Nottingham Forest's Whirlwind Season - A View From the Stands

A Fan's View on the Nottingham Forest Rollercoaster

Nottingham Forest qualified for Europe last season. It was a moment of pure euphoria for an army of loyal fans who had been through thick and thin with their City Ground residents, including over two decades in the EFL wilderness and a drop as far as League One.

Promotion in 2022 was unprecedented under the guise of Steve Cooper, who led the Reds from the bottom of the Championship table into an emotional Wembley victory to make a stunning top-flight return. Two proud relegation battles followed under Cooper and his successor Nuno Espirito Santo, before the unthinkable occured in the form of a genuine push for Champions League football that soon petered out into a UEFA Europa Conference League space (upgraded to a Europa League space thanks to a comedic summer filled with CAS cases and missing Outlook passwords).

The journey to get to that point seemed too good to be true, at times. Evangelos Marinakis, boldly at first, stated from the off that he wished to turn what he called a 'sleeping giant' back into being a European heavyweight. Under his ownership, they actually defied the odds and made it back into Europe, prompting Forest's most promising season in decades to follow in after.

Amazon Prime would’ve made an absolute fortune if they’d ran a documentary on this stupid fucking football club#NFFC

— Louis Wheeldon (@LouisWheeldonNS) February 12, 2026

A sensational performance against Brentford on the opening day kept that belief going strong. However, in what felt like a matter of moments, the promise that the season held began to slowly crumble beneath the club's feet.

Flash forward to the present day, and I sit here at my desk at lunchtime on a typically-miserable February afternoon. I am devoid of emotion and utterly bewildered at how a season so frought with promise has unravelled into a modicum of chaos, blame and pure uncertainty. As I write, we sit just one spot and three points above the relegation zone, trying to hold off the assault of a West Ham side with four wins from their last six being led by our former hero, Nuno Santo himself.

I haven't got a clue what this article is going to be about, so feel free to strap in with me as I try and sit here and get my head around everything that has gone on this season.

Paddy M from The Athletic, whoever & wherever you are, that is a perfect response & 100% bang on. Certain fans commenting from their ivory towers over the last few weeks will undoubtedly shake their heads at it with the arrogance of their previous words, but it’s so right #NFFC pic.twitter.com/CubQaUF1l8

— CB (@Chris78901) February 12, 2026

WTForest

I suppose I'll start at the start. By which I mean the very start.

My first season as a season ticket holder coincided with the arrival of Marinakis at the club back in 2017. The position we are in now, staring relegation from the Premier League in the face whilst also somehow staring a Europa League knockout clash with Fenerbahce in the face at the same time, is still an absolute far cry from the Forest I first laid my eyes on.

We had just stayed in the Championship by the skin of our teeth (love you, Jordan Smith) and our new owner had made the bold claim that he wanted us in Europe within five years. A mental claim, it seemed to be at the time, but still one that stoked the optimism amongst red ranks in Nottingham all the same.

Wood being in this image is criminal. He’s missed an entire managers tenure and is still on our top scorers list. pic.twitter.com/i7tGLkMZBT

— James (@jtweets1865) February 12, 2026

We brought in the wonderful man that was Joe Lolley, Lee Tomlin was the definition of 'lovely feet for a big man' and Danny Fox was the regimental soldier in the heart of the defence. We finished 17th that season.

Nine years later (Christ), and here we are as a Premier League side in our fourth innings of the top flight, and our third relegation battle. It feels like role reversal in many a way - last season was supposed to be the kick-off point that drove us towards our goal of becoming an established Premier League side a season or two earlier than expected, but instead the third relegation fight has come in the fourth season amidst all hell breaking loose at the club. Or it appears to do so time and time again as the weeks roll by, anyway.

Nuno-no

Edu Gaspar, Nottingham Forest's Global Head of Football responsible for leading the charge in Marinakis's empire - featuring Forest alongside sister clubs Olympiakos from Greece and Rio Ave from Portugal - has been a big needle in the side of Forest fans since the early days of his appointment, namely because his fractured relationship with Nuno Santo sparked the ending point of the Portuguese manager's time at the City Ground.

Upon his appointment, we were rather excited. The club had shone a bright light on the Brazilian, stating that they were 'proud' to announce his arrival, and Forest fans in the replies to the post marking his signature stated a story of the club's ambition and welcomed their new upstairs official to the club with open arms.

But there were plenty of warnings in that stream of replies as well, from those who had experienced a time underneath the former Brazil defender at Arsenal. In six years at the Emirates, Edu had hardly had the fans on his side. Amidst a stream of warm welcomes from Forest fans, came ironic condolences and warnings of the future to come from the Gunners and other fans of the 'Big Six' who had kept their tabs on him.

