As Ange Postecoglou departs Nottingham Forest after 39 days, we look at how his tenure ranks among the briefest managerial stints

Ange Postecoglou’s reign as a Premier League head coach at Nottingham Forest is the second-shortest in the competition’s 33-year history. 

Forest parted company with Postecoglou on Saturday after a 3-0 home defeat to Chelsea left them in 17th, one point above the relegation zone, ahead of the 15:00 BST matches.

It was their sixth defeat in eight matches since the former Tottenham Hotspur head coach took over from Nuno Espirito Santo.

Postecoglou’s sacking came just 39 days after he joined Forest. 

Allardyce the shortest reign

Sam Allardyce holds the unwanted record of the shortest reign as manager at a Premier League club on his own, spending 30 days at Leeds United in May and June 2023.

Allardyce was in charge for four games – which ended in relegation – losing three and drawing one of those matches and he left when his contract ran out on 2 June 2023.

Shortest managerial reigns 

Manager
Club
Matches
Pts
Days in charge

Sam Allardyce
Leeds
4
1
30

Ange Postecoglou
Nottingham Forest
5
1
39

Les Reed
Charlton
7
4
40

Rene Meulensteen
Fulham
13
10
75

Frank de Boer
Crystal Palace
4
0
77

Bob Bradley
Swansea
11
8
84

Quique Sanchez Flores
Watford
10
7
85

Nathan Jones
Southampton
8
3
94

Scroll across to see full table on mobile

Postecoglou’s record of four defeats in five Premier League matches also makes him statistically one of the least successful managers in the competition. 

His 0.2 points-per-match average is the joint fourth-lowest, the same as Allardyce, but still better than the zero points claimed by Frank de Boer during his four matches in charge at Crystal Palace in August and September 2017.

Lowest points/match records*

Manager
Matches
Record
Pts
Pts/match

Frank de Boer
4
W0 D0 L4
0
0.00

Eric Black
7
W0 D1 L6
1
0.14

Jimmy Gabriel
7
W0 D1 L6
1
0.14

Neil Adams
5
W0 D1 L4
1
0.20

Gary Megson
5
W0 D1 L4
1
0.20

Ange Postecoglou
5
W0 D1 L4
1
0.20

Paul Jewell
24
W0 D5 L19
5
0.21

Sam Allardyce
4
W0 D1 L3
1
0.25

*minimum four matches. Scroll across to see full table on mobile

In comparison, Forest’s previous head coach Nuno averaged 1.42 points per match at the City Ground. 

Postecoglou is also the first manager to see his team score only one goal in his first five Premier League matches in charge since Sean Dyche at Burnley in 2014.

With Forest sitting in 17th, and with the joint-worst goal difference in the division ahead of the 15:00 BST matches, the club will hope their next manager can address the slide for a team who finished seventh last season.