How Ange Postecoglou surpassed Liz Truss in 39-day Nottingham Forest disaster

The term hubris emerged in Greece and there was some distinctly hubristic about it, even if it was less Greek tragedy than a farce that stemmed from a pair of men born in Greece and briefly paired in Nottingham.

Perhaps Ange Postecoglou ’s heritage was a factor in his appointment at Nottingham Forest . Many another realised immediately it was a stylistic mismatch between manager and squad. Evangelos Marinakis, whose choice of Nuno Espirito Santo as Forest’s previous manager met with a distinctly mixed reception but proved inspired, parachuted in a compatriot of sorts after one of the strangest sackings and then, 39 days later, delivered one that was both among the most predictable and brutal.

Postecoglou lasted a mere 39 days at Forest . It was the shortest ever reign of any supposedly permanent manager in the Premier League ; some caretakers have lasted longer. His tenure was shorter than Forest’s iconic manager Brian Clough’s infamously brief spell at Leeds in 1975; shorter, indeed, than the time Liz Truss spent as Prime Minister, when she was outlasted by a lettuce . Next summer’s World Cup will be longer than the Postecoglou era, if such a word can be deployed. Clough’s 6700-day spell at Forest was more than 171 times longer than the Postecoglou age, if such a term can be used.

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Postecoglou cut a lonely figure and was sacked just 19 minutes after full-time (Getty Images)

And those 39 days actually included an international break. Arguably the surprise was not that he was dismissed, but that it did not happen sooner. This was a hubristic failure all around and if Postecoglou could not be blamed for wanting a swift return to management, he erred in his choice of club. Marinakis displayed a hubristic arrogance to dispense with the first manager to take Forest into Europe in 30 years and to replace him with one who, while winning the Europa League last season, also conjured one of the most spectacular feats of underachievement in Premier League history by taking Tottenham to 17th .

Memories do not fade that swiftly; nor those of Nuno’s unexpected exploits. It was instructive that the Forest fans who seemed to support Marinakis in his rows with the Premier League, PGMOL and many another outsider found their breaking point: they turned on his choice of a manager. They chanted “sacked in the morning” during the defeat to Midtjylland ; actually Postecoglou was sacked about 20 minutes after the next home match, the 3-0 defeat to Chelsea.

The warning signs were there when Marinakis left his seat in the City Ground stands, part way through the second half. So, too, in the display, the now familiar combination of a lack of spirit and cheap concessions. Forest let in 18 goals in eight matches under the Australian; he had neither a pre-season to work with the players nor his own signings but both the number and the manner of the goals supported the theory that his sides are defensively deficient.

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Nottingham Forest owner Evangelos Marinakis left his seat after just 66 minutes of the defeat to Chelsea (Mike Egerton/PA Wire)

Nuno’s best teams are not but then Postecoglou was the anti-Nuno. The Portuguese prospered with a smaller share of possession, a low block and devastating counter-attacking; it was a formula that also took Wolves to seventh place and, in each case, represents their high point for decades. Each was facilitated by fine players, but also needed a blueprint to be expertly executed.

Maybe plumping for Postecoglou indicated that Marinakis wanted a more ambitious style of play; certainly the squad was furnished with more than £100m of signings in the summer. Certainly, too, the Australian had precious little opportunity to implement his ideas. But he had one point and one goal to show from five league games. Including Tottenham, Postecoglou procured a lone point from his last eight top-flight matches, two from 12. He got one win in 17. It is the sort of record that makes a third Premier League post feel utterly implausible.

On the penultimate day of his reign, Postecoglou had said : “I’m a serial winner”. He left Forest with a 0 per cent win rate. And if that was a little harsh, if they perhaps deserved to beat Burnley or Real Betis or Swansea, few managers spend as much time talking about their own achievements as Postecoglou. He believes he is misunderstood, but he and Forest misunderstood each other.

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Forest promised a shift in style but scored just one Premier League goal in five games under Postecoglou (Getty Images)

Their statement of his sacking was 39 words long – one for each day – and cited “a series of disappointing results and performances”. It may have been wiser to end a mistake swiftly, rather than risk more, but Forest cannot remedy their initial blunder: firing Nuno, which in turn seemed a consequence of bringing in Edu, who soon fell out with the manager.

So there is the spectre of Sean Dyche , who could bring the order Postecoglou’s side lacked but would also look a downgrade on Nuno and a second dramatic shift of approach in as many months.

If so, it would underline the sense that Marinakis and Edu have created a mess. Postecoglou is part cause, part symptom, a man whose attempts to tout his own merits did not reach the desired audience. He said on Friday: "The story always ends the same... me with a trophy." Not this story. He did not even win a trophy as Forest manager. He did not even win a game.