Ange Postecoglou’s time in charge at Nottingham Forest was short lived and the Australian was shown the door in a brutal manner – and then had to face the music from fans
Nottingham Forest sacked manager Ange Postecoglou just over a month after hiring him(Image: Getty Images)
Ange Postecoglou has opened up on the “brutal” manner in which he was sacked by Nottingham Forest with the Australian getting just eight games before he was axed 18 minutes after full-time of his final match in charge.
Postecoglou came in to replace Nuno Espirito Santo, who had clashed with the club’s owner and paid the price early in the season. The Australian had come in for major criticism of his final season at Tottenham, which saw them finish 17th but win the Europa League.
His style didn’t produce the desired results in Nottingham either and Postecoglou presided over an eight-game winless run that spanned just 39 days. He’s since confessed that taking the job at the City Ground was the wrong call, but the manner of his dismissal left its mark.
Postecoglou recalled the “brutal” situation with the former boss admitting he knew the bad news was on the cards. He had to navigate his way out of the stadium but got stuck in traffic and had to face the noise from Forest fans and Chelsea supporters, who had just seen their team win 3-0, which ended his reign.
He said an interview with SEN 116: “I haven’t told the story but it was brutal mate, I literally got sacked straight after the game. I knew it was coming so it was one of those that could come any day now but they literally sacked me straight after the game. I hadn’t done the press yet but the press already knew. I just wanted to leave because I was going to do something I regret.
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“I hadn’t spoken to the assistant coaches who I knew also were probably going to be sacked so I needed to say something to them and I’m doing this walking through throes of press and people who are just all looking at me and I just wanted to get out of there.
“Security said to me ‘Ange, how do you want to get out of here’, you know [with] Premier League games all the roads are blocked for half an hour.
“And then after half an hour they said Ange, the roads have opened but there’s obviously traffic out there and they did there best to try and get me through. I got stuck at one set of traffic lights for at least 15 minutes, I’ve got Chelsea supporters giving it to me, Forest supporters weren’t much kinder.
The Australian knew his time was up before being told of the news(Image: Getty Images)
“I’m sitting in the car laid back and in between I got little kids coming up asking for a selfie, so what do you do, I don’t want to disappoint. So I paid for my penance, whatever mistake I made, I paid a pretty heavy price for it.”
Nottingham Forest have continued to chop and change their managers with current boss Vitor Pereira the fourth man to occupy the home dugout at the City Ground. He has recently been tasked with keeping the club in top flight with a number of sides looking over their shoulder.
After Nuno and Postecoglou came Sean Dyche, who has an impressive record at maximising a team’s resources. He was appointed in October and lasted until mid-February. He won ten of the 25 games he took charge of, losing nine.
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