It was while sitting at a harbourside restaurant in Athens that a question was put to one of Evangelos Marinakis’ closest aides.
‘What do you say to him when you know he is making a mistake?’ was the gentle enquiry.
‘I don’t know what you mean,’ came the reply. ‘Mr Marinakis doesn’t make mistakes.’
And there you have a vignette – a small insight – into the culture and sense of blind certainty that runs right through the heart of the modern Nottingham Forest and has just helped to run their talented and progressive manager right out of the door.
Nuno Espirito Santo was a fool to tell the world there were problems with Marinakis, the Forest owner, in a lightning bolt press conference on August 23. Once the horse was out that particular stable, it was already drowning in the Trent.
But the danger now is that all the progress made by one of England’s most famous football clubs in recent times goes with it.
Nuno Espirito Santo was sacked as Nottingham Forest manager early on Tuesday morning
Nuno’s sacking by owner Evangelos Marinakis has been coming after his recent actions
And the real problem here is that this was always likely to happen. And as such is very likely to happen again. Marinakis runs his football club just the way he runs his other one – Olympiakos in Athens – and indeed his other businesses.
His style of ownership is hands on, seemingly oppressive and all-encompassing. As such, any football manager with an ounce of strength, self-respect or confidence is going to rub against him eventually.
Steve Cooper – Nuno’s predecessor – did just that and was eventually half-relieved to get out of the place. Having taken Forest out of the Championship, Cooper felt he was struggling to perform in the oppressive environment that had become the norm at Marinakis’ Forest.
So, over dinner at a white tablecloth restaurant in London, he called the owner’s bluff. Back me or sack me, was the ultimatum. On that occasion it worked and Cooper was handed a new contract. He was, of course, sacked eventually in December 2023.
Nuno is not entirely without blame in this latest sorry saga. As he sits and ponders his next career move, he has good reason to ask himself whether he ought to have been a little more circumspect at times. He was the first team coach, not the sporting director.
Nevertheless there are clear patterns at play here and the truth is that to work for Marinakis can be extremely difficult and occasionally, according to those who have done it, utterly impossible.
One source close to the Forest situation tells me it’s like being stuck in a tumble dryer. Round and round. The same problems, the same bones of contention, on repeat. Everything is micro-managed by the owner or, at the very least, his closest aides.
Whether it’s the signing of players or something as trivial as the laying of pipes at the club’s training ground, Marinakis needs to know about it and will always have a view.
Marinakis’ style of ownership at Forest is hands on, seemingly oppressive and all-encompassing
Former Forest boss Steve Cooper was worn down by the environment he worked in at the club
Ange Postecoglou is the favourite to replace Nuno and it will be fascinating to see how he does
Last season, for example, one senior football figure found himself marginalised to such a degree he found himself becoming obsessed about whether the car park gates were open on time. ‘There is nothing else for me to do,’ he shrugged.
In such an environment, what kind of self-respecting manager can really be expected to survive long? Ange Postecoglou? The Daily Mail revealed Forest’s strong interest last month and it’s not difficult to imagine the former Tottenham manager’s attacking style of football giving the City Ground a lift. This, after all, is a place where you can’t turn a corner without running in to a photograph of the great Brian Clough.
But in the long-term, it’s hard to see someone like Postecoglou thriving in an environment where a manager’s power will always have a relatively low ceiling. And the bottom line here is that it’s all such a shame.
Only last April, I spent a couple of days in Nottingham ahead of their FA Cup semi-final against Manchester City. The sun was out and the city was alive. Nuno sat and looked at those photographs of Clough holding league titles and European Cups and agreed it was something pretty special to aim for. Two days later Wembley was awash with red.
This should be a time of opportunity and hope in Nottingham. There are plans to expand the City Ground – now that Marinakis has stopped tussling with the local council about it – and the Forest squad has in its ranks players of real international quality such as the English pair of Morgan Gibbs-White and Elliot Anderson as well as the Brazilian defender Murillo and his Serbian defensive partner Nikola Milenkovic.
These are players who have been signed on Marinakis’ watch with the help of the people he trusts to do such work for him. It’s represented fabulous business and the Forest owner’s investment, commitment and passion has taken the club to the brink of real and sustained relevance for the first time since the mid 1990s.
The luring of Edu, his Global Head of Football, from Arsenal was an extraordinary coup that says everything about Marinakis’ contacts book, influence and power. He has been a force for good in Nottingham.
At some stage, though, you have to let your people do their work and that, to a degree, includes your managers. Too many sources still talk of an atmosphere of vague chaos at the City Ground. One describes it as like no other place in football and all of that tends to position a club firmly in the middle of this kind of boom and bust cycle. It’s great if you like your drama on repeat but less so if you wish to build something genuinely sustainable.