Nottingham Forest is proud to announce the appointment of Edu Gaspar as Global Head of Football, a newly established leadership role overseeing football operations.

— Nottingham Forest (@NFFC) July 7, 2025

Three days is all it took for the warning alarm to start blaring, as it became apparent that Morgan Gibbs-White would be leaving the club for a feeble profit on the way to Tottenham, owing to a 'secret release clause' that nobody appeared to be aware of. For one reason or another, he ended up staying, but the business had already left a sour taste in many a mouth in the East Midlands.

And then there was his relationship with Nuno himself. Where Forest were proud to appoint Edu, the manager of the time was not quite as warm in his welcomes for the new member on the staff working alongside him. Marinakis would have pictured a state of harmony between the two - an ambitious, experienced sporting director with worldwide responsibilities working arm-in-arm with the heroic manager of the club, adored by fans after delivering Forest's most impressive season for a generation.

The cancer. The man who alienated our manager. The man whose agent pal leaked a fake sacking, which resulted in a genuine sacking. The man that oversaw two horrendous windows. The man who assisted in hiring Ange and Dyche. This club cannot succeed with him. Get him out. pic.twitter.com/LvtyHFmdbz

— Callum Castel (@CallumCastel7) February 11, 2026

The cracks showed through explosive press conferences from Nuno, acted upon and smoothed over by an uptick in transfer activity and an impressive opening day win, but the axe was swung during the first international break, with no path ahead appearing for Nuno at the club whilst Edu had his part to play.

The Nuno-Edu dynamic should have been the second-most important one at the club, and yet it was one that dissolved from virtually day one of the Brazilian's time in-post. As a fan, it was shocking to see the apparence that football (and Forest) can change in just the blink of an eye. Days into a hugely promising season with European implications and no real thought of having to fight against relegation again, and the apple cart was overturned already. And those hypothetical spilled fruits would only be the start of an apparent tidal wave of chaos.

Mate...

Ange Postecoglou, it is fair to say, was not high up on the wishlist for many Forest fans. The Australian was sacked from his post at Tottenham despite delivering their first trophy since 2008 and being hugely popular at the club, as a result of a pathetic Premier League campaign that only saw them survive the drop because of how poor Ipswich, Leicester and Southampton ended up being.

His Spurs side was one fraught with injuries for the most part, incapable of holding onto leads and sacrificed every crumb of defensive nous in favour of gun-ho attacking football, often at Tottenham's cost instead. So it's fair to say we weren't thrilled at the arrival, with the hopeful option of buying Oliver Glasner or Marco Silva out of their respective contracts at Crystal Palace and Fulham seeming more popular choices.

Evangelos Marinakis is still broadly popular among Nottingham Forest fans, and that’s hardly surprising.

It would be ludicrous to suggest that, on a football level, he has not been a net positive. They were fighting relegation to League One when he took over. Nine years later,… pic.twitter.com/bD4nlR853H

— The Athletic | Football (@TheAthleticFC) February 12, 2026

But we wanted to give him a chance, of course, and it did seem for a few moments that it might come together for Ange at Forest such as a solid point away to Real Betis in our return-to-Europe match wherein we looked like prime Barcelona in the first half. Ultimately, though, he was a total opposite in terms of style to what Nuno Santo brought to the club. The Portuguese coach had built an ethos of being defensively solid and unsuspectingly effective and clinical on the break whereas Big Ange was the polar opposite.

With just 39 days in the post, Postecoglou was dismissed from his post amidst a total breakdown in faith from the Forest fans and a recent string of hopeless performances, particularly in the second half where Forest conceded 12 of the 17 total goals shipped under Ange in his eight games in charge.

Can Ange Postecoglou guarantee you a clean sheet? No. But does he give you exciting, attacking football? No. But does he keep his sides competitive in games? Also no. But is there at least a coherent plan? Again, no. But does he look good in Paul Smith? No fucking chance…#NFFC

— Tom (@WiggumCharm) October 5, 2025

Ange's appointment felt like too much of a shift in dynamic for Forest. He'd been successful in many ways everywhere he had been, and his appointment felt tailored towards him succeeding once again in the Europa League, but his OTT brand of football was a far cry in terms of strategy that a camp that were heavily in support of Nuno Santo were used to. Couple the lack of impact on the pitch with his innate ability to wind the fans up in press conferences with his self-implicating comments whilst staring at the floor, and the Australian was back out the exit door in what felt like seconds after a crushing 3-0 home defeat to Chelsea.

