Martin O’Neill has explained what he told Evangelos Marinakis before he was offered the Nottingham Forest managerial position. The European Cup-winning former Reds has been promoting his new autobiography with various media outlets this week.
The former Republic of Ireland boss was handed the managerial position in 2019. He replaced Aitor Karanka who had departed following a spat with the hierarchy and was viewed as a somewhat safe pair of hands at the time.
O’Neill did ruffle a few feathers when he came into the club. Standards were increased but the performance levels didn’t, with things quickly becoming a bit of a struggle on the pitch.
The former winger oversaw eight wins and eight defeats from his 19 games in charge. He finished with win and loss ratios of 42% and that wasn’t deemed good enough by the club’s board.
O’Neill left just a week into pre-season training ahead of the 2019/20 campaign. He was replaced by Sabri Lamouchi, with the announcement coming just 24 minutes after his sacking.
Now, with the former manager bringing a book out, he’s been discussing what he told Marinakis before taking the job almost four years ago.
He told the Garibaldi Red podcast: “All I wanted was to get them promoted.
“I said to the owner I just wanted 18 months to win promotion.
“If I couldn’t get them up I’d walk away. He was happy with that.
“I’m not sure 19 games in charge is any real criteria.”
O’Neill has explained what he told Evangelos Marinakis
The former player will forever be welcomed back on Trentside for the work he did as a player. Ultimately though, he simply wasn’t performing well enough as a manager of the club.
Forest played a pretty boring style of player under O’Neill. They endured some disastrous results and in a results-based business, he was always going to be struggling.
The Reds went backwards under his leadership. Karanka had put the team on the cusp of a play-off place and Forest fell out of the reckoning completely in 16 games under O’Neill.
It’s natural that the former winger might feel somewhat bitter. In his eyes he didn’t get long to stamp his authority but making a change was best for business.
Receive a digest of our best Nottingham Forest content each week direct to your mailbox
