Nottingham Forest is about to appoint its third head coach this season. Sean Dyche would be a double admission of failure for the club.
Nottingham Forest’s search for a new manager is almost complete. According to numerous English media reports on Monday, Sean Dyche is set to succeed Ange Postecoglou at the struggling Premier League club. The Australian was forced to step down immediately after Saturday afternoon’s 3-0 home defeat to Chelsea, having won none of his eight competitive games in charge.
Dyche has been out of work since leaving Everton in January. The 54-year-old had led the Toffees to safety the previous season despite two points being deducted. Prior to that, he had successfully kept Burnley in the Premier League for years before being forced to leave in April 2022.
Former Italy coach Roberto Mancini, who had been in charge of Saudi Arabia until October, was also reportedly a promising candidate. But Forest officials, led by football director Edu and technical director George Syrianos, wanted Dyche, which amounts to a double admission.
Firstly, they are once again emphatically declaring the Postecoglou experiment a failure. Unlike his predecessor Nuno Espirito Santo, who led Forest to the European Cup with his disciplined football, the former coach of reigning Europa League winners Tottenham Hotspur stood for risky attacking football. Dyche has nothing to do with that either. His teams have always had their strengths in working against the ball.
The new guy is in for a tough start
And so, secondly, it seems clear that the bosses around owner Evangelos Marinakis have understood what the hour has struck. Nottingham, which also failed in the League Cup and botched its Europa League start, is already stuck in a relegation battle early on with only five points from eight matchdays. First and foremost, it’s about survival in the league, something Dyche has often mastered. On Thursday (9 p.m.), they face FC Porto in the Europa League, and on Sunday (3 p.m.), Nottingham travel to surprise third-placed AFC Bournemouth, who haven’t lost since their unfortunate 2-4 defeat to champions FC Liverpool in their league opener. And then the resurgent Manchester United come to City Ground.