Nottingham Forest have confirmed they have appointed Nuno Espirito Santo as their new manager.
The Tricky Trees parted company with Steve Cooper on Tuesday after he led them to a disappointing start to the 2023-24 campaign.
Saturday’s 2-0 loss to Tottenham Hotspur was their ninth defeat, with the result dropping them to 17th in the standings.
Nuno was most recently the head coach of Saudi Arabian side Al-Ittihad but was dismissed from his position in November.
The 49-year-old has now made an immediate return to management by landing the job at Forest.
<blockquote class=”twitter-tweet”><p lang=”pt” dir=”ltr”>Welcome to Nottingham Forest, Nuno Espírito Santo 🤝</p>— Nottingham Forest (@NFFC) <a href=”https://twitter.com/NFFC/status/1737408769255002167?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”>December 20, 2023</a></blockquote> <script async src=”https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js” charset=”utf-8″></script>
Cooper’s impressive work
When Steve Cooper first took over the West Bridgford outfit in September 2021, they were mired in relegation. But the Welsh boss completely changed the mood at the City Ground within a few months.
A stunning run of positive results led the club to an excellent fourth-place finish, thus earning them a shot at Premier League promotion.
Nottingham Forest pulled off an incredible feat in the play-offs, beating Huddersfield Town in the final to return to the English top-flight.
However, Cooper’s position at the club looked under threat after a miserable start to the 2022-23 season.
The hierarchy stood behind him as the 44-year-old guided them to a 16th-place finish. That was also a huge achievement considering the massive squad overhaul over the summer.
Cooper finally received the sack on Tuesday after a miserable run that saw them collecting just a single point from six matches.
Is Nuno the right choice for Nottingham Forest?
Nuno did an impressive job at Wolverhampton Wanderers between 2017 and 2021.
The Portuguese boss not only led them to Premier League promotion but also consolidated their position in the English top-flight over the years.
Under Nuno, Wolves twice finished seventh and also secured a 13th-place finish on time.
But his subsequent managerial stint at Tottenham Hotspur was a failure.
The 49-year-old lasted less than four months at Spurs before being replaced with Antonio Conte. The Lilywhites were languishing ninth in the table at the time of his dismissal.
Nuno is undoubtedly a top-class coach but his recent managerial stints haven’t yielded a lot of success.
