Nottingham Forest are looking for their fourth head coach of the season after sacking Sean Dyche
11:05, 12 Feb 2026
Sean Dyche was sacked as Nottingham Forest head coach after the 0-0 draw with Wolves
View Image
Sean Dyche was sacked as Nottingham Forest head coach after the 0-0 draw with Wolves(Image: PA)
Right to the very end Sean Dyche continued to insist he wasn’t doing a bad job in charge of Nottingham Forest.
“The only thing I'm frustrated with is it's not a terrible run (of results),” he protested on Wednesday night. Barely three hours later, he was gone. Owner Evangelos Marinakis evidently disagreed.
Wednesday night’s dire 0-0 draw with Wolverhampton Wanderers made it two wins in 10 in the Premier League for the Reds. Sure, it was nine points from their last six games (including a very creditable draw against Arsenal and a positive win away to Brentford), but the bigger picture was not exactly encouraging.
In recent games, particularly, the trend seemed to be a downward one. Losing to Leeds United and failing to beat bottom club Wolves left Dyche in a very tight spot. And especially when his back catalogue also included stinkers such as an Everton double, Wrexham and Braga.
Help us stay visible by adding us as* a Preferred Source *in your search settings
His dismissal wasn’t down to results alone, albeit they certainly played their part. Performances mattered, too, and on that front Forest have been struggling - sometimes in painful fashion. On too many occasions, they offered nothing. Their latest outing was a case in point, with a whopping 35 shots at goal registered but not a single one counting.
Players, including some of the club’s leading lights, need to take their share of the blame for that. But there is no question Dyche has failed to get the best out of an expensively-assembled and talented group. Has anyone improved on his watch? It is hard to think of an example.
He may have lifted the Reds out of the relegation zone after their woeful start, but with the way things have been going panic has set in about the possibility of dropping back into it. It has felt as though the walls have been closing in.
A resurgent West Ham United are fast-approaching in Forest’s rear-view mirror, a bit like that famous t-rex scene in Jurassic Park. Ironically, Dyche is the one seen as the dinosaur by plenty of Reds fans, with the 54-year-old having been dubbed ‘Dycheosaurus’ by some.
Forest are still above the dotted line. Just. But under Dyche, the chances of them staying there were not particularly convincing. Not when the Hammers have a fired-up Nuno Espirito Santo at the helm, with the Portuguese no doubt eager to get one over his former employers.
The hosts were booed off at half-time and at full-time in midweek. As was the case in Braga, when the Reds were utterly abysmal, chants questioning what on earth fans had just witnessed (in rather more colourful language) rang out after the final whistle.
JOIN US ON FACEBOOK!Get all the Nottingham Forest latest via our Facebook page
For all of his obvious pride in wearing the badge he never managed to do as a player, the former Forest academy man lost the goodwill that had come with his appointment. Knowing the city and the club just doesn’t cut it when results are not being put on the board and your team is being rolled over by fellow strugglers.
There had been suggestions on social media of one of Dyche’s assistants, Ian Woan, having a disagreement with some of the travelling contingent after last week’s loss at Elland Road.
On Wednesday night, Morgan Gibbs-White reportedly urged the crowd to lay off £37.5 million summer signing Omari Hutchinson when he made a hash of a corner. The unity and togetherness that characterised the club’s first three seasons after promotion have ebbed away.
Dyche wasn’t able to get that back. There was also a growing disconnect within the dressing room.
Comments made by the head coach after an FA Cup embarrassment at Wrexham were almost a line in the sand. Publicly throwing players under the bus, as he did after a dreadful 45 minutes on that night in January, rarely ends well in the modern era.
When Marinakis apparently gathered a group of senior members of the dressing room together after the Wolves draw, it suggested only one outcome.
Question marks over Dyche’s tactics, coaching and game plans were stacking up. An inability, or an unwillingness, to turn the tide during matches was evident.
Against Leeds, strange selection choices were added to the balance sheet. Too many square pegs were put in round holes. When it was clear that was a problem, Dyche failed to change it at half-time. At that point, the deficit was 2-0 and the visitors could easily have got back into the game with a few well-thought tweaks; instead, they conceded a third immediately after the interval and it was game over.
Get breaking Forest news sent direct to your phone
Join our Nottingham Forest WhatsApp group and get the latest breaking news, interviews and opinion sent straight to your phone, plus matchday team news and live updates of all the action. Just click here and select ‘Join Community’ to get started. The only proviso is that you must have WhatsApp on your phone to participate. No one will be able to see your personal information and you will only receive messages from the NottinghamshireLive Reds writers.
We will not spam your WhatsApp feed with constant messages, but you will receive updates from us daily with the latest Reds stories. If you later decide to opt out, just go to the name at the top of your screen and click 'Exit Group'. We also treat our community members to special offers, promotions and adverts from us and our partners. If you are curious, you can click here to read our Privacy Notice.
Was Dyche the right appointment in the first place? It is a valid question as Marinakis looks to call upon his fourth manager in the space of six months.
Dyche was always going to take a pragmatic approach. It was always unlikely he would oversee a rapid rise up the table.
He was brought in to steady the ship, and in some respects he did that. But the choppy waters have returned and navigating the turbulence was proving a tall order.
The mess Forest are in isn’t all on Dyche alone. Players should be held accountable, too. Transfer business, both in the summer and in January, has not worked out.
The appointment of Edu as global head of football will come under further scrutiny as the catalyst for this season’s collapse. Marinakis is also not without blame; the buck stops with him, after all.
The case for axing Dyche was becoming an increasingly unavoidable one, but he is yet another fall guy for a campaign that is in danger of unravelling even further.
Article continues below
Who is to blame for Forest's season? Click HERE to have your say