Ange Postecoglou has been appointed Nottingham Forest’s new head coach after agreeing a contract until the end of next season.
Forest announced Nuno Espirito Santo had been sacked at a quarter past midnight on Tuesday morning with Postecoglou already lined up to take charge of the club’s game away against Arsenal on Saturday.
The Portuguese-Sao Tomean’s position became untenable after he made comments in a press conference about his breakdown in relations with Forest’s owner, Evangelos Marinakis.
“Our relationship has changed and we are not as close,” Nuno said, out of the blue. “Everybody at the club should be together, but this is not the reality.”
Eighteen days later, he was gone.
Why did Forest sack Nuno?
Nuno had led the club in a phenomenal campaign last season, finishing seventh in the Premier League and earning a spot in the Europa League – the first time the club had qualified for Europe in three decades.
But there were a pointed, deliberate three words in Forest’s short statement announcing his departure that he had been let go “following recent circumstances”.
Picking a fight with Marinakis in public was, evidently, pivotal.
Is Postecoglou the right choice?
How, then, will Postecoglou fare working for one of the most combustible owners in the Premier League?
There is never a dull moment working for Marinakis, who marched onto the pitch following a draw against Leicester City in May then appeared to confront Nuno, in front of thousands in the City Ground crowd and millions more worldwide.
The club later claimed Marinakis was angry that Taiwo Awoniyi had continued to play on despite a serious injury.
They suggested it was “fake news” to describe it as a confrontation, even though it, quite clearly, was a confrontation, regardless of what they were arguing about.
For a start, Postecoglou survived Daniel Levy for two years at Tottenham, which shouldn’t be underestimated.
Levy, until recently Tottenham’s chairman and still minority owner, is notoriously difficult to work for – gives little away, expresses few emotions, acts decisively and ruthlessly.
Postecoglou experienced the sharp end of this personality when, 16 days after winning Spurs a first major trophy in 17 years, Levy made the cold, brutal business decision to sack him. Postecoglou, who had two years remaining on his contract, had made a plea to keep his job. Levy couldn’t see past the 17th-place finish in the Premier League.
‘He doesn’t take any shit’
Postecoglou, meanwhile, is known back in Australia as someone who does not take any shit.
In the early 2000s, he unwittingly became a main character in an iconic moment in Australian sporting television when, as manager of Australia’s youth teams, he appeared on The World Game and had a blazing row with presenter Craig Foster.
Postecoglou had raised the point that not enough young Australians were getting minutes at clubs. Foster told Postecoglou he had to accept responsibility for poor performances, and in a fiery 10 minutes repeatedly called for Postecoglou to resign.
He was sacked three months later. And after falling from one of the country’s leading coaches to almost unemployable, he had to claw his way back into the game.
There is, meanwhile, a level of resilience developed beyond most when, as a child, you watch your father lose a successful business during the Greek military coup of 1967. From moving thousands of miles from Greece to start a new life in Australia. From fighting to fit in with new classmates who struggled to pronounce his surname but were impressed by his ability on the pitch.
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And there is already an affinity between Postecoglou and Marinakis engendered from their Greek origins.
At the Ble Azure, in Attica, back in July, Postecoglou was presented with a special award from the Greek Super League by Marinakis, who is the league’s president, for becoming the first Greek Australian to win a European trophy.
“What I want to say about Ange is that he has spoken about Greece many times, he is proud to be Greek and in the great success he had with Tottenham by winning the Europa League, he spoke about Greece,” Marinakis said, according to a report in The Parikiaki, a Greek Cypriot newspaper based in London.
“A man who not only does not hide his origin but is also proud of it.
“What he achieved, he did with a team that has not won any titles, it has had a very difficult time in recent years. In this huge success that the whole world saw, he promoted Greece.
“We must thank him especially for this and we wish him well, although we are sure that he will do well as he has the ability. Wherever he goes, the successes will come.”
Marinakis has, at least, backed those words up by appointing Postecoglou to coach his Premier League club the first time the job became available.
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