Nottingham Forest head coach Nuno Espirito Santo walked into a real mess at the City Ground in December 2023.
Not only had Forest been in free fall under Steve Cooper, but the club had failed PSR and were heading for a points deduction.
Espirto Santo had a reputation to fix following a 17-game spell which proved ill-fated at Tottenham, working under Daniel Levy.
Evangelos Marinakis interviewed Oliver Glasner before he went to Palace, but ultimately settled on Espirito Santo as the man to succeed the very likeable Cooper.
Upon his arrival, a claim was made that Forest fans would have to accept him not focusing too much of his efforts on the club’s academy, something which had been evident at Wolves.
Given the Reds’ reputation for young, homegrown talents, that was always going to be a problem and now, Espirito Santo has dropped the biggest hint yet that he’s learned from the error of his ways at Molineux.
Nuno Espirito Santo criticised for academy work at Wolves
Forest’s point deduction last season was four points, with Espirito Santo regrouping and guiding the club to safety in pretty comfortable fashion.
In fairness, it was a bumpy ride and Marinakis did consider sacking Espirito Santo twice but given the exploits of this season, it looks a good thing that he didn’t.
One of the anxious aspects of appointing Espirito Santo in the first place was the criticism of his work with the academy at Molinuex.
A report from The Athletic after his arrival claimed that the head coach had little interest in youth academies and never attended under-21 matches during his time in the West Midlands.
Espirito Santo, however, is a man clearly willing to adapt…
Espirito Santo makes claim that will delight Forest fans
Not that too many fans will be overly bothered given the work he’s doing with the first team but it will delight the fan base that an interest is there with the academy too.
Forest face Athletic Bilbao in the Premier League International Cup semi-final on Tuesday night and Espirito Santo has been quizzed on that match.
He’s dropped a comment that ultimately proves that he is showing an interest in the academy ranks and clearly, he’s keen to keep the club’s young talents close by.
He said in his press conference: “Of course, we work together, we train next to them and we get the boys across to work with us when we need them.
“Tuesday will be a great night for them, the City Ground under the lights for a European night.
“Obviously in terms of the work, we’re focused on the first team but the academy coaches, they do a great job with the boys.”
It’s great to see that Espirito Santo is keeping tabs on the future stars coming through the ranks.
Given the work he’s done, it doesn’t really matter what he did at Wolves but it’s crystal clear that showing an interest in the academy at Forest is a bit of a necessity.
Now, it remains to be seen which, if any, starlets can get minutes in the first team under Espirito Santo’s watch.
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