Nuno Espirito Santo is the Premier League manager of the season so far. But last summer it was not certain that he would start the campaign at Nottingham Forest.
Despite keeping the club in the top flight in difficult circumstances, not everyone at Forest was convinced of Nuno, nor was he of them.
He was in danger of being sacked at least once before the end of last season, amid uncertainty over his methods and suitability. Mail Sport understands some players were even asked for their opinion as Forest bosses considered their next steps.
Forest owner Evangelos Marinakis has made several smart decisions in the last 12 months, but none are better than sticking with Nuno.
As they prepare to take on leaders Liverpool at the City Ground on Tuesday, Nuno has turned Forest into a force of nature through counter-attacking, low team rotation and a series of simple instructions. A victory would leave them three points off the top, even though they have played one more game than Liverpool.
In other words, he has turned them into title contenders using methods that many would consider too basic for the modern game.
Nuno Espirito Santo has turned Nottingham Forest into a force of nature this season
Forest are just six points behind league leaders Liverpool, whom they host on Tuesday night.
Much of the success is due to the club's culture, which has allowed the players to thrive.
For the casual observer, Nuno is the coach who had a nightmare at Tottenham in 2021 and was only there for four months, but that will not define his career in English football. Nuno built something magical in four years at Wolves and is doing the same at the City Ground.
He was the wrong guy at the wrong time for Tottenham. Exactly the opposite is true at Forest, as Mail Sport reveals here.
DISCIPLINE
Those who have worked with Nuno say he is like a strict father whom children are desperate to impress. For this to work, you need players with a certain attitude and level who accept “the Nuno cult”.
A tactile character, Nuno is not a coach who has long conversations with his players and one-on-one meetings usually occur at his behest, not theirs. Instead, he often shows his approval by giving a player who has performed well a huge bear hug in front of the rest of the team.
A hug from Nuno is a big deal and has been jokingly compared to Paul Hollywood's handshake for contestants on The Great British Bake Off. However, this may not work for a team with bigger egos and bigger bank balances.
Take Harry Kane for example. One of the best footballers in the world does not need a hug from his coach to convince himself of his ability. For players who may have lost their way or haven't yet reached their potential, a hug could mean a lot.
Nuno believes that if players spend a lot of time together, they will naturally grow closer and ensure each player meets the standards he demands. Mealtime is key: Nuno insists that the players have lunch together and encourages them to stay on the training pitch long after finishing the session.
The Forest boss usually shows his approval by giving a big hug to a player who has performed well.
Nuno is said to have shed a tear when he left Wolves, showing a different side to the Portuguese manager
He is trying to organize a trip abroad during the season to strengthen these bonds within the team. Trust each other off the field and suddenly everything becomes easier. That's Nuno's mantra and it's working wonderfully.
PERSONALITY
Nuno is a man of fascinating contrasts. On the one hand, you may seem distant and unapproachable. Naturally, players would not seek him out to discuss off-field matters, nor would they demand an explanation if they were left out of the starting lineup.
After their final game against Wolves in 2021, Nuno invited some of the players he knew best to his office in Molineux for a drink and a chat. They left commenting that it was the most open he had been during their four years together. When the team hosted an off-season barbecue, they reacted in disbelief when asked if they would invite Nuno.
However, some of those same players shed tears in a small meeting room at Wolves' training ground on May 12, 2021, when Nuno told them he was leaving the club. Nuno himself is said to have been particularly emotional.
It shows that this 50-year-old will show his vulnerable side to those he trusts and is capable of showing great warmth and generosity. He donated £250,000 from his own pocket to help tackle poverty in Wolverhampton during the aftermath of the pandemic.
That Covid season, Nuno's last in the Black Country, was especially difficult for him. Living alone, far from his family, who remained in Portugal, he could not understand why football was still being played during a global crisis. He felt discouraged, sometimes even sad.
However, Nuno's press conferences during that time, held via Zoom, were some of the most interesting, as he was able to step away from the latest injury reports and deadly transfer stories and move on to more important matters.
Forest recorded a 3-0 victory over Nuno's former club Wolves in their last Premier League match.
