In the end, there wasn’t even much anger.
When Chelsea’s third goal went in, the trickle of Nottingham Forest fans heading for the exit turned into a flood. There were a few boos. One fan punched a sign on their way out, which they may regret later. Some shouted in the direction of the bench. One yelled that the manager was a “f***ing fraud”.
But there wasn’t the same fury that burst forth during the Europa League game against Midtjylland a few weeks ago. That atmosphere was toxic. This one was barely enough to cause a mild cough.
For Ange Postecoglou, apathy turned out to be worse than anger.
Owner Evangelos Marinakis had long since departed. It was around the 60-minute mark that he left the throne that doesn’t so much overlook the dugout but looms above it at times like this. Where had he gone?
Roughly 18 minutes after the final whistle, we found out, with a curt message saying Postecoglou had been relieved of his duties with immediate effect. At just 39 days, it’s the second-shortest managerial reign in Premier League history, and Forest are looking for their third manager of the season by the middle of October.
Shortest managerial reigns in Premier League
ManagerClubYear(s)Days
Sam Allardyce
Leeds
2023
30
Ange Postecoglou
Nottingham Forest
2025
39
Les Reed
Charlton
2006
40
Javi Gracia
Leeds
2023
69
Rene Meulensteen
Fulham
2013-2014
75
Frank de Boer
Crystal Palace
2017
77
Quique Sanchez Flores
Watford
2019
85
Bob Bradley
Swansea
2016
85
Nathan Jones
Southampton
2022-2023
94
Colin Todd
Derby
2001-2002
98
There was anger in the stands — a lot directed at Postecoglou — but above all, there’s a sense of: how did we get here? How did all of this fall apart so quickly? It was barely six weeks ago that Forest were congratulating themselves on a transfer window well done, a huge amount of money spent building a squad to challenge for the Europa League.
Nuno Espirito Santo was moaning a little in the media, but that could all be sorted out with a few cool-headed meetings, right? One or two adult conversations, and everyone could move on. Surely the club wouldn’t let the manager who took them into Europe for the first time in 30 years leave over a falling out behind the scenes, would they?
And now here they are. No wins of any description since the opening day of the season. Eight games under Postecoglou, six defeats, two draws, no clean sheets and a positive atmosphere dashed into tiny pieces.
Evangelos Marinakis leaves his seat at the City Ground (Catherine Ivill – AMA/Getty Images)
Perhaps surprisingly, this didn’t feel like a crowd predisposed to anger, more like one who showed up wanting this to work. There was confusion at a starting XI that featured Taiwo Awoniyi, a man who hasn’t played a game since pre-season, no permanent summer signings and about £130million ($175m) worth of attackers — James McAtee, Dilane Bakwa, Arnaud Kalimuendo and Omari Hutchinson — left out of the squad entirely.
In a nearby pub, a hush descended over the assembled Forest fans when the team news came out. People peered at each other. People frowned, baffled.
And yet, the first half was encouraging. The shape, with Ibrahim Sangare behind a fairly fluid three of Morgan Gibbs-White, Elliot Anderson and Douglas Luiz, looked difficult to play through. Awoniyi caused his usual, unrefined havoc. They almost pounced on some careless Chelsea passing.
It didn’t take long for that to disappear. Two goals not long after the break, and what threatened to be a more positive afternoon went bang.
There wasn’t even much anger when the first goal went in. After the second, it was a different matter. The Chelsea fans started a chant of ‘you’re getting sacked in the morning’, which a smallish but loud group in the Upper Bridgford End, above the away support, joined in with.
There were boos when Douglas Luiz came off, but they were quite quickly overtaken by others trying to gee up the team. All of that was undercut with the sense that they had seen this film before, that while in theory there was still time to turn this around, it was unlikely.
There is some sympathy with Postecoglou. Forest missed presentable chances, which means they are creating them. Igor Jesus hit the bar and the post with the same shot: real ‘when it’s not your day, it’s not your day’ territory. Gibbs-White hasn’t been himself all season and gave the ball away carelessly. Anderson looked a little leggy, predictably enough after 14 games for club and country this season, all but one of which have seen him play 90 minutes.
But Postecoglou doesn’t help himself. Quite apart from the results, why did he think it would be a good idea to spend most of his media duties essentially talking about himself, including a lengthy defence of his time at Tottenham? Who cares about that, Ange? “No one else is, so at some point you’ve got to stand up for yourself,” he told TNT Sports before the game. Great, but how about a bit of “it’s not about me, we’ve got to win some games for Nottingham Forest”, etc etc?
The smiles of the Nuno era are long gone (Alex Pantling/Getty Images)
Aside from wearing some Paul Smith gear, he made little effort to endear himself to the support, in the same way that Nuno and especially Steve Cooper did. Those were not the reasons that those two were popular: had they lost every game but spent every media appearance talking about the world-famous City Ground, they wouldn’t be heroes, but it felt like such an easy thing for him to do.
Perhaps Postecoglou thinks that stuff is pointless and insubstantial, that the way to win over the masses is with exciting football, wins and trophies, not playing to the gallery. Well, he’s 0 for 2 there.
The worst thing about Forest in the pre-Cooper era, in the years of finishing between eighth and who cares in the Championship, was the apathy, the sense that people didn’t much care whether Forest won or lost. These last few years have brought mostly happiness, a positivity that has permeated the city. More than slipping down the league table, it will be a tragedy if all of that is lost.
After the game, the players walked around the pitch and applauded the fans. For the most part, they were well received. They will all be here for the game against Porto on Thursday.
Postecoglou won’t. What a mess.