Under-pressure Nottingham Forest boss Ange Postecoglou vented at a press conference on Friday about his future at the club and how he’s been treated since leaving Tottenham.
Forest sacked Nuno Espirito Santo in the September international break after getting four points from his opening three Premier League matches with many baffled by the move to hire Postecoglou.
Nottingham Forest have taken just one more point in four Premier League matches since bringing in former Tottenham boss Postecoglou, who came 17th in the Premier League last season but won the Europa League at Spurs.
The Reds have also gained just one point from two Europa League matches under Postecoglou and been knocked out of the League Cup by Championship side Swansea City.
There are rumours that the next few games will be crucial for Postecoglou’s future at Nottingham Forest with Evangelos Marinakis not known for his patience.
And the pressure seemed to be getting to Postecoglou at his press conference on Friday, as he ranted about how he was hard done by at Tottenham.
Postecoglou told reporters: “I guess from my perspective I just don’t fit, not here, just in general. If you look at things through the prism that I am a failed manager who is lucky to get this job, I know you’re smirking at me, but that’s what’s been said, then of course these first five weeks looks like this guy is under pressure.
“But there is an alternative story…I came to the Premier League two years ago and I took over at Tottenham, I was told by the chairman [Daniel Levy] that this club has to win a trophy.
“He said we’ve tried to bring winners in: Jose [Mourinho], Antonio Conte, and it hasn’t worked. We need something different. I was slightly offended by that because I see myself as winner.
“I took over Spurs who finished eighth. Massive club, but no European football, and one that can’t go two years without European football. We finished fifth in my first year and every time Harry Kane scores a goal [for Bayern after leaving Spurs] I go, ‘I wish he stayed just one more year’. It would have been handy to have him after finishing fifth.
“But somehow that year has disappeared from the record books. It was even used as a reason for me losing my job because even Tottenham decided to exclude the first ten games.
“Yet the first ten games here [at Forest] are important apparently. But anyway, we finished fifth. I got them back into European football, which is where a club like Tottenham should be.
“Then I was in meetings and was told we need a trophy because it will mean everything to the football club. That’s fine. We win a trophy. We shed the tag of being ‘Spursy’. [We get] Champions League football, which brings some rewards and the opportunity to bring greater players. But all I have heard since I finished at Tottenham is that we finished 17th last year.
“So if you look at it through the prism of finishing 17th, then I am a failed manager who is lucky to get another opportunity. But again, if I have to explain why we finished 17th, it’s really basic. It doesn’t have to be too in-depth. Just look at the last five or six team sheets of last season to see what I prioritised [the Europa League], and who was on the bench. And the last game against Brighton, the players were out partying for two days, which I sanctioned because I felt they deserved to.
“So yes we finished 17th. But if people think that’s a reflection of me and my coaching then again, I think they are looking at it through the prism of I just don’t fit. So we get to the current space [at Forest] where there is a different story to tell, that maybe I am not a failed manager who was lucky to get this job and instead maybe I am a manager who, if you give him time, the story always ends the same. At all my previous clubs, [it ends] with me and a trophy.”
Football Insider journalist Pete O’Rourke brought an update on Postecoglou’s future at the City Ground on Friday, he said: “It’s a key period for Ange Postecoglou.
“Things haven’t worked out as much as well as he probably expected. Seven games, no wins, just the two draws from those seven, a crucial period for him coming up.
“Massive game against Chelsea this coming weekend, things could quickly turn around if he was to get a win in that game. That could sort of ease the pressure on him.
“The big problem for Postecoglou is trying to win back those Nottingham Forest fans. That’s the big issue right now when they were singing ‘sacked in the morning’ after that European defeat as well. That wasn’t great for him.
“They’ve got Chelsea in the league [18 October], which is a tough game, but they get a result in that and things will look a lot better. Then they’ve got Porto at home in the Europa League, away to Bournemouth and then home to Manchester United.”