Dyche departing just four months into the role - it's quite a breathtaking approach to controlling a Premier League club.
Still, at the end of the season if Forest survive, who will remember the mania?
I honestly think the Forest squad will stay up, by the skin of their teeth, with the promise of a brighter future next season.
And, let's not forget that Forest are still in Europe. I have no idea who Forest should go for next, they seem to have tried every formula.
Maybe Marinakis himself should get in the dugout, it would certainly be more entertaining.
Ange Postecoglou cannot look during Nottingham Forest's defeat to Chelsea
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Ange Postecoglou cannot look during Nottingham Forest's defeat to Chelsea(Image: Getty)
Barry Cooper
Sean Dyche was never going to work, but Forest's failings chart back to last season when Evangelos Marinakis brought in Edu, which then sparked the major falling out with Nuno.
Between the three of them, they have ruined what should have been a special season for Forest.
Ange Postecoglou was a disaster of an appointment, and Dyche has been caught in the crossfire. I was at the City Ground on Wednesday night, and the feeling was just abject frustration.
It wasn't even full for a huge game. Fans have become tired of the circus and the prices they're paying for continued bad decisions.
The owner should have gone all out for Marco Silva post-Nuno and paid what Fulham wanted instead of trying to do it on the cheap, again.
He may pay for the Edu disaster with relegation, and all that hard work in getting Forest back into the Premier League and Europe, wasted.
This next appointment simply has to be somebody who can get the best out of a squad of players that are woefully underperforming and look devoid of anything, as well as being badly coached and tactically short of where they should be.
It's wholly depressing. A season that promised so much at half-time against Brentford on the opening day has become tragic.
Nottingham Forest have sacked head coach Sean Dyche
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Nottingham Forest have sacked head coach Sean Dyche(Image: PA)
Alex Dicken
There are surely only so many new manager bounces that can work in a single season before it has the opposite effect.
Be it the results or the style of football - and it must be said that Forest knew what they were getting with regards to the latter with Sean Dyche - it hasn't been up to scratch for Evangelos Marinakis.
They clearly didn't want Dyche for the long-term so maybe they should have made a long-term appointment in October. There was enough of the season left to think about more than just staying up.
Now it really is about staying up because Nuno Espirito Santo's West Ham are closing quickly on 17th-placed Forest.
Vitor Pereira successfully kept Wolves up last season, but he isn't a long-term solution. I would go all out for Roberto De Zerbi.
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