With Evangelos Marinakis, Nottingham Forest have the perfect blend of ambition and expertise at the top of the club, but things were much more turbulent before he arrived.
Jim White admired Marinakis’ ambition for Forest even before this season’s Champions League push, which has coincided with a £16m net spend on transfers to boost the Greek businessman’s ability to push on even further next season.
Before Marinakis took over in 2017, it was Kuwaiti Fawaz Al-Hasawi who held the keys to the City Ground after taking over from the estate of Nigel Doughty. Al-Hasawi presided over a period of decline and chaos at the club, sacking eight Forest managers in his five years at the Reds.
His mismanagement of finances were clear when wages to players and staff became regularly late, but his involvement with on-pitch matters was something Forest fans always worried about, with one of the eight dismissed coaches Billy Davies setting the record straight.
Fawaz Al-Hasawi used to interfere with team selection at Nottingham Forest
A crucial understanding must be present at football clubs that the coaching staff handle the football and the owner doesn’t intervene.
However, Al-Hasawi clearly didn’t understand this and as revealed by Davies on the No Tippy Tappy Football podcast, the Kuwaiti would interfere with the Forest starting XI.
Recalling a specific occasion when Forest faced Burnley, Davies said: “On the Friday, I pulled Simon Cox and Darius Henderson and I said to the two of them: ‘Look, I’m going to play 4-4-2 tomorrow, you two get up top and ruffle them [Burnley] about and do what you do.’
“So the Friday night I travel up to the hotel and at 9:30, 10 o’clock I get a call from the owner and it’s the usual conversation: ‘Hello Mr Manager, how are you? What’s your team for tomorrow?’ So I tell him the team and he says to me: ‘Well there’s two players that I would prefer you to play in the team.’
“I said to him: ‘Look Mr. Chairman, I respect this is your club, your ball, I understand and if that’s what you want to do then I will make that change. I’m advising you as the manager that I think you’re making the wrong call, […] I don’t think it’s the right thing but I respect you as the owner.’
“[…] Long story short, I make the changes, I change the formation and we go out against Burnley. At 35 minutes gone, it’s Burnley three Forest nil, the Forest fans are singing ‘Billy, Billy sort it out!’ and I’m absolutely raging!
“I made changes at half time, bringing on the two guys [Cox and Henderson] and we win the second half 1-0 but we lose the game 3-1. I’m now driving back up the road and I get a call from the chairman, he said to me: ‘Billy, just forget that result, I will take that three points just forget it.’ Lo and behold, three weeks later I get sacked for performance.”
Billy Davies recounts more Fawaz Al-Hasawi memories
Simon Jordan is fond of Marinakis for how he has looked after Forest and respected what Doughty helped build through his ambition, a trait that was somewhat shared with Al-Hasawi just without the knowledge and experience to back it up.
Davies continued: “I think the man came in with great intention, although he’s vastly different to Mr Marinakis who is a vastly experienced football owner. Mr Hasawi was coming over to British football and he’d spent an absolute fortune before I came into the club. It was all with good intentions to do good by the club.
“I remember speaking to him in London and he said to me: ‘I would like the third star,’ […] I said: ‘you mean the European Cup?’ and he went: ‘yeah,’ so I said: ‘Do you understand what it takes to get the third star?'”
Even after being sacked, Davies was almost lured back to the Forest training ground after a surprise admission from Al Hasawi.
Davies said: “He was certainly very hungry to do the right things but he lacked a bit of experience. […] Eventually, he takes me out of the club and then 13/14 months later he gives me a call asking to come down to London for a chat.
“After 15-20 minutes I say to him: ‘Fawaz, why am I here?’ He says: ‘Billy, you’re here because I listened to the wrong people, I want you to come back to Forest.'”
Davies didn’t take the job then or in 2017 when Al-Hasawi offered him the job again before selling to Marinaks, returning the club to a level of stability that has seen the Reds kick on ti reach levels that the Kuwaiti owner dreamed of.
Receive a digest of our best Nottingham Forest content each week direct to your mailbox
