Simon Jordan suggests the real reason for Nuno Espirito Santo’s Nottingham Forest exit
Simon Jordan believes that Nuno Espirito Santo was knowingly the architect of his own downfall at Nottingham Forest after he was sacked by the club and succeeded by Ange Postecoglou.
Nuno Espirito Santo‘s reign at Nottingham Forest has come to an abrupt end despite the great progress they have made on and off the pitch in recent times with him in charge.
The former Wolves boss led Forest to safety from relegation in his first half-season at the helm, and they made some brilliant strides forward last term as he guided them to a seventh-placed finish and qualification for the Europa League.
He signed a new three-year contract extension at Forest in June, but reports of fallouts behind the scenes between him and new transfer chief Edu Gaspar led Football Insider to reveal on Monday (8 September) morning that Forest were set to sack Nuno amid crisis talks with controversial owner Evangelos Marinakis.
Nuno was officially relieved of his duties by the club on Monday night with Ange Postecoglou then replacing him as Forest boss, and even though he was sacked, former Crystal Palace chairman Simon Jordan believes that the Portuguese head-coach knew what he was doing ahead of his exit.
Simon Jordan suggests Nuno Espirito Santo angered Evangelos Marinakis to get paid out instead of walking away for nothing
Despite their recent success, Nuno fuelled rumours of a potential exit last month by saying that his relationship with Forest co-owner Marinakis was “not the same” as before, and admitting that “where there’s smoke, there’s fire” in response to reports over his position as boss being uncertain.
Reports following his departure also claimed that Nuno failing to bring on Douglas Luiz against West Ham was the final straw for Marinakis in terms of his decision, after the Portuguese boss had reportedly been against signing the Juventus loan man in the summer.
Former Palace chairman Jordan offered his verdict about Nuno’s own part in his sacking while speaking live on talkSPORT on Wednesday (10 September, 11:08), suggesting that he actually wanted to leave the club because of disagreements behind the scenes, and so pushed to get sacked so he could be paid off rather than resign from his role and cancelling his contract.
He said: “The more I think about it, the more I think that Nuno Espirito Santo engineered his departure so that he got paid on the way out, because I think he had reached the end of the road for various reasons. Maybe some of that is Edu, maybe some that is the situation with Marinakis, and the fact that Marinakis was courting other people.
“I was calling Nuno Espirito Santo a fool for making his observations [and saying] ‘what did you expect the outcome to be?’ Now, he’s not a fool, so if he is not a fool, then why did he do it? He did it, I believe, to engineer an outcome which is potentially…’if you don’t like it Nuno then why don’t you resign?’
“If he resigns then he’s going to get himself in a situation where he doesn’t get paid. If he engineers the situation where he gets fired because there was a whole raft of things going on and he doesn’t want to work in that environment…he gets paid. I think there was an element of that going on.”
Nuno didn’t deserve Nottingham Forest sacking but he may well have wanted to leave regardless
Forest’s progression under Nuno was second-to-none, with the Portuguese boss taking his side from battling against the drop to nearly making the Champions League last season.
Many supporters of the City Ground outfit would have not even dared dream of that kind of upturn in fortunes in such a short space of time, yet the man that oversaw it has been relieved of his duties just three games into the new season.
| Games managed | Wins | Draws | Losses | Points-per-game |
| 71 | 30 | 15 | 26 | 1.5 |
There has always been a sense, however, that he was trying to upset the apple cart in order to get more signings over the line between now and the deadline, and disagreements between him, Marinakis and Edu have ultimately been the catalyst for his exit.
Forest will now move on in a new era under former Tottenham boss Postecoglou, and even though there will obviously be question marks over his style of play and whether the Reds’ players can adapt to it quickly and effectively, it seems very likely that he will be given ample time to implement his tactics by Marinakis.