Having already sent two managers packing this season, Evangelos Marinakis appeared on the brink of an unwanted hat-trick on Wednesday night.
Following a 0-0 draw with bottom club Wolves that left Nottingham Forest firmly in trouble, Sean Dyche appeared virtually to accept he would join Nuno Espirito Santo and Ange Postecoglou on the list of coaches sacked by Marinakis this season. From his seat in the Peter Taylor Stand, the Forest owner often looked frustrated as he watched Forest take 35 shots yet fail to score.
Dyche said: ‘If anyone chooses to change in football now, that’s their decision. If the owner wants to make a change, then that’s up to him. 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.
‘That’s the way it goes. I’m a realist. I understand that the noise here has changed significantly since the last few games.
‘Demand is high. That’s changed enormously in probably the last two years. Demand is getting higher and higher. Expectation immediately grows. So if the owner wants to change, that is entirely up to him, but there’s no lack of respect for me to the owner on how he’s been.
Evangelos Marinakis is considering sacking Sean Dyche – but he shouldn’t pull the trigger on a third manager this season
He cut a frustrated figure as Nottingham Forest laboured to a 0-0 draw with Wolves at home
Dyche is known as a survival expert but Forest are just three points above the relegation zone and he appeared to accept his fate on Wednesday night
‘When I came to this job I was under no illusions whatever. (The club) were unlikely to blast their way through the superpowers of football again [as they did last season].
‘There is no easy way through the Premier League. We are not on a bad run but we are at the wrong end of table and the results tell the truth of situation. [The scrutiny] seems to come quicker – everyone wants more and wants it quicker.’
If this was to be the end for Dyche, Daily Mail Sport understands former Wolves boss Vitor Pereira would be a contender succeed him. Pereira did a fine job when he took charge at Molineux in December 2024, leading the club to comfortable survival – though he was sacked 11 months later after a dreadful run of results. Wolves are now virtually certain to be relegated to the Championship.
There were even suggestions – unconfirmed by the club – that Forest’s players had met Marinakis not long after the game, after the result that left them only three points above the relegation zone.
Morgan Gibbs-White, full debutant Lorenzo Lucca, Callum Hudson-Odoi and Morato all missed very good chances. None was spared the boos of the home supporters at full-time.
Regardless of who is in charge, though, there is growing sense that Nottingham Forest’s Champions League near-miss last season was the worst thing that could have happened to them.
Forest had a brilliant campaign under Nuno Espirito Santo but fell just of qualifying for Europe’s main club competition. Believing they would kick on again this season, Forest then spent more than Bayern Munich, Real Madrid and Paris Saint-Germain last summer – but of those players, only Igor Jesus has become a first-team regular, and he would surely have had fewer chances had Chris Wood been fit.
Much has been said about Forest’s decision-making off the pitch but until now the players who took them so close last season have largely avoided scrutiny. That should be the case no longer.
Did Forest’s stars start to believe they were better than they are amid last season’s successes?
Rob Edwards has guided Wolves to another point but the Midlands outfit are all but down
If Dyche follows Nuno and Ange Postecoglou out of the door, the senior players are at least partly to blame. When they were at the top end of the league last season, did these footballers start to believe they were better than they are?
There were many stars for Forest last term but none shone brighter than goalkeeper Matz Sels or centre-forward Chris Wood, who had the seasons of their lives. Both are now out injured and without them, Forest look less than half as strong.
Courted by Manchester City last spring and then Tottenham last summer, Gibbs-White signed a new contract that will make him a very rich man. His form has not justified the wealth handed to him. Only Elliot Anderson’s levels have remained high and he will be rewarded with his move to a Champions League club in the summer. Before then, he and his colleagues must ensure Forest do not join Wolves in the Championship – no matter who is in the dugout.
