Northern Irishman on how he was sacked by Forest, the role of data in football and not getting the England job
O
ver the past few weeks Martin O’Neill’s memories of a Friday afternoon in June 2019 have risen up with fresh clarity. This month Nuno Espírito Santo was sacked as the manager of Nottingham Forest by the club’s owner, Evangelos Marinakis, in a scenario that echoed O’Neill’s fate six years previously.
O’Neill had meant so much to Forest fans after his key role as a player in the club’s greatest period in their history, winning the league and then successive European Cups under Brian Clough in 1979 and 1980. But the 73‑year‑old is too intelligent to overplay the comparison to Nuno. O’Neill’s final managerial post, at Forest, lasted 19 games, while Nuno achieved huge progress in his 21 months in charge. Forest were serious contenders for Champions League qualification until the final weeks of last season.
Nuno was still cut loose by Marinakis with the same ruthless edge the Greek owner showed in dismissing O’Neill when he was preparing Forest for a new season in the Championship. “We won the last three games I was in charge,” O’Neill says. “I’d come into the job in January after I met Marinakis in London. We agreed that we’d work over a 17-month period and he said: ‘Don’t worry about [chasing an unlikely] promotion now. Next season we will really make the charge.’ I thought that was absolutely fine and I didn’t want any longer, because if I couldn’t get them promoted that would be it.”
