‘It’s his money’ - Why Nottingham Forest owner Evangelos Marinakis has every right to hire and fire four managers in a Premier League season

Marinakis arrived at the City Ground in 2017 boasting grand plans for returning Forest to the top table of domestic and continental football. He has delivered on that remit, with promotion out of the Championship in 2022 bringing a 23-year absence from the Premier League to a close.

Under the guidance of Nuno Espirito Santo, the Reds finished seventh in the 2024-25 campaign - earning them a place in the Europa League, as European competition returned to Trentside for the first time in three decades.

That success has not been the building block that Forest had hoped it would be, with Nuno, Ange Postecoglou and Sean Dyche all calling shots during the 2025-26 season. Vitor Pereira is now at the helm and has picked up just one win - in his opening game - through seven matches.

More movement in the dugout could be on the cards this summer, with City Ground academy graduate Harewood - speaking in association with https://uudetkasino.com/ - telling GOAL of why Marinakis is well within his rights to keep chopping and changing: “Yeah, 100%. It's like anyone. If you were the owner of your club and you're a very ambitious person and you want to win games and you want to do well, and you've been in a situation where he's seen that and Forest have done that, like the season before where they were third, second in the table, top of the table. He's seen that and he's like, well, that's what I want. And you want to continue that. And if it's not happening, he's going to do everything he can to make that happen. And that's what he's done.

“He wants that because he's seen that happen and he's capable of doing it. So I think he's trying to find the right formula in managers that are available to do that. Which is bad to say because it's horrible on the managers that are coming in. Some really good managers, and they probably are fantastic guys, but it's hard to talk about because you don't want repercussions nowadays because you can't really say anything to anybody or have an opinion about things. But that's just the nature of the beast that Forest are in at the moment.

“And with the managers and the owner of the club, that's what he wants to achieve. And if you're not achieving it, that's his philosophy. At the end of the day, that's what he wants to do. You can't say anything about it. It's up to him.

“It's obviously his choice. It's his money. Whatever he chooses to do. Obviously, he wants to see Forest on a high pedestal, and they're not producing at the moment. And if you're not producing, he has to think why they're not. And in that situation, the manager is the person that normally gets it.”

Another former Reds striker, Rob Earnshaw, told GOAL recently of why he has no problem with Marinakis interfering with every aspect of the club that he owns: “When Mr Marinakis comes on the pitch and he’s greeting players in the tunnel, for me there is absolutely nothing wrong with that. Also, in Greece, when you are the owner, you are entitled to go in the dressing room, to go on the pitch, it’s part of the game as you come and be part of it - you speak with the players and you are the man in the middle. As the owner, you get a better feeling of what’s going on inside the football club.

“I have no problem with it and think Mr Marinakis has done a fantastic job. He is of course very ruthless and very determined, very direct in his ways, but he has taken this football club - in the last five/six years - into where it should be, in the Premier League, playing in Europe and having big European nights, playing in the Premier League and having the chance to go to the Champions League. Those moments are what every Forest fan wants to happen.

“I enjoy it. I enjoy him being involved. I think it’s been unbelievable and he deserves a lot of credit because he hasn’t just invested in the football club, he has fully invested himself in order to take the club to be successful. It has been a hell of a journey, a hell of a few years, but it wouldn’t be Forest if it was boring and we didn’t have personalities.

“Football is about personalities, so I love that. They shouldn’t just be sat there and you never hear from them in the box. They are part of the football club and their personality comes out. I’m all for that.”

Click here to read article