Nuno Espirito Santo has worked tirelessly to change the perception of Nottingham Forest since replacing Steve Cooper.
The former boss had led Forest back to the Premier League for the first time in 23 years and with that in mind, it was always going to be tricky for anybody to come in and strike up an immediate rapport with the fan base.
Eyebrows were raised when Evangelos Marinakis made the call to Espirito Santo. Oliver Glasner was linked with Forest after winning the Europa League with Eintracht Frankfurt but Marinakis stood firm on who he wanted.
Forest narrowly avoided relegation last season. Espirito Santo had a four-point deduction, a number of shocking VAR decisions and injury problems to contend with but ultimately he achieved his remit of assuring Premier League football remained at the City Ground.
This season has been nothing short of remarkable so far. The Premier League table currently shows Forest in third place and that has to be viewed as unbelievable progress with the team now in with a realistic chance of European football next season.
Gary Neville proved right about Nuno Espirito Santo after intriguing prediction
Naturally, this appointment saw Forest get criticised. Very few anticipated that the Reds would be upgrading their head coach by swapping Cooper for Espirito Santo.
However, speaking on The Overlap, Neville did understand that there was a method from Forest amid the madness of letting Cooper depart after over two years in charge of the club.
Neville said: “The thing is they were playing quite counter-attacking anyway, is it a case of, well let’s at least bring a manager in who does that pretty well.”
Espirito Santo has notoriously been a manager who likes to soak up pressure and hit teams on the counter. A lot – too much at times – has been made about the possession that Forest have but given their lofty league position, very few fans will give too much care over that aspect.
Forest have proved Gary Lineker wrong this season
Forest fans won’t be rushing to give Neville too much praise for calling this one correctly. The Sky Sports pundit was very outspoken last season when Forest vented on social media after some horrendous calls in a defeat to Everton.
Another man who is going to get zero sympathy from Forest supporters is Gary Lineker. The Match of the Day host made some remarkable comments pre-season about the Reds and their chances of staying in the Premier League.
Lineker has called himself an idiot over his Forest prediction and has subsequently backed down and made a remarkable U-turn as early as October over the chances of Forest staying up this season.
This all boils down to Espirito Santo. He’s changed how Forest are perceived in the media and hopefully, some more points can be obtained in the coming weeks and the Reds can pin down a European spot of some sort next season.
Receive a digest of our best Nottingham Forest content each week direct to your mailbox
