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Ange Postecoglou has been sacked by Nottingham Forest after 40 days in charge, following Saturday’s 3-0 defeat by Chelsea.
Forest posted on social media: “Nottingham Forest Football Club can confirm that after a series of disappointing results and performances, Ange Postecoglou has been relieved of his duties as head coach with immediate effect. The Club will make no further comment at this time.”
The head coach was appointed on 9 September after the acrimonious parting of the ways between Nuno Espírito Santo and Evangelos Marinakis, Forest’s owner. Postecoglou, the No 1 target for Marinakis, leaves with Forest one point and one place above the relegation zone, having failed to win any of his eight games in charge.
Postecoglou’s reign is the shortest in Premier League history, the unwanted record previously held by Les Reed, who had 41 days at Charlton in 2006. Postecoglou has taken charge of the second fewest Premier League matches, his five games one more than the number overseen by Frank de Boer at Crystal Palace in 2017.
The Australian, sacked by Tottenham in June, started with a 3-0 defeat at Arsenal, then saw Forest surrender a 2-0 half-time lead at Swansea in the Carabao Cup, losing to two added-time goals. A 1-1 draw at Burnley was followed by Real Betis scoring a late equaliser in a 2-2 Europa League draw, after which Forest lost four times in a row: at home to Sunderland and Midtjylland, then at Newcastle, before Saturday’s defeat by Chelsea.
Fans had chanted for the 60-year-old to be “sacked in the morning” after the Europa League loss to Midtjylland and there were also chants last week in support of Nuno, who led the club into Europe by finishing seventh last season. The anti-Postecoglou chants were repeated after Forest fell behind to Chelsea.
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Postecoglou had insisted after the Newcastle game that Forest were making progress under him. “I get that it’s part of the fanfare of the Premier League that it needs one manager to be in the spotlight,” he said. “If people want to assess me three and a half weeks into the job, there’s nothing I can say or do that will change that. But what I have seen and felt in this period is that we are heading in the direction I want us to. The results will come.”
