Chris Sutton has admitted that he’s a little bit underwhelmed by the Nottingham Forest appointment of Nuno Espirito Santo. The Reds named the 49-year-old as the man to replace Steve Cooper earlier this week.
Forest owner Evangelos Marinakis had grown disgruntled with Cooper in recent weeks. The Reds have won just one of their last 13 games and they’ve also lost 5-0 to Fulham in that time.
After the Craven Cottage debacle, Marinakis tossed his matchday pass into a bush close to the stadium. He was clearly disgruntled but did give Cooper two more games to try and sort things out.
Sutton delivers verdict on Espirito Santo appointment
The pundit has claimed to have supported Forest when he was a boy. Now he’s had his say on the club’s decision to appoint Espirito Santo to replace Cooper this week.
Sutton said on the It’s All Kicking Off podcast: “If I was a Nottingham Forest supporter, which I was when I was younger, right now at this moment in time, when I heard about the appointment, and I may be wrong because every manager deserves a chance, I was so underwhelmed.
“Underwhelmed is the right word for the choice of Nuno going in there and taking over from Steve Cooper. Maybe you could argue at Tottenham he got a bit of a rough deal because he didn’t get long enough but I think the perception of Nuno is that he is quite a negative manager in the way that he sets teams up and maybe it is harsh, because if you look at the first couple of seasons when he came in at Wolves and a couple of seventh-placed finishes, but they did regress – albeit I think he deserved the opportunity to manage up.
“Maybe I am wrong with this but with the perception I have of him, I wouldn’t be overly excited about this appointment.”
Sutton makes some good Forest points
Some fans will make out that Sutton very rarely has anything productive to say about Forest. Here, however, he does make some good points.
Espirito Santo wouldn’t have been on the list of many supporters to come in and replace Cooper. However, that doesn’t necessarily make him a bad appointment.
The head coach has a decent CV and at Tottenham, he finished with a win percentage in the high forties, despite getting only 17 games to do the job.
Espirito Santo has been praised by some Forest players in the past. Willy Boly lauded his training methods and perhaps he will be looking forward to working with his old manager.
Underwhelming is the word though. Espirito Santo hasn’t worked in England for a couple of years and he will have to prove himself to the club’s supporters.
Sutton is right about the underwhelming nature of the appointment. However, given the results something had to give and ultimately the time was probably right to sack Cooper.
Receive a digest of our best Nottingham Forest content each week direct to your mailbox
