Gone in 39 days: Postecoglou sacked by Nottingham Forest in record time

London: Australian football coach Ange Postecoglou has been sacked after just 39 days as manager at Nottingham Forest after taking the club to eight winless games and leaving it exposed to relegation in the Premier League.

Postecoglou was summarily dumped in the minutes after Nottingham suffered a 3-0 defeat to Chelsea on Saturday afternoon, local time, despite his declarations that he could lead the club to a trophy if he was given time to turn things around.

The club’s owner, Greek shipping tycoon Evangelos Marinakis, left the director’s box in the 63rd minute of the match at Chelsea’s home stadium when it was clear that Nottingham was heading for another loss.

Soon after the whistle, the club issued a statement to reverse its much-heralded hiring of the Australian coach on September 11.

“Nottingham Forest Football Club can confirm that after a series of disappointing results and performances, Ange Postecoglou has been relieved of his duties as head coach with immediate effect,” the club said. “The club will make no further comment at this time.”

Football commentators quickly observed there were 39 words in the statement, one for every day he was at the club.

The crowd booed at the end of the game and Postecoglou applauded some of the Nottingham supporters before leaving the field.

The result was Chelsea’s third consecutive victory at the City Ground, Nottingham’s home ground, and it began with Pedro Neto scoring a goal within the first minutes of the game.

One of the Chelsea defenders, Josh Acheampong, scored his first goal for the team in the Premier League, while Reece James scored the third goal toward the end of the match.

Postecoglou had been on notice at Nottingham after the club had drawn three games and lost four since his appointment last month, which meant there was little surprise when he was removed after the eighth game in a row without a victory.

Commentators agreed that his time at Nottingham was the shortest reign for any permanent manager in Premier League history, and was shorter by one day than Les Reed’s 40 days at Charlton Athletic in 2006.

The BBC, The Times and The Telegraph noted that another manager, Sam Allardyce, spent 30 days in charge at Leeds United, but that this had been an interim appointment.

The decision came four months after he was sacked from Tottenham Hotspur despite delivering a rare trophy for the club when it won the Europa League in May – ending 17 years of club history without a trophy.

Postecoglou arrived at Nottingham with high hopes last month and told the media he wanted to bring exciting football to the competition.

“It’s about bringing joy to the people who are the lifeblood of this game. That’s all I care about,” he told reporters at his first press conference as Nottingham manager.

“I guarantee you I can win things here and people will still have doubts about me because of who I am.”

The appointment at Nottingham came after the Australian was seen with Marinakis in Greece in July, when the club owner appearing to be souring on the club’s manager at the time, Nuno Espirito Santo.

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Weeks before he was removed, Espirito Santo said he had a good relationship with Marinakis and spoke to him almost daily last year but that things had changed this year.

“It’s not so close,” he said on August 11. He was removed on September 9.

Marinakis is estimated to have spent £400 million ($815 million) on 100 players over the past eight years – while recouping some of this in transfer deals, according to The New York Times.

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