Official: Nottingham Forest break Premier League record with Vitor Pereira appointment

Tom Weber

• 15 Feb 2026 09:06 CST
• 3 min read

News

Nottingham Forest have officially appointed Vitor Pereira as their new head coach, setting the Premier League record for most permanent managers in a season.

The Portuguese has replaced Sean Dyche, who was sacked after a scoreless draw with Wolves. Forest are currently 17th in the Premier League, just three points off the relegation zone and at serious risk of being overtaken by a resurgent West Ham.

It would be ironic - and devastating for Forest fans - if their beloved Nuno Espirito Santo were to keep the Hammers up at the expense of the Reds. Nuno, of course, was the man who started the season in the City Ground dugout after leading Forest back into Europe.

However, what was supposed to be a historic season for Forest quickly turned into a nightmare - and became historic for all the wrong reasons. Already in the summer, cracks between Nuno and the club hierarchy began to appear.

Although Forest signed a flurry of players in the summer, they left it quite late and only began to spend after Nuno publicly complained about the state of the squad. It later emerged that he had fallen out with director Edu, which ultimately proved to be his downfall.

Forest appoint Pereira

Nuno was sacked and replaced by former Tottenham boss Ange Postecoglou, a close friend of owner Evangelos Marinakis. Despite this relationship, the Australian only lasted 39 days, making it the second-shortest reign of a permanent Premier League