Nottingham Forest are close to appointing Vítor Pereira as their new head coach after sacking Sean Dyche.
Pereira worked under the Forest owner, Evangelos Marinakis, at Olympiacos for six months from January 2015. This season he was dismissed by Wolverhampton Wanderers when they had two points and were bottom in November. Pereira had been appointed by Wolves in December 2024, when they were second from bottom. He steered them to a 16th-place finish, 17 points clear of the relegation zone.
The 57-year-old is in talks with Forest over what is believed to be an 18-month deal. He has continued to be paid by Wolves because his contract ran until 2028 and he did not receive a final settlement. It means that if he earns less at Forest, then Wolves would have to pay the difference for up to one year after his sacking.
Dyche made a decent start at Forest but was fired after only 114 days in the job after a downturn in results
AFP
The decision to fire Dyche was made by Marinakis within three hours of the goalless draw with bottom club Wolves at the City Ground on Wednesday. It left him looking for his fourth manager this season after starting the campaign with Nuno Espírito Santo and briefly moving on to Ange Postecoglou.
Dyche’s successor will be the tenth head coach in less than nine years of Marinakis’s ownership of Forest after the former Everton manager Dyche lasted 114 days in the post. In all competitions, Dyche had 25 games, winning ten and losing ten. In the league alone, he won only six of 18. Forest are 17th, one place and three points above the relegation zone.
“Nottingham Forest Football Club can confirm that Sean Dyche has been relieved of his duties as head coach,” a statement read. “We would like to thank Sean and his staff for their efforts during their time at the club and we wish them the best of luck for the future. We will be making no further comment at this time.”
Marinakis canvassed Forest’s senior players before giving Dyche his marching orders
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Dyche’s departure follows that of Thomas Frank, dismissed by fellow strugglers Tottenham Hotspur earlier in the day, and means the bottom five clubs in the Premier League have now sacked six managers this season ― three of them by Forest. Burnley’s Scott Parker is the only manager in the bottom five who started the season in charge of his present club.
Marinakis acted after canvassing senior players in the wake of the Wolves result, in a bid to avoid the financial catastrophe of relegation. Forest are mired in relegation form, as a seemingly endless list of missed chances against Wolves illustrated.
Forest had 35 shots against a team still battling to avoid the lowest points total in Premier League history and still could not score. The evening was summed up by a 69th-minute corner from Omari Hutchinson, as Forest were enjoying a spell of mounting pressure, which he deposited directly into the side-netting. Cue a predictable and lusty chorus of abuse from the home supporters that was amplified at the final whistle.
Team-mate Morgan Gibbs-White appeared to remonstrate with some supporters on Hutchinson’s behalf as the winger clearly looked shaken by the reaction. All part of an evening that left Dyche discussing his job security, or lack of it.
“I’ve never been questioned here on anything about it,” he said immediately after the game and before being notified of his dismissal. “The owner has been fair to me. If anyone chooses to change in football now, that’s their decision. People change. We’ve all seen it. Fans can demand change and then it’s always whether they change or not. I just work very hard. I care about this club. I’ve made that clear.
“If the owner wants to make a change, then that’s up to him, and that’s the way football is now, that’s just the reality of it. But I’m not questioning the owner here. He’s been absolutely fair with me from the beginning to the end, and I’ve been fair with him and told him the truth every step of the way.
“What I’m saying is owners are owners. They don’t warm you up, it [the sack] just comes. I’m a realist. I understand, you know, the noise here has changed significantly since the last few games. Demand is getting higher and higher and expectation immediately grows.”
Scoring goals has long been Forest’s big problem, as 25 from 26 games testifies, and Dyche’s gamble of handing a first start to the 6ft 7in striker Lorenzo Lucca, on loan from Napoli, did not pay off on Wednesday night.
The Italian led an astonishing six-versus-one counterattack in the first half, which ended with him blasting over Callum Hudson-Odoi’s cross. Before that, Lucca had failed to jump high enough to meet a Neco Williams cross; after it, he flicked at a ball six yards out without making meaningful contact. Not the stuff dream debuts are made of.
Nor did it help that, with Forest looking for crosses to aid their attacking focal point, the best early headed opening fell not to Lucca, but to Gibbs-White, who could only guide an excellent Elliot Anderson cross into the side-netting. He should have done better. As, Marinakis believes, should Dyche.