Nottingham Forest supporters of a certain vintage have long since become accustomed to frequent managerial changes at the club – 32 men, including 11 caretakers, taking their turns at filling the position since it was vacated by Brian Clough back in 1993 after his almost two decades in the job.
Still, though, it’s unlikely that many of them anticipated Friday’s announcement that Martin O’Neill had become the latest manager to have his services dispensed with, just five months and 19 games after he was appointed to the position.
The club statement was hardly gushing in its appreciation of the efforts of the former Republic of Ireland manager, amounting to a succinct enough 37 words: “Nottingham Forest can confirm that manager Martin O’Neill has left the club. The club would like to thank Martin for all his efforts during his time at The City Ground and wish him well for the future.”
And just 18 minutes later, Sabri Lamouchi was announced as O’Neill’s successor, his name quite probably having the Forest faithful stampeding towards Wikipedia. The 47-year-old former French international has a brief enough managerial CV, one that dates back to just 2012 when he took charge of the Ivory Coast and led them to the 2014 World Cup finals, before spells with El Jaish in Qatar and Rennes back home where he was sacked in December of last year.
It was just the month before that O’Neill and his assistant Roy Keane parted company with the Republic of Ireland, the pair teaming up again in January of this year after the Derry man had been appointed Forest manager on an 18-month contract. For both men it was a return to the club where they had started their English playing careers, O’Neill in particular having a glittering time of it under Clough, winning the European Cup in 1979 and 1980.
When they took over at Forest the club was eighth in the Championship, four points adrift of the playoff places for promotion to the Premier League, but after winning just eight of the remaining 19 games, drawing three and losing eight, they finished the campaign in the same position, eight points short of making the playoffs.
There had been no indication, though, that the club’s owner, Greek shipping magnate Evangelos Marinakis, had lost faith in the pair despite missing out on that top six finish, but it was Keane who chose to move on when he quit his Forest job last weekend, the line being that he wanted to return to management, in the number one seat, after his previous stints with Sunderland and Ipswich.
“I have absolutely no problem with it,” said O’Neill earlier this week, “I think Roy always wanted to go back into management himself and I think he wanted to be his own man . . . we’ve had a really great time.”
It was after Keane’s departure, according to the Guardian’s Daniel Taylor, that the club consulted with senior players and learnt of O’Neill’s “poor relationship” with many of them, “and that the atmosphere had deteriorated to the point they held little hope of it being a successful season”.
The Forest axe was, then, swung once again, O’Neill joining a list of managers at the club, one that includes Ron Atkinson, Joe Kinnear, Steve McClaren, Alex McLeish and Stuart Pearce, who have lasted less than a year in the role. His reign was lengthy, though, compared to that of McLeish who decided, back in 2013, that he’d had enough after just 40 days.
Whether, at 67, O’Neill decides he wants another shot at management remains to be seen, but, ironically enough, he now finds himself ‘linked’ with some of the very same jobs Keane is also supposedly in the running for, among them Newcastle and Derby.
If neither works out, there’s always punditry.
