Nottingham Forest's next manager has a thankless task - but every chance of succeeding
Evangelos Marinakis sacked Ange Postecoglou after only eight matches and 39 days in charge at the City Ground but the next boss will have a good squad and great support behind him
Andy Dunn is the Mirror's chief sports writer.
In these days when not many people seem to watch a football match without having a wager on it, you can get odds on pretty much anything. And the least palatable market is the one that invites punters to put money on the next Premier League manager to be sacked/leave his post.
If you want to try and make a few quid on someone getting fired from his or her job, knock yourselves out. It’s not for me.
But here’s a tip. Whoever is at the head of the market to become the next Nottingham Forest boss should be at the head of the sack-race market. Ange Postecoglou had five Premier League matches before he was sent packing by Evangelos Marinakis and Forest’s next five Premier League matches are at in-form Bournemouth, at home to a buoyant Manchester United and to Leeds, away to Liverpool and home to Brighton.
By the time you are reading this, Sean Dyche might already be in position at the City Ground. If he is, good luck to him. He will need it.
A lot of observers have been quick to point out that Postecoglou’s overall recent record has not been good. And that is correct - he has won only three of his last 19 Premier League matches.
Dyche? Well, he has won, er, three of his last 19 Premier League matches. The laughable thing about Marinakis dismissing a manager after five Premier League games is that the new manager’s first demand was probably to sort out the pay-off clause.
Not exactly a great way to start. But completely understandable. The new manager is coming to a place where the owner is waiting for you after most matches. On the pitch or in the tunnel.
But the new manager is coming to a great club, with great fans, and a very good squad. That is why he has every chance of succeeding.
Last Saturday was my first visit to the City Ground this season and what I saw against Chelsea should have been far from dispiriting from a Forest fan’s point of view. There really is no legislating for missing every decent chance that comes your way, and Forest had about half a dozen.
This is a good squad, with intriguing new additions, that will take time to blend. And, make no mistake, the support at the City Ground is worth a point or two.
The support against Chelsea was brilliant. There had been a lot of chatter about the potential for things to quickly turn toxic - and they didn’t.
The fans were fantastic, backing the team and, while not quite giving Ange raucous backing, they did not turn on the manager with any sort of vitriol. No, as he vacated his throne after an hour, that was left to Marinakis.
Look, in terms of owner interference, the new manager knows what he is letting himself in for. But if he is allowed more than five Premier League games to sort things out, Nottingham Forest will very quickly be out of the woods.
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