Nottingham Forest part ways with Nuno Espírito Santo | OneFootball

Nottingham Forest have announced the sacking of their head coach, Nuno Espírito Santo, after 20 months in charge of the club.

The decision, reported by BBC Sport, brings an abrupt end to Nuno’s tenure less than two years after his appointment, despite guiding Forest to a seventh-place finish last season, marking their return to the European stage after an absence of almost three decades. His contract extension in the summer suggested stability, but growing friction with club ownership proved decisive.

Nuno Espírito Santo’s fractured relationship with the club’s hierarchy

Nuno himself admitted in recent weeks that his relationship with Evangelos Marinakis, Forest’s majority owner, had deteriorated. Cracks in the relationship were already appearing towards the end of last season, when, in May, Marinakis appeared to confront the now-former Forest manager following a 2-2 draw against Leicester, and speaking to the media in August, Nuno revealed that the dynamic was “not the same” and “not so good as it was last season.” Those words appear to have sealed his fate, with sources suggesting Marinakis had been weighing a change ever since. A reported falling out with technical director Edu only deepened the cracks.

On the field, Nuno earned the admiration of Forest supporters, reinvigorating a squad that had battled relegation in previous years. The seventh-place finish in 2024/25 was heralded as a remarkable achievement, marking Forest’s highest league finish in over three decades, with Forest also reaching the semi-finals of the FA Cup.

Yet early results this season offered a more mixed picture. Forest sit 10th after three games, collecting four points, with his final game in charge of the club resulting in a 3-0 loss to Graham Potter’s struggling West Ham side.

Forest’s next game will be a visit to the Emirates Stadium to face Arsenal, with talks over Nuno’s replacement thought to already be underway.

Nuno managed 73 games with the club, winning 28, drawing 20, and losing 25.

GFN | Finn Entwistle