Postecoglou pays price for diving back in at the deep end

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The Football Faithful

·18 October 2025

Postecoglou pays price for diving back in at the deep end

“Maybe I’m not a failed manager who was lucky to get this job,” Ange Postecoglou told reporters on Friday afternoon, “but maybe I’m a manager where, if given time, the story always ends the same. At all my previous clubs, it ends the same – me with a trophy.”

Postecoglou was typically bullish ahead of this weekend’s clash with Chelsea, as the pressure mounted on his position at Nottingham Forest. A seven-game winless run was a nightmare start to his tenure with the club, and an eighth has made his position untenable. There will be no trophy ending this time around.

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Just minutes after the full-time whistle against Chelsea, Forest announced the club had parted ways with Postecoglou. His 39 days in charge is now the shortest managerial reign in Premier League history.

Evangelos Marinakis must take a large portion of the blame. An inability to repair relations with Nuno Espirito Santo saw the latter leave last month, just months after guiding the club into Europe for the first time since 1995.

During that three-decade gap, Forest had slumped as low as the third tier. Marinakis might have bankrolled their rise, but Nuno was the mastermind behind their best days this side of the millennium.

Relationships break down. But the succession plan here was botched. Postecoglou came in to address the mess but leaves with Forest caught in a wildfire.

He has proven himself a capable coach in the right environment, trophies with Brisbane Roar, Australia, Yokohama F. Marinos, Celtic and Spurs prove that much. But the stylistic shift from Nuno’s pragmatism to Ange’s adventurous plan was too stark to achieve mid-season.

Hindsight helps, but this was forecast by many long before Saturday’s swift sacking of the struggling coach.

Forest, just a point above the relegation places, must get the next appointment right. While for Postecoglou, his decision to dive immediately back into Premier League management might have caused irreparable damage to his reputation on these shores.

The 60-year-old has had to have huge self-belief to reach this stage, becoming a trailblazer for Australian coaches in the process. Despite his sacking at Spurs, his stock was relatively solid given last season’s Europa League triumph.

But his unshakeable self-confidence saw him jump too quickly at a chance to bounce back from his Tottenham tenure. A desire to reprove himself, perhaps. Though a mid-season move, to a squad drilled in tactics a world from his own, has backfired badly.

Ange’s time in the Premier League has been full of memorable quips, an authentic media-friendly persona, and a tactical plan that was bold, entertaining, and occasionally implosive.

His ill-fated Forest spell means that we’re unlikely to witness it again in the Premier League. For the neutrals at least, there’s some shame in that.

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