Nottingham Forest: Where Did it All Go Wrong? | OneFootball

No Premier League team has ever won a European trophy and been relegated in the same season. Bizarrely, this outcome could be acheived by Nottingham Forest.

Only 10 months on from their most successful season since the heyday of the 1980s, when they won back-to-back European Cups, Forest are staring the prospect of what owner Evangelos Marikanis would conceive impossible – relegation back to the Championship.

To avoid this nightmare, which after spending the best part of half a billion pounds in two years would risk financial collapse and an exodus of players, Marikanis is now on his fourth, yes fourth, permanent manager of the season.

Level on points with West Ham and one point below Spurs going into the weekend’s Premier League fixtures, they face a favorable home tie with Fulham before a critical shootout away at Tottenham. They need points now as three of the final four games see them face Manchester United, Newcastle and Chelsea.

So where’s it all gone wrong?

The Nuno fall-out

At the end of last season, Nuno Espirito Santo guided the Reds to European qualification for the first time in 29 years, three years after the club had been promoted to the Championship.

Forest’s first two seasons were spent fending off the threat of relegation before suddenly everything clicked.

Yet while it was a time for the City Ground faithful to celebrate, the seeds of discontent between owner and manager were already sown.

Marinakis had banked on Champions League football, and his team looked like it was going to deliver until a late season fade. The owner’s frustration boiled over when Forest only drew to relegated Leicester City, all but ending their top four ambitions. He stormed onto the pitch and, in front of the watching world, confronted Nuno, clearly annoyed. It was an extraordinary scene, and while Forest’s PR operation swung into full force and claimed the argument was about an injury to the Reds’ striker Taiwo Awoniyi, the narrative that Marinakis had thrown his toys out of the pram big time persisted.

An eventual 7th place finish earned Forest a place in the Europa Conference League, but better was to come. After complaining to UEFA that Crystal Palace, who qualified for the Europa League after winning the FA Cup, were guilty of breaching multi-club ownership rules, the Court of Arbitration for Sport switched the two clubs around.

But the season started badly. Nuno was clearly put out, and in an explosive press conference in August claimed the relationship between him and Marinakis had broken down. It signalled the end and after three games of the season he was sacked, ironically after defeat to West Ham, the team who would shortly appoint him.

A conveyor belt of managers

In came Ange Postecoglou, a disaster of an appointment. His record of played, lost, won saw him given the boot after only eight games.

By now Forest were in a relegation fight, their heads above water but not by much. Sean Dyche, a former player and well recognised in the UK game as someone you employ to get you out of a mess, took the reins, and while the football wasn’t exactly easy on the eye, he was picking up points.

Not enough, as it turned out. Marinakis reportedly asked the senior players what they thought of Dyche, and when they said his training methods were too tough for them (something, quite frankly, anyone who knows anything about English football would have known) he was the latest out of the door. Games managed? Only 18.

So four weeks ago Vitor Pereira arrived. You may remember him from earlier in the 2025/26 season. He managed Wolverhampton Wanderers so disastrously that by the time he was sacked in November the team had failed to win in ten games. With eight losses, Wolves were virtually condemned to a relegation scrap.

But Pereira is generally considered a good coach. No doubt Forest were hoping for a manager bounce. After all, when he took over at Wolves in March 2025 they went on to win seven straight.

That hasn’t happened, though. He hasn’t won a Premier League game yet – meaning he hasn’t won a Premier League game all season – but he did manage an away win in the Europa League and last time out a credible draw away at Manchester City. But then came Thursday’s crushing 1-0 loss to Midtjylland in the first leg of the Europa League R16. Ouch.

Global Head of Football

It’s very easy to look at the parallel of Edu’s arrival with the start of Forest’s slippery slope. The Brazilian arrived from Arsenal in July 2025 to oversee strategy across Marinakis’ clubs, which include Olympiacos and Rio Ave, and not a lot good has happened since.

He was indirectly fingered in the fall out between Nuno and Marinakis. The players he has brought in, at huge expense, have failed to deliver. On and off the pitch he’s had a tough time and recent media reports suggest he has been told to stay away from the training ground; his departure is looking increasingly likely.

Do the players care (enough)?

Some of Forest’s players looked like world beaters last season, yet those same players look a shadow of their former selves this time around. Have their thrown in the towel or are they victims of their employers shoot first, ask questions later manager policy? The answer probably lies somewhere in between.

Games have recently got away from them where one achievable point turns to zero and three turns to one. They are better than their results suggest, but they’re not showing it.

A few have World Cup places to play for still, and won’t be enjoying being at the wrong end of the table. Some will undoubtedly eyeing a move over the summer – they won’t fancy another season of this. And some might well have peaked on the crest of a wave last season, playing above their usual level. This season, they have reverted to the mean.

The Forest squad is packed with talent. Brazilian Murillo has an air of Roberto Carlos about him with his marauding runs from centre half and his blistering ball striking power. Elliott Anderson has come from nowhere to make the England holding midfielder position his own, while Morgan Gibbs-White is having a strong second half of the season.

But elsewhere Igor Jesus has flattered to deceive, Omari Hutchinson hasn’t lived up to his $49.5 million price tag and many of the Forest players signed in the last year simply haven’t been good enough to feature regularly. Chris Wood missing most of the season with injury has been huge.

So, what’s next?

It could all end well. They could turn around next week in Denmark and go on to win the Europa League. That, and surviving in the Premier League, would be considered a huge success and change the narrative of the whole, frankly bizarre, season. Hell, even getting knocked out in the last 16 of Europe but given a guarantee of survival now would be greeted with open arms such is the fear around the City Ground of the alternative.

But the flip side of the coin is that Forest get relegated, and if they do few outside Nottingham will have sympathy with Marinakis. His constant whining to the Premier League over refereeing decisions and relentless hiring and firing of managers have made him a figure of fun among football fans nationwide.

Not that Forest fans care. They have always stood by him and love the man who has incredibly deep pockets and isn’t afraid to dip into them on a regular basis. Around a minus $439.5 million net spend in the last five years you would expect to deliver more than relegation after three years in the top flight.

Rarely though does chopping and changing work. The success of Manchester City, before them Manchester United, and this season Arsenal – all of whom have spent big, of course, as have Forest in relative terms – attest that sticking by your manager will eventually bring success.

A relegation dogfight.

The bottom of the Premier League makes for fascinating reading, more so that the top. Who would ever have thought Wolves in their last three game would: beat Liverpool; beat Aston Villa; and draw with Arsenal? Despite this impressive rally, it is too late to save them from the drop. Burnley are going down with a whimper. This leaves one place.

That unwanted spot looks a straight fight between West Ham, Forest and Tottenham Hotspur. The unthinkable is that Spurs, last year’s Europa League champions, with their magnificent new 60,000 seater stadium, get relegated for the first time since 1978/79, a run of 48 seasons in a row.

It is looking increasingly possible. West Ham, with Nuno Espírito Santo now in charge, are showing some real fight. Forest are stuck between the two, the trap door opening, the Hammers breathing down their neck, and with no real form to speak of.

The football Gods would smile on the irony of Nuno sending down the team which sacked him six months ago. Marinakis, from his lofty Directors Box seat, would not be laughing.