Nuno has mellowed over the years and is getting the most out of his team at the City Ground.
He would deliver powerful critiques of the responses of football players and the wider political world to the pandemic, making for a fascinating listen, not bad in a second language. Or maybe even your fourth or fifth. In addition to his native Portuguese, Nuno speaks English, French, Spanish and Russian.
He would appear stern and cold during much of those meetings, but if a journalist's son appeared on camera (an occupational hazard in the days of Zoom), the mask would slip and Nuno would suddenly become as clingy as a doting grandfather. . Certainly fascinating contrasts.
MANAGEMENT STYLE
Nuno has mellowed over the years. At Wolves, they knew what he could offer and so they built the ideal structure around him, and Nuno repaid the club with promotion to the top flight in his first season after six years in the Championship, his greatest results in the Premier. League, an FA Cup. semi-final and quarter-finals of the Europa League. But he could be uncompromising and difficult to work with. His departure probably came at the right time.
The Forest version is different. Nuno attended the staff Christmas party and was delightful company. The relationship with the forest owner, Marinakis, is key and Nuno handles it with calm and authority. Although Nuno knows who the boss is, there is the kind of mutual respect that might exist between high-level colleagues in a major company. No Forest manager in the Marinakis era had gotten along so well with him.
Players who have worked for Nuno love his clear communication. There are few long meetings to get into granular tactical details. Instead of poring over reams of data, Nuno relies heavily on his instincts and experience.
Almost all the work is done on the training ground, where plans for the next game are fine-tuned. At the end of the week, Nuno sometimes organizes a “fun” game to reduce tension, in which players are encouraged to play in unfamiliar positions. Nuno patrols the sessions alongside his assistant Rui Pedro Silva, the yin to Nuno's yang.
Nuno had Silva at Wolves but not at Spurs, another reason why things went wrong for him there. The affable Silva can read Nuno's mood in a second and advise others accordingly. A key rule: never bother Nuno at lunchtime. Nuno will not sit for hours in his office analyzing games and players. He prefers to work smart and then spends most nights with his staff, who live near him in the Nottingham area.
Nuno was the wrong man at the wrong time for Tottenham, but he is showing his ability at Forest
Forest owner Evangelos Marinakis' smartest decision at the club was to keep Nuno
Antonio Dias is another key piece of the operation. Dias' title is “fitness trainer” but he is much more, as former head of physio Jon Fearn discovered. Fearn was appointed in the summer of 2023 but left the following February, a victim of Nuno's different attitude towards injury prevention and recovery.
For Dias, there is no one-size-fits-all approach to rehabilitation and he believes each player should be treated differently. He will advocate sending them back to training as soon as possible, even if they are not 100 percent cured.
The plan worked brilliantly at Wolves and we are seeing the results at Forest too. Eight players have featured in at least 19 of the 20 league matches, along with Callum Hudson-Odoi in 18, Neco Williams in 17 and Morgan Gibbs-White in 16.
FUTURE
A coach with a clear tactical plan who has his squad eating out of the palm of his hand and who knows exactly how to manage his relationship with a powerful and ambitious owner. For now, it's hard to find a better combination than Nuno and Forest, so they are suddenly the envy of the league.
However, it is difficult to overstate the magnitude of Marinakis's ambition. He is unhappy with Forest re-establishing themselves as a Premier League club and causing some surprises this season. He believes seasons like this can become the norm rather than the exception.
Nuno works best with up-and-coming clubs trying to upset the elite. What if Forest joins that group? Will Nuno's low-possession tactics and bear hugs continue to have the same effect if Forest sign big-name players and compete regularly in Europe?
If Forest is asking these questions, he is right. Planning for the future is sensible and there is nothing wrong with aiming as high as possible. Likewise, those managing Wolves thought they could do better than Nuno after he guided them to 13th place in 2020-21. They have not been close to European football since and are in another relegation battle this season and have just appointed their fourth manager in the three and a half years since Nuno left.
Whenever there is an obstacle in the way, Forest will surely remember where Nuno took them and will be very cautious of the painful lessons the wolves have learned.