Ange Postecoglou has been sacked by Nottingham Forest.
The former Tottenham boss was dismissed 21 minutes after Forest’s 3-0 defeat to Chelsea.
Postecoglou leaves Forest without having managed to win a single match in charge.
A club statement read: “Nottingham Forest Football Club can confirm that following a series of disappointing results and performances, Ange Postecoglou has been removed from his role as head coach with immediate effect.
“The Club will make no further comment at this time.”
Postecoglou leaves Forest without a win
Postecoglou leaves after just 39 days in charge, his eyebrow-raising appointment made following Forest’s split with Nuno Espírito Santo. Nuno finished seventh last season but left amid well-documented boardroom discord with owner Evangelos Marinakis and global head of football Edu.
Nuno was fired after a 3-0 home defeat to West Ham at the end of August, with Postecoglou quickly becoming the preferred choice despite finishing 17th with Tottenham last season.
Postecoglou delivered Europa League glory to Spurs, but signs of progress in any competition have been few and far between during his brief spell with Forest.
After starting with a 3-0 defeat at Arsenal, Postecoglou has taken just one point in his five league matches in charge, that coming in a 1-1 draw with Burnley last month.
He also failed to win any of his matches in the Europa League, a 2-2 draw at Real Betis followed by a surprise 3-2 defeat at home to Midtjylland. Forest were also knocked out of the EFL Cup by Swansea City, surrendering a 2-0 lead in a 3-2 defeat.
In short, he leaves without having won any of his eight matches in charge, with Postecoglou’s dismissal coming just after an eventful press conference by the Australian on Friday.
This story ends differently
Postecoglou launched a fierce defense of his record at Spurs in his press conference ahead of the meeting with Chelsea.
“If you look through the prism, I’m a failed manager who’s lucky enough to get this job…so these first five weeks it looks like this guy is under pressure,” Postecoglou said, suggesting that the reporter who asked the first question on the media call was “smirking” at him.
“There is another story you can consider. I came to the Premier League two years ago and took over Spursy Tottenham.
“The president at the time told me [Daniel Levy]“This club must win a trophy. We tried to attract winners – Jose [Mourinho] and Antoine [Conte] – and it didn’t work. We need to try something different.
“We finished fifth in my first year and, every time Harry Kane scores a goal, I wish he had stayed another year because it would have been handy to have him. But somehow that year disappeared from the record books.
“I was in meetings and people who are still at the club were in these meetings where I was told that ‘winning a trophy is everything to this football club’.
“We win a trophy. We get rid of the label of ‘Spursy’. It’s Champions League football, which brings rewards and the possibility of signing better players.
“But all I’ve heard, since I finished at Tottenham, is that we finished 17th last year. If I have to explain why we finished 17th, there’s no need to go into detail.
“Just look at our last five or six team sheets in the league last season and you’ll see what [the Europa League] I prioritized.
“If people think [finishing 17th] is a reflection of me and my coaching, they look at it through the prism [that] I’m not coming back.
“Maybe I’m a manager where, if given time, the story always ends the same way… with me and a trophy.”
But the story at Forest ended very differently, and Forest will now look to appoint another manager who can lead them to the top of the league after winning just five points from their opening eight games.
