English Premier League club Nottingham Forest has sacked Portuguese head coach Nuno Espírito Santo just three games into the 2025-26 season, ending his 21-month spell at the helm of the team.
The 51-year-old leaves despite guiding the club to a seventh-place finish in the Premier League last season, their highest since 1994-95, and securing European football for the first time in three decades.
The Portuguese coach joined Forest in December 2023, taking over a team sitting 17th in the table at the time and struggling after losing five of their previous six matches. Despite a four-point deduction for breaching Premier League profit and sustainability rules, he kept the club in the top flight, finishing six points clear of relegation. Last season, memorable wins against Liverpool, Manchester United and Manchester City marked an outstanding campaign which saw Forest fight for a Champions League spot until the very end, and which also included a semi-final FA Cup run.
However, Nuno’s relationship with owner Evangelos Marinakis had deteriorated in recent weeks, reportedly over disagreements about transfers. But their relationship allegedly started to sour back in May, when Marinakis confronted the coach on the pitch after a 2-2 draw with Leicester, frustrated that striker Taiwo Awoniyi had played through injury. Forest later denied any confrontation, calling media reports “fake news”.
But the incident symbolised issues which finally reached their boiling point last month, when the coach publicly expressed concerns about his job in August, saying: “Our relationship has changed and we are not as close. Everybody at the club should be together but this is not the reality.”
Forest confirmed Nuno’s departure in a statement, thanking him “for his contribution during a very successful era at the City Ground” and saying he would “always hold a special place” in the club’s journey. He won 28 of 73 games, drew 20 and lost 25 during his tenure.
He will be succeeded by Ange Postecoglou, the Australian coach who led Tottenham through a rollercoaster of a year last season, marked by a shocking 17th-place finish in the Premier League as well as a title drought-ending victory in the UEFA Europa League against Rúben Amorim’s Manchester United.
