FOREST GRUMP
While it is unusual for a football club to break news of a managerial sacking on their Social Media Disgrace channels shortly after midnight, if Football Daily had to stake its life on one Premier League outfit doing so, we would have picked Nottingham Forest and lived to tell the tale. Owned by a Greek entrepreneur who has always conveyed the impression he would be happy to take care of business at any hour, there have been suggestions that Forest waited until the ladies and gentlemen of the English football press were tucked up in their beds to announce the departure of Nuno Espírito Santo in a bid to “bury bad news”. Considering this particular bit of news that only seems bad from the perspective of Forest fans has been clearly signposted to anyone who has been privy to the morose and forlorn existential crises that have passed for recent Nuno press conferences, the more plausible – or slightly less implausible – scenario is that rumours of the Portuguese’s imminent demise were already circulating late on Monday and the put-upon Forest FaceTok team were instructed to confirm they had not been greatly exaggerated.
A hugely popular presence at the City Ground due in no small part to the fact he saved Forest from relegation and then got them into Europe and isn’t Steve Cooper, the first clues that Nuno’s relationship with his employer was strained became apparent when he kept telling reporters how strained it was at every available opportunity, even if he’d just been asked about the status of Nicolás Domínguez’s knee-knack. “I think everybody at the club should be together but it’s not the reality,” he sighed in one of his more upbeat pressers. “The reality is that [it] is not what it used to be. It was a good, respectful relationship, but was more based on trust and sharing opinions, and now it’s not so good.” A famously inscrutable individual who is not prone to knee-jerk reactions and public emotional outbursts, it was no surprise his boss, Evangelos Marinakis, bided his time and waited for a couple of weeks and a shellacking from West Ham before wielding the axe. “Nottingham Forest Football Club confirms that, following recent circumstances, Nuno Espírito Santo has today been relieved of his duties as head coach,” yawned that club statement issued in the early hours of this morning before rolling over and going back to sleep.
Never one to let the grass grow under his feet, Marinakis had already lined up Nuno’s replacement, although it remains to be seen what Forest fans will make of the news that it comes in the form of the man who masterminded the heroic double of winning Bigger Vase with Spurs while finishing one place above the relegation zone last season. Yes, Ange Postecoglou will be taking over and the flamin’ Australian will be in charge when Forest travel to face Arsenal this weekend. Given Nuno’s success at Forest was built on a foundation of rock-solid defence married to lightning-quick counter-attacks, Postecoglou will need time to instil his fabled philosophy of no defence married to all-out attack “because it’s just the way we play, mate”. With this season’s promoted sides showing far more signs of life than their dismal counterparts last season, it is to be hoped Forest’s players can acquire enough points to avoid the drop before having all of the Nuno drilled out of them, or else Ange’s best chance of winning something in his second season, should he last that long, will be promotion back to the Premier League.
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QUOTE OF THE DAY
There were cheap flights to Budapest. Scotland trips are fantastic, but usually the worst bit is the 90 minutes. So, when we heard this game was on and we couldn’t get in – we just had to come! We’ve been told they are trying to organise somewhere for Scotland fans to go and watch on the TV, so we’ll probably go there” – despite being told in no uncertain terms that no fans would not be let into the stadium to watch the behind-closed-doors match between Belarus and Scotland, Jane Grigor was one of a handful of the Tartan Army that made the trip to Zalaegerszeg anyway. The city in Hungary, chosen to host the World Cup qualifier after Belarus were banned from staging home matches in their own country because of their government’s support for the Russian invasion of Ukraine, is 80 miles from the nearest airport but then again, the flights were cheap and there might have been somewhere to watch the game, which Scotland won 2-0.
Nottingham Forest is about to be comedy gold: Australia’s surliest man, employed by Greece’s surliest man. Like a 1970s sitcom, or an alt-right talk show” – Kev.
So (metaphorical) blood pouring from the eyes was Football Daily’s reaction to enduring the England/Andorra match? I dread to think what your reaction would have been to sitting through the entire Australia v New Zealand game last Friday in a freezing cold, antiquated, shoddy old Canberra Stadium where there were 88 minutes of absolute dross enlivened at the last minute by a goal for a debutant with perhaps his first touch of the game. Australia’s tactics of playing with a back five at home against the mighty Oceania heavyweights, while constantly ceding possession in midfield and relying on back passing to the keeper to then hoof into touch seemed like a strange way to roadtest players for the next World Cup. Most painful was finding out that the Socceroos are ranked 24th in the world! I cannot imagine another 170 teams that could perform worse than that rabble” – Drew Wagner.
Your portrait of Jackie Charlton was typically mostly correct. However he would have been in his waders in the River Tweed. Allegedly he once rapidly left a Newcastle training session because salmon have been seen in the aforesaid river” – Steven Rye.
Send letters to [email protected]. Today’s prizeless letter o’ the day winner is … Steven Rye. Terms and conditions for our competitions can be viewed here.
