Nottingham Forest boss Nuno Espirito Santo says he would ‘never’ go out of his way to try and engineer an exit from the club.
The Brazilian raised eyebrows on Friday by publicly admitting his relationship with chairman Evangelos Marinakis had deteriorated over the summer and that the situation was ‘not good’.
Reports then suggested that Nuno’s issue was not with the owner but with global head of football Edu.
That naturally led to plenty of questions following Forest’s 1-1 draw away to Nottingham Forest – but Nuno insists his remarks were neither delivered thoughtlessly nor with the intention of getting himself the ol’ heave-ho.
He told BBC Sport: “I’m a person who thinks a lot before I say anything, and I [said it] because I believe things can improve. But now is the moment to ignore the noise and just focus on what I have to do, and my job is clear.
“Of course there will be a resolution. Everything is going to be OK, for sure. The moment now is to sit down and talk, but it’s OK. I think the more important thing is how we play football, and I think we are improving, trying to adjust some things, and that’s where my focus is.
“I think we still need three players. We need a goalkeeper to give us another option, and two full-backs, because Ola [Aina] and Neco [Williams] are playing all the games and we are always considering if something happens, what solution do we have?
“I understand your questions, but after a game of football, my head is clear on what I have to do: assess the game, assess the players, and continue, because I think these boys have a lot to improve and I’m here to help.”
Asked separately asked if he was effectively trying to get himself sacked with his comments in the week, Nuno replied: “It is absurd. Never.”
But Nuno was less unequivocal about whether or not his days at Forest may be numbered regardless, saying: “I cannot answer that question.
“I am working and trying to do my job the best I can. I have had good conversations [with Marinakis and Edu] to provide a good platform for the team.”
Nuno believes the best is yet to come from his new arrivals once they get used to his system, saying: “They arrived not much time ago and we’re working on the complexities.
“We ended up with almost all of them on the pitch, but our intention is that they can know themselves better if they start competing not only in training, because the stress of the competition is what really creates the routine. It’s our job to get the best out of them.
“We played good, both halves, against a very tough team,” he added. “Palace are a very good team – well-drilled, well-organised, no spaces, aggressive – so we expected the tough game it was, but I think we showed character and played good.
“In the final moments of the game we had two good chances to score, but overall I think we created a lot of situations where we were able to dominate and find the gaps with good combinations.
“It’s always very difficult to defend against Palace and not lose to Palace with Sarr and Mateta up front, they’re so difficult to deal with, but the boys did OK.”