Nottingham Forest: A detailed look at the club's season to forget
Nottingham Forest sacked their third manager of the season in Sean Dyche; the decision came after the 0-0 draw with Wolves; Dyche lasted just 114 days in the role; former Wolves boss Vitor Pereira has agreed to take over
Thursday 12 February 2026 15:46, UK
This season was supposed to be the one Nottingham Forest become entrenched in the European positions. Instead, they’re in a relegation scrap and are moving on to their fourth coach.
Sky Sports News reporter Anton Toloui details the season so far at Forest, what has gone wrong and the steps being taken to fix it...
- Pereira agrees to replace Dyche as new Forest boss
- Forest latest: The reason why Marinakis sacked Dyche
- Nottingham Forest 0-0 Wolves - report & highlights
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Edu comes to town
Edu Gaspar started his job as Global Head of Football in early July and quickly set out to galvanaise a squad that earned its first season in Europe for almost 30 years.
£180m was spent, mainly on attackers including Igor Jesus, Arnaud Kalimendo, Omari Hutchinson, James McAtee, Dan Ndoye and Dilane Bakwa.
But had Forest actually got any better?
By the time the summer window closed, questions were being asked about the quality of the new arrivals and relationships at the club had started to sour.
The end of Nuno
Head coach Nuno Espirito Santo was a frustrated man.
Before his team's opening game against Brentford, he asked why the singings weren't brought in earlier so he could get them ready for first game of the season.
His greater irritation, however, was the decline in his relationship with the club's owner Evangelos Marinakis.
Espirito Santo pointed out they used talk almost every day, something that had deteriorated rapidly after Edu's arrival.
It's clear the summer signings weren't always his idea, hence his frustrations about a lack of time on the training pitch together.
By early September, Nuno was sacked.
Enter Ange
Nuno was fired in the middle of the night with his replacement in place barely 12 hours later.
Ange Postecoglou was sought out by Marinakis to do what he's done elsewhere, win trophies.
The club's owner was impressed with the Australian head coach's footballing philosophy as well as his achievements.
Postecoglou's approach on the field and on the training pitch was a stark contrast to his predecessor.
Nevertheless, the same criticisms from his time at Tottenham Hotspur quickly emerged. Is the team too committed to a certain style? Why can't your side be pragmatic? Why are you so defensively vulnerable?
After a defeat at home to Chelsea, Postecoglou was fired less than 30 minutes after the final whistle.
His record of 39 days, eight Premier League games and no wins is now a smudge on his impressive CV.
The local lad returns
After the Postecoglou palaver, Nottingham Forest tried to do things differently.
This time Edu and technical director George Syrianos set out to find a coach with Premier League experience that could be the catalyst to getting this talented squad performing.
Sean Dyche, a former Forest academy graduate who trained under the great Brian Clough, came "home" to manage the club he previously aspired to play for.
Training sessions got louder, more intense and results initially picked up.
A couple of 3-0 wins over Liverpool and Tottenham were the highlights but Forest couldn't pull too far away from the bottom three.
Dyche was brought to the City Ground not only to ensure survival but also get back up the table, something he was struggling to do.
January sales shopping
Yet again, Edu and Syrianos went back into the transfer market.
A striker was seen as a priority by Dyche after Chris Wood's knee injury. The club signed Lorenzo Lucca on loan from Napoli, as well defender Luca Netz.
But the window will be remembered for the moves that didn't happen.
Opportunistic attempts to sign Jean Philippe Mateta were quickly snubbed by Crystal Palace, meaning yet again Forest had gone through a window without signing a player guaranteed to improve their starting line-up.
Frustrations were only compounded by their inability to sign one of their centre-midfield targets to replace the outgoing Douglas Luiz.
Summer signings Luiz, Oleksandar Zinchenko and Kalimuendo all left as the club attempted to unpick some of its previous dealings.
Bye bye Dyche
This was the build-up to Sean Dyche's most important run of games as Forest boss.
In 10 days he'd face three relegation rivals with a chance to finally get clear from the drop.
A draw at home to Palace, defeat at Leeds and the failing to score against soon-to-be relegated Wolves meant he only picked up two points during those crucial matches.
Boos were ringing around the City Ground as Forest took 35 shots but couldn't but score against the worst defence in the league.
It wasn't the first time supporters were baffled by the team's lack of effectiveness.
Against Everton at the turn of the year, Forest had 70 per cent of the ball, took 21 shots and put in 52 crosses only to lose 2-0.
By 10pm last night the owner had clearly seen enough and after some deliberation decided to send Dyche packing.
What's next?
Sitting just three points from demotion, Forest are now turning to someone they know.
Vitor Pereira used to manage Marinakis' other club Olympiakos, leading them to a league and cup double in 2015.
This time last year he was the toast of the league after taking Wolves from just nine points in sixteen matches to survival with games to spare.
Forest will be hoping for something similar.
They clearly aren't put off by Periera's start to this season in the West Midlands, only picking up two points from a possible thirty before his sacking.
Forest will be his 14th club of his managerial career and he's only stayed beyond two years at one of them. You hire Periera for a good time, not a long time.
Staying in the Premier League and going deep in the Europa League are his tasks. But Forest also want stability. They know they need a coach with detailed ideas about how to fulfil the owner's wishes of becoming a regular top-eight club.
They also need carefully constructed plans for the summer transfer window to ensure talent is enhanced and the first-choice team is improved.
All that depends, however, on Premier League survival.
