In the end, Ange Postecoglou’s time out of the Premier League has lasted all of three months, with the 60-year-old quickly appointed as the new manager of Nottingham Forest following the sacking of Nuno Espirito Santo. ESPN sources say the contract runs through to 2027.
Just three games into the new season, the Australian is back in the English top flight, and the former Tottenham Hotspur coach will be in the dugout when his new side travels to the Emirates to face Arsenal on Saturday.
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Does that mean Forest can be penciled in for a trophy in the 2026-27 season, continuing a habit of winning trophies in his second season? That was made immortal by his delivery of a Europa League title to Spurs last season. At this stage you almost underestimate Postecoglou at your own peril, given most would have thought he wasn’t being serious when he declared, following a 1-0 north London derby defeat last season, that “I’ll correct myself — I don’t usually win things, I always win things in my second year.”
But there’s certainly a level of risk in the union between the manager, his new club, and owner Evangelos Marinakis, who moved to axe Nuno during the international break. And given that Postecoglou is not one to back down when it comes to his self-belief and approach to football, it’s something that could come to a head long before it reaches the end of a sophomore campaign.
For one thing, Postecoglou will need to quickly come to grips with a squad that has been built around playing a risk-averse, counter-attacking style of football that stands as an almost polar opposite of his preferred approach — one which saw Tottenham have the second and fifth most possession in the English top flight during two years in London. At the same time, Forest had the second and third fewest in the league.
Forest’s players have spent an entire preseason preparing to play with an approach that brought them significant success last season, on a team and individual level, including a place in the Europa League, but now they’ll likely be asked to do something completely different — “Angeball.” And there won’t be a transfer window to bring in suitable stylistic reinforcements until January.
Admittedly, amidst a wave of injuries and with a trophy agonizingly close, there was a shift towards a more pragmatic approach towards the end of Postecoglou’s tenure at Spurs. Utilizing a horses-for-courses mindset and continuing this approach until new signings arrive can’t be totally discounted. But there was a sense that he had unfinished business in the Premier League — particularly the suggestions that, in Thomas Frank, Spurs had replaced naivety with a proper manager with proper tactics — and it feels likely that he’ll try, at least initially, to do things his way.
And for supporters, the fear will be that his way will fail to deliver any kind of silverware but will repeat a downturn in league form that saw Spurs finish 17th last season. Just as Spurs were that campaign, Forest will be tasked with league, FA Cup, Carabao Cup and Europa League commitments this season. Postecoglou, and the fans, need only look back to last season to see what kind of challenges can be presented by such a logjam of fixtures — especially if you don’t have all the pieces you need to play the high-octane, all-or-nothing approach likely to be implemented.
And if things don’t start well, there’s always the threat of sudden change in the dugout from Marinaki who, after Nuno’s sacking, has now gone through seven permanent managers and a further three caretakers at Forest — in addition to the 16 coaches during 14 years as the owner of Greek side Olympiacos.
Even without the threat of the axe, Postecoglou doesn’t come across as the type of coach who would react well to being given an on-field dressing down by his owner, as Marinakis did to Nuno following a 2-2 Premier League draw with Leicester City at the end of last season, despite that result sealing European football for the first time in 29 years. For Marinakis, the carrot of a place in the Champions League was no longer being dangled after those two points were dropped.
But perhaps he has a leg up here, given that the Forest owner is seemingly a long-standing admirer. Born in Greece before arriving in Australia as a young refugee, Postecoglou plans to retire in the land of his birth and speaks with pride of his Hellenic heritage — his footballing upbringing in Australia taking place at South Melbourne Hellas and having previously coached at Panachaiki in the Greek lower divisions. In July, he was presented with an award by Marinakis at the launch of the new Greek Super League season, lavished with praise by his soon-to-be boss.
“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.
“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.”
Even discounting the analysis of his exit from Spurs, Postecoglou will also feel as though he’s got a point to prove at the City Ground. The end of his time in north London was the first time he’d hadn’t left a job on his own terms since he was sacked as the coach of Australia’s under-20 and under-17 sides in 2007.
The history that Forest possesses as two-time European champions would have also appealed, as will the community that surrounds the club and the opportunity to play a role in helping restore them to some semblance of their former glory. Much of his time at Tottenham featured rhetoric centred on changing the narrative and restoring sustained success.
And despite the stylistic clash, he’s not walking into a club left in ruins. Nuno’s departure, a 3-0 loss to West Ham United in their last fixture notwithstanding, was much more related to a breakdown in his relationship with Marinakis and Forest’s new head of global football, Edu.
After being guided to a seventh-place finish by the Portuguese last season, it’s a side coming off their best Premier League finish since Frank Clark led a newly promoted outfit to a third-place finish in 1994-95. They’ve spent close to £200 million in the summer window, as well as seeing off Spurs’ interest in Morgan Gibbs-White. There’s talent stockpiled at Forest and everywhere he’s gone in his career, Postecoglou has found a way to not only engender a fierce sense of loyalty but also make his players better.
In July, one of the remarks Marinakis made about Postecoglou was: “Wherever he goes, the successes will come.” It’s a line made glaringly noteworthy with hindsight. Now, starting with Arsenal on Saturday, Postecoglou is tasked with meeting those expectations.
