New Nottingham Forest boss Vitor Pereira believes the trust he has with owner Evangelos Marinakis means he can survive the poisoned chalice of the City Ground job.
The Portuguese has become Forest’s fourth manager of the season after Sean Dyche followed Nuno Espirito Santo and Ange Postecoglou out of the door last week as Marinakis acted in a bid to avoid Premier League relegation.
Pereira has worked with the combustible Greek businessman before — guiding Greek club Olympiacos to a league and club double over a decade ago — and believes that stands him in good stead to deal with the pressure.
“He’s ambitious. He wants to win, he’s emotional and I know him very well,” the former Wolves boss said at his unveiling press conference on Tuesday.
“The conversations were about our time in Olympiacos. I remember the energy and the fire we created.
“Greece is a bit like Turkey. There is fire inside, they like to see the energy and he asked me to be myself.
“He liked the way that when we worked together, we got the league and the cup.
“It was in the middle of the season and we created a good relationship. He trusts my work, I trust his personality because in football we need passion too.
“I have fire and I have passion. Football is my passion, something that sleeps and wakes with me.
“I came with the intention to give everything of myself, to give my body and soul to this club to help the club and together we can do it.
“This is the pressure that means football is beautiful. We are better under pressure. I need the pressure to be in my best level.
“Pressure is important in football.”
Dyche was sacked in the hours following Wednesday’s goalless draw with Wolves after several senior players were called into Marinakis’ office for a debrief.
The former Burnley and Everton boss had lost large swathes of his squad’s belief and Pereira has called on his side to buy into his mantra.
“If you buy the idea, it’s a good step,” he said. “If you don’t buy the idea of the manager, it’s a big problem.
“You must also buy the personality … If you buy the idea and the person, have an open mind to receive information and to work hard together, it’s possible to achieve what we want.”
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Pereira kept Wolves in the Premier League after taking over from Gary O’Neil in December 2024, guiding them to midtable safety and he believes he can do the same with Forest.
He said: “I prefer to speak about the present and the future. But you know this is a difficult season for the players, because it’s different methodologies, different managers.
“It’s not easy, but I believe the reason why I accept this job is because I believe in the quality of the players, because I believe in the potential of this club, the ambition of the president.
“Of course, I believe that it’s possible [to stay up]. I believe that we can get points, results and quality in the games.”
