Nuno Espirito Santo’s ‘spectacular fallout’ with Nottingham Forest transfer guru Edu is behind him taking the lead in the Premier League sack race in what is a ‘deeply personal’ rift between the pair.
Nuno revealed increased tension between himself and owner Evangelos Marinakis on Friday.
“I always had a very good relationship with the owner. Last season, we were very close and spoke on a daily basis,” he explained.
“This season it is not so well [between us], but I always believe that dialogue is important because my concern is the squad and the season we have ahead of us. Our relationship has changed, and we are not as close.”
That comments followed rumours of Nuno’s potential sacking on Friday; in response to those reports the Portuguese boss said: “Where there’s smoke, there’s fire, so I know how things work, but I’m here to do my job.”
But now The Athletic claim the rift at Forest isn’t between Nuno and Marinakis, but Nuno and Edu, with the Forest owner now faced with the very real prospect of having to choose between them, with the relationship between the duo ‘potentially irreparable’.
There’s been a ‘spectacular fallout behind the scenes’ and Nuno is said to have made ‘made his feelings clear, particularly about Edu, both to the man himself and others at the club’, with Marinakis ‘aligning himself with Edu’.
The issues have ‘been bubbling away for the past two months’ to leave Marinakis ‘in a difficult position’ as the pair are ‘not even on speaking terms’, with ‘Nuno largely the aggressor’ while Edu ‘stays away from the training ground’.
Nuno aired their dirty laundry last week ahead of their first game against Brentford.
He said: “We are very far – very, very far – from where we should be. We are very far in terms of preparation, in terms of planning, in terms of the squad.
“So we are all very worried that in two or three days’ time we are playing for the Premier League, the most demanding competition in the world. And we are very far. Very, very far.
“The plans that we had didn’t come through. The preparation in terms of squad was not ideal. We didn’t have a chance to create the bond – and this is what I think is more important.
“Because we don’t know which squad we have. We have players working here that know they’re going to leave on loan. We have a major problem.”
Although Nuno didn’t name Edu, ‘everyone at the top level of the club, from Marinakis down, knew who it was directed towards — and that there was more to it than just the club’s transfer business’.
‘It was no coincidence that Forest suddenly stepped up their transfer activity on Thursday and Friday’, with Omari Hutchinson, Arnaud Kalimuendo and James McAtee all joining in permanent deals, while Douglas Luiz arrived on loan from Juventus, with an obligation to buy.
Those deals changed the narrative but ‘the rift still existed’, with the report adding:
‘It is no exaggeration to say Forest were stunned by Nuno’s comments — not just what he said, but the fact he looked visibly angry — and his timing to go public in this way for an interview that was meant to go out 24 hours before their first game of the season.’
There’s speculation that the increased involvement in transfers of Edu’s ‘close ally’ Kia Joorabchian may be one cause of Nuno’s frustration, with the manager’s agent Jorge Mendes sidelined having been the go-to transfer intermediary for Forest last summer.
But the report adds ‘that Mendes plays no significant part in the latest drama and it is far more the case that Nuno views his relationship with Edu as broken’.