Former Celtic manager Ange Postecoglou sacked as Nottingham Forest boss after just 39 days in charge
The Australian has been relieved of his duties at Forest after just over a month at the City Ground
As we all know, football is just one big managerial merry-go-round, which ‘big Ange’ has found out first hand today in a shock dismissal.
Having only just moved into his new flat, Postecoglou was sacked after a poor run of results for Nottingham Forest. Since joining in September the former Celtic boss managed just eight games but was unable to find a win in any of them. After the 3-0 defeat to Chelsea in the English Premier League’s early kick-off, the club’s eccentric owner, Evangelos Marinakis, showed Ange the door just 17 minutes after the final whistle.
Last season, it was all going so well for The Reds as they secured European Football for the first time in two decades under Nuno Espirito Santo. However, despite results going well on the park, the relationship between he and Marinakis was deteriorating behind the scenes. After four games, Nuno was sacked, with Ange in line as his replacement. Needless to say, the Forest owner is trigger happy when it comes to letting gaffers go.
Postecoglou sacked with immediate affect
A Forest statement on X read: “Nottingham Forest Football Club can confirm that after a series of disappointing results and performances, Ange Postecoglou has been relieved of his duties as head coach with immediate effect. The Club will make no further comment at this time.”
A blunt response for a blunt call, the Greek owner looked to have made his mind up when Chelsea’s second went in. Marinakis was animated in the stands the full game, but was nowhere to be seen for the last 20 minutes, where he was presumably, just waiting for Ange in the tunnel.
The 3-0 scoreline slightly flattered the London side as Forest did have chances of their own. Igor Jesus hit the bar in the second half while Morgan Gibbs-White also missed from close-range, however this obviously wasn’t taken into consideration by the owner.
From hero to zero
After Nuno’s dismissal, Marinakis clearly already had plans in place to make Postecoglou his replacement. The Greek roots of Ange is what eventually swayed it for him. Marinakis once spoke very highly of the former Celtic man when giving him an award in July.
He said: “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. 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.”
Three months on and an eight game winless run later, the 60-year old’s heritage wasn’t enough to save him. As Forest search for their new manager, they currently sit 18th place in the league. As for Ange, after two sackings in the space of four months, who knows what the future holds for the Aussie.