Whistle blows on barren Forest’s Ange Postecoglou

The problem was that it wasn’t. “You don’t know what you’re doing,” sang the Nottingham Forest fans as Chelsea went 2-0 up within seven minutes of the start of the second half. “Sacked in the morning” joined the Chelsea fans, never ones to miss out on the chance to kick a former Tottenham manager while he’s down.

Evangelos Marinakis could not wait until the morning, though. He could not even wait half an hour, sacking Ange Postecoglou 21 minutes after the final whistle.

Nottingham Forest announced the news in a 39 word statement – one for every day Postecoglou had spent managing the club. It is the second shortest managerial reign of the Premier League era and he became the first Forest manager never to win a game while he was in charge.

This outcome had felt inevitable, regardless of the result against Chelsea. The 3-0 loss was not as one-sided as the scoreline suggests. The chip on Postecoglou’s shoulder will deepen given the chances his players squandered in the course of his final match, but this appointment was only ever going in one direction.

His line-up screamed “statement” if the statement was “I’m not really sure what I’m doing, mate”. Taiwo Awoniyi started up front, having not been in the squad since the opening day of the season, and only lasted the first half.

None of James McAtee, Omari Hutchinson, Arnaud Kalimuendo and Dilane Bakwa made the bench, adding up to more than £100m of attacking talent. It was clearly not just Nuno Espírito Santo who didn’t like Forest’s summer transfer business.

Marinakis had left his seat by the hour mark. Perhaps it was the fear that the owner was lurking in the tunnel that meant Postecoglou took his time on the pitch after the final whistle. He made sure to stand as far away from the fans as possible as he half-heartedly clapped, until he could not even bring himself to make that much effort and instead just stood there clasping his hands.

Postecoglou is an easy person to make fun of. The press conferences that seethe with a strange combination of bitterness and insecurity are hardly endearing.

He had used his final one ahead of the match against Chelsea to bemoan his situation like a misanthropic teenager.

“I guess from my perspective, I just don’t fit,” he wailed, before launching into a five minute rant defending his record in his time at Tottenham.

“Some will look at the weeds, I will look at what’s growing” was his analysis of his side’s poor form at Nottingham Forest.

Unfortunately for Postecoglou, Marinakis is a more attentive gardener than the Australian. Yet his approach to hiring managers has been like getting Capability Brown to landscape the lawn before insisting he wants it ripped up and replaced with crazy paving.

Even leaving aside the spectacular falling out with Nuno that brought an abrupt end to what had been a historic run, the decision to bring in Postecoglou was misguided from the start.

There could not have been two managers further apart. Where Nuno prioritised defensive solidity and counter-attacking football, Postecoglou wants his teams to dominate possession and play a high line. It was always fanciful that the team would be able to transition from one style to the other during the course of the season whilst under pressure from a sceptical fanbase, on top of having to play European football. One expects that Marinakis is not the type of man who is prone to introspection, but if there is a finger to point, it should be at himself.

Now he is forced to again find a manager, but this one needs to turn their season around. The mooted names hardly inspire confidence but as the team teeters into the bottom three, practicality is the priority over ideology.

Options like Sean Dyche would return the team to a style closer to how Nuno wanted them to play but the whiplash of change can hardly help a dressing room. Although given how swiftly Murillo liked Forest’s Instagram post announcing Postecoglou’s departure, it was obviously not a particularly happy one previously.

It was supposed to be a dream season for Nottingham Forest as European football returned to the City Ground for the first time in 30 years. Instead, it is turning into a nightmare.

What happens to Postecoglou is as intriguing. Fortunately by not making it to a second season, and barely into a second month, there is no need to retire the line about always winning in it.

But there has been a Mourinho-esque desperation to his pronouncements over the past couple of months, as the reality slips further away from the claims being made to the media.

It still feels like he could galvanise a dressing room, and even a fanbase, if he was able to turn his own egotism down a notch. Sometimes people are laughing at you not because of where you are from or what you have done but how you are behaving.

“I only just found an apartment to move into,” he said prior to the game. “I should have stayed in temporary digs.” Here’s hoping he gets his deposit back.

Photograph by Mike Egerton/PA Wire