December 20, 2023, 09:53 GMT
Updated 44 minutes ago
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Nuno Espirito Santo was Wolves coach for four years and led the club to the quarter-finals of the Europa League in 2020
Nottingham Forest have signed Nuno Espirito Santo on a two-and-a-half year contract to replace Steve Cooper.
Cooper was sacked after two years on Tuesday after Forest lost five of their last six league games and were 17th in the table.
Former Wolves and Tottenham coach Nuno was sacked by Saudi Pro League club Al-Ittihad in November.
The 49-year-old's first game as manager will be his Premier League home game against Bournemouth on Saturday.
Nuno spent four years at Wolves, leading the club to promotion from the Championship in his first season, before consecutive seventh-place finishes in the Premier League and also reaching the quarter-finals of the Europa League.
The former goalkeeper left Molineux to join Spurs in the summer of 2021, but was sacked after less than four months as manager following a run of five defeats in seven games.
He joined Al-Ittihad in July 2022 and led the Jeddah-based side to the Saudi title last season, but was sacked 12 games into the new season following a series of poor results.
Forest have won once in their last 13 top-flight games and have picked up eight points in that period.
They have taken one point from their last six games and are five points ahead of third-bottom Luton, who still have a game in hand.
analysis
The difficult part for Nuno will be harnessing the strength of the support for Cooper and molding it into something similar to what he had at Wolves.
Much like Cooper at the City Ground, Nuno formed a special bond with the Molineux fans, who enjoyed the way the Portuguese took their club from Championship mediocrity to the Premier League and then Europe.
This run was based on a specific recruitment plan that paired Nuno with a predominantly Portuguese squad controlled by football agent Jorge Mendes. He also used a tried-and-tested three-man defense with full-backs and relied primarily on a counter-attacking style.
Considering how much Forest owner Evangelos Marinakis has invested in players over the last three transfer windows, it will be fascinating to see what kind of transformation Nuno is allowed to undertake next month.
At least he has time to work with his team.
After the home game against Manchester United on December 30th, Forest have one more Premier League game – at Brentford – before meeting Arsenal at the City Ground on January 30th.
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