Ange Postecoglou’s Nottingham Forest reign lasted 39 days. By early afternoon on October 18, a 3–0 defeat to Chelsea at the City Ground became the tipping point. Forest confirmed his dismissal less than 20 minutes after the final whistle. Evangelos Marinakis had already left his seat before the end, and the abrupt timing left players and staff scrambling for answers. One senior player learned of the decision from post-match chatter rather than an internal briefing.
None of this was subtle, and few expected it would be. Postecoglou failed to win any of his eight matches, but the brief tenure also coincided with the hardest possible pivot. He was tasked with turning Nuno Espírito Santo’s compact, counter-punching side into a front-foot, possession team in the middle of a congested calendar. By one detailed account, he managed only eight proper training sessions before the axe fell. The idea may have been sound in theory, yet the runway was not.
The fixture list did not wait. Forest are balancing Premier League survival with the Europa League’s league-phase grind. Porto are due at the City Ground on Thursday, and executive focus has already moved to lining up the next coach in time for that night. Talks with Sean Dyche accelerated over the weekend, with Roberto Mancini and Marco Silva among names sounded out along the way. PSR constraints make compensation-heavy pursuits complicated, which is one reason Dyche appeals.
A pattern under Marinakis
Forest’s speed is not a one-off. Martin O’Neill’s 2019 exit remains the benchmark for whiplash at this club. As O’Neill himself recalled, “But I did not think that after my first week of pre season a new manager, Sabri Lamouchi, would be announced 24 minutes after I had been dismissed.” That timeline was widely reported at the time, and it has become part of Forest lore.
The echo is unmistakable. Postecoglou’s announcement arrived within minutes, and the conversation quickly shifted from why to what next. Dyche is close and could be in the technical area against Porto if talks finalize. The rationale is straightforward. Dyche’s blueprint is built for triage. It tightens distances, reduces chaos, and protects the box. It is also the inverse of Angeball. Forest have already experienced three tactical identities in barely five weeks, which carries a real cost in cohesion.
There is also the matter of reputation. Being sacked less than six weeks into a job now sits on Postecoglou’s CV alongside his Tottenham exit earlier this year. The judgment will not only be about results. It will be about fit. The hire always looked like a gamble in a relegation fight, where risk tolerance is low and stylistic rewires take time that clubs rarely possess. Several informed analyses reached the same conclusion by Sunday night: the marriage never made much sense, and the timescale made it impossible.
Public reaction reflects a split. Some saw Postecoglou as a short-term scapegoat for a long-term structural churn, pointing to revolving tactics, squad availability, and European travel. Others argued that the approach was naïve for a survival campaign, that opening the throttle in October left too much space and too little margin. Both can be true. Forest need points and rhythm, and they need them now.
The next days will define the season’s tone. If Dyche arrives, the message will be a conservative reset, fewer risks, more set-piece focus, and a narrower mid-block that asks less of a depleted back line. If Forest look beyond him, they must still reconcile ambition with stability. Owners set tempo. Marinakis sets Forest’s at a sprint.
