Postecoglou sack at Nottm Forest now ‘more likely than not’ for one key reason

Nottingham Forest are now “more likely than not” to sack Ange Postecoglou after they lost 2-0 to Newcastle United on Sunday, according to reports.

The Reds sacked Nuno Espirito Santo during the September international break after picking up four points from their opening three Premier League fixtures of the new season.

Forest decided to hire former Tottenham boss Postecoglou in his place after the Australian left Spurs at the end of last term, despite winning the Europa League.

Since Postecoglou has taken over, Nottingham Forest have taken just one more point from four Premier League matches, lost in the League Cup to Championship side Swansea City and picked up one point in two Europa League matches.

It has been a disastrous first seven matches in all competitions for Postecoglou and the Tottenham boss was on the defensive after their latest defeat to Newcastle on Sunday.

Speaking after the match, he said: “I expect to have a discussion with the owner and everyone at the football club about what we have embarked on here and where we’re at and what we need to do, for sure, yes.

READ: Who will be next Nottingham Forest manager after Ange Postecoglou sack?

“If people want to make an assessment on me after three and a half weeks, there is nothing I can do about that. At the same time, there is nothing wrong with things being tough – it’s OK!

“I had an option – I could have been sitting on a couch watching the game today and not been in the middle of it. I would much rather be here. I love a fight. So what if it’s a fight, if it’s a struggle? It’s OK!

“If people outside don’t think I’m the right person – or even internally don’t think that – it makes no difference to me. I took this role on knowing it would be a massive challenge in terms of what we’re trying to do and changing the direction of the club.

“Nothing I have seen in the last three and a half weeks has changed my view on that. I love the challenge of taking this club to where it needs to be. I’m very confident we’ll get there.”

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There have been reports of an ’emergency SOS meeting’ at Nottingham Forest over Postecoglou’s future with former Manchester United chief scout Mick Brown – who is still well-connected in the Premier League – insisting it’s “probably more likely than not” that the Australian gets sacked over the international break.

Brown told Football Insider: “I have no doubt questions will be asked of Postecoglou.

“Given how the owner there tends to operate, he’s not going to be afraid to pull the trigger if things aren’t working, and at the moment it clearly isn’t.

“Going into the international break, it’s probably more likely than not because it gives them a couple of weeks to sort things out and find somebody else.

“They’re coming off the back of a fantastic season, so this season was always going to be difficult.

“I’m not sure they were ever going to match what they did last time, even with Nuno in charge.

“Now, Postecoglou has come in and he wants to change their whole style of play, they’ve gone from a defensively solid counter-attacking side, to the opposite.

“That style didn’t work at Tottenham, and it’s not working at Forest, so the owner will be looking at that and they’ll be concerned about the results because they haven’t been good enough.

“The problem is, you lose a few games and all of a sudden the sky falls on top of you.

“It seems they’re going to have talks, the manager and the owner, so we’ll see what comes of that because it didn’t exactly end well for Nuno.”

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