“What a tough season, eh? What a tough season. Tough,” was how Nottingham Forest head coach Vitor Pereira summed it up as he took his seat in the City Ground press conference room.
Speaking after Sunday's 1-1 draw with Bournemouth, Pereira wasn’t wrong - although “tough” barely covers it. The 2025/26 campaign was up, down, tense, exciting, drama-packed, nerve-wracking and more. It was four seasons rolled into one.
What should have been an opportunity to build on a seventh-placed finish became a fight to simply stay afloat in the top tier. But mixed in with a desperate battle for survival was the thrill of Europe and the adventure of watching the Reds compete on the continent.
In some ways, Forest have come full circle over the past year. They have a Portuguese manager at the helm who has united the dressing room and forged a bond with supporters, and there is optimism about the future - all of which applied 12 months ago, too.
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But how the club reached this point is a soap opera of a story that few would have envisaged unfolding back in May 2025. That this season ended with Premier League status retained and a Europa League semi-final appearance is something that seemed unthinkable not so long ago, and yet it is all part of the Forest way.
When the action kicked off with Brentford being brushed aside on the banks of the Trent, it had all the makings of being another year of progress under Nuno Espirito Santo. Chris Wood was among the goals, as was new signing Dan Ndoye, and all seemed well with the world.
Except that wasn’t the case - and hadn’t been leading up to the opening game either. Despite the three scored against the Bees, goals had been a problem during pre-season and would become even more of an issue as the campaign progressed.
More significantly, though, Nuno was not happy. And it didn’t take long before he made his feelings public - in explosive fashion, too.
Transfer business and his relationship with owner Evangelos Marinakis were in the firing line as Nuno let rip with some bombshell comments to the media. Added to that was the behind-the-scenes falling out with recently-appointed global head of football Edu.
Nuno was still in charge when the Europa League draw was made on August 29. By the time the Reds’ first game in the competition came around, he was gone, replaced by Ange Postecoglou.
That managerial change, three games into the season, marked the start of the Forest whirlwind. After that opening-day triumph over Brentford, the Reds went 10 matches without a win and burned through another head coach before they got their next victory.
It was a case of blink and you would miss it of the Postecoglou era. Brought in to capture some silverware and transform the style of play, his appointment proved to be an eight-game disaster.
For 45 minutes against Real Betis in Spain, the visitors looked like world-beaters. And then at the very opposite end of the spectrum was the club’s first European home game for three decades, against Midtjylland, that finished with chants of “sacked in the morning” being aimed in Postecoglou’s direction from the City Ground crowd. It was brutal.
In one of his first interviews in post, Postecoglou had admitted time was not on his side as he tried to make his mark. How right he was.
The Australian has since admitted he should “never have gone in there” given the job came so soon after his Tottenham Hotspur exit. He oversaw six defeats, including that horrible one to Midtjylland and a Carabao Cup one at the hands of Swansea City, and two draws.
The sticking plaster was ripped off quickly, with his dismissal confirmed within 20 minutes of a 3-0 loss to Chelsea - just 39 days after his appointment. Journalists waiting for his post-match press conference quickly turned attention to penning the football equivalent of an obituary.
Postecoglou’s replacement, Sean Dyche, was seen as a safe pair of hands. Someone who knew the club and could steer them away from trouble.
When Porto were toppled in his first outing as head coach, the signs were positive. Likewise when reigning champions Liverpool were seen off 3-0 a month later.
With such highs came some real lows, though. Whereas Dyche would no doubt point to the likes of that Anfield triumph as characterising his tenure, others would single out the shocking FA Cup exit at Wrexham or the abomination that was Braga.
When fans who had paid a big chunk of their hard-earned cash to travel to Portugal only to watch a dismal Forest performance in the pouring rain booed and questioned what they had just witnessed (in much stronger language), perhaps the writing was always on the wall. Forest and Dyche did come back from that, with victories over Brentford and Ferencvaros, but they did little more than paper over cracks.
It was becoming ever clearer that the season was heading one way. Europe was playing second fiddle to domestic pressures, with the Reds' struggles on the home front of growing concern.
When Pereira came in mid-February, it was a rescue mission. Dyche continually pointed to the progress the team had made under his stewardship, but the club’s Premier League place was still hanging by a thread by the time he left.
Marinakis’ decision to roll the dice once again was not taken lightly. Ultimately, it paid off.
Pereira made a difference. An emphatic beating of Fenerbahce in Istanbul aside, it wasn’t easy early on but the Portuguese’s impact soon began to be felt, both on and off the pitch.
The mood became lighter. A former sports teacher, Pereira’s warm manner has been well received in the dressing room and among the stands. He instilled confidence and belief among a group who had appeared short on both.
Things had to get a little bit worse before they got better. On the evening of March 4, when the Reds went 2-1 down to Manchester City at the Etihad Stadium and relegation rivals West Ham United took the lead against Fulham, Pereira’s men dropped into the relegation zone.
An Elliot Anderson equaliser and a last-ditch clearance by Murillo rescued a point, keeping Forest out of the relegation zone on goal difference. They never really looked back. It was the start of an eight-match unbeaten run in the league that secured survival with room to spare.
Aston Villa in the Europa League semi-finals proved a step too far for Pereira’s injury-depleted side, in a case of what might have been. But that 1-0 first leg triumph over Unai Emery’s eventual champions will still go down as one of the great City Ground nights.
Around almost every corner of this strangest of seasons has been a ‘what on Earth?’ moment - be it for positive or not-so-positive reasons. It is what keeps us all coming back for more.
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