Farewell Dyche and Roll Number Four

And now I come to today. In the wee hours of this overcast Thursday morning, Sean Dyche was dismissed from his post after an also-short four months in charge of his boyhood club, and Nottingham Forest are once again left scrambling for an answer against what appears to be their fate at the foot of the Premier League table.

If it was to be four Premier League managers in one season - a new record for a club in the division - the feeling from me is that Dyche should have been the fourth man to come in, should any predecessor not have worked out and we were left in need of a 'survival specialist' to shore us up and grind out the tough, necessary points. It's an appointment that seems reasonable when in serious relegation trouble with 12 games left, but not in October with 90 points still to play for.

We’re about to hand Vitor Pereira a job the same season he pretty much decimated another PL club… it’s absolutely dismal.

— Owen (@NFFC_owen) February 12, 2026

The Burnley legend's brand of football was more closely aligned with what made Forest successful last term, but lacked the killer cutting edge in attack that had really kicked them into the success we enjoyed.

There were certainly good moments, of course. Few will forget the 3-0 trouncing of Liverpool on their own patch nor his debut game - comfortably holding Europe's most in-form team, FC Porto, at arms length to inflict their first loss of the season upon them on Dyche's first innings as Forest boss.

The decision to sack Dyche has been one that split the fanbase directly down the middle, and I truly don't know where I stand in the argument, to be honest. One the one hand, the football on display under Dyche and the performances within did not look to be those of a team that battled for a Champions League spot last season and had a Europa League knockout round to square up with next week. Nor even did they look to be a performance from a team that could survive the Premier League relegation zone. But then on the other hand, how could a fourth style of management and regime being inflicted upon the same group of players make any difference?

The players are not free from their own slice of shame, of course. Some of them, as CityGroundShelf quite rightly said, have been an absolute disgrace.

Dyche is an instrument in a short term problem. But some of those players are a fucking disgrace. And that’s before the ownerships decision making undoing last seasons hard work and setting the club back to 2023. Twats.

— CityGroundShelf (@CityGroundShelf) February 11, 2026

But the true circus act at Nottingham Forest has been upstairs before it has even stepped onto the pitch. The backstage politics and side-lined name-calling present behind the scenes and spilling out into the media between Edu and Nuno sent the warning shots for what was not, in fact, going to be a season to enjoy and marvel at. Instead, it has caused unnecessary friction amongst supporters with a dulling of the atmosphere and a struggle to sell tickets that is of no fault at all to the fans themselves.

Now What?

I feel as if I have checked my calendar and suddenly discovered that it's 2021 in the Championship all over again, where tedious football and a manager problem at the heart of it all were making attendance at the City Ground feel more like a chore than an event. The saving grace of that time was that there was plenty of time to put things right - which we did through that shocking promotion, of course - but this time there isn't.

There are 12 games left of the Premier League season. Our next Premier League match is Liverpool at home, sandwiched by what will be an incredibly tough tie between Forest and Fenerbahce. After that, there's two trips to Manchester and one to Chelsea to endure, as well as visits from the likes of Aston Villa, Newcastle and, of course, our bogey team Bournemouth.

All the chaos and all the noise at Nottingham Forest has been totally self-imposed and completely unnecessary and, for the first time in my life... I'm tired.

When Forest went to CAS with Palace to fight for a Europa League spot, or when we would sign a mysterious player that would never play a game for us we would laugh it off like a parent with no authority disciplining a naughty child. "Oh Forest, what have you done this time?" Even when Nuno Santo left, as crushing as it was, there was still some shades of that laugh-it-off, stiff-upper-lippedness, 'if you don't laugh, you'll cry' attitude in some of the immediate aftermath of the decision, maybe without knowing the chaos that would span out in it's wake over the whole season. There was from me anyway.

I really wanted it to work for him but he’s assembled quite possibly the worst make up of players I’ve ever seen. Coached all confidence out of anyone and is the main reason we are so badly in the shit. I wouldn’t trust him with Monopoly money or his ability to spot a good player

— Kev (@KevSmyth78) February 12, 2026

And now, as we root around looking for our fourth manager of the season - it appears to be former Wolves boss Vitor Pereira, who we have already been heart-warmingly warned about in no uncertain terms from fans in the Old Gold - I am quite simply tired. We've gone too Forest, we've gone too chaotic. Supporting this club used to be character building and hilarious at times to keep track of but now, quite frankly...

It's fucking exhausting.

I of course pray that there is light at the end of the tunnel for Forest and that whomever does take the hot seat has the magic button to turn around our fortunes, but things look rather bleak at the moment and even my ever-optimistic head is wavering in it's belief in our chances. The crushing blow is remembering just how terribly excited I was for this season to get started. Being a Forest fan is in the blood and under the skin by now, that will never change, but good grief do they know how to do my head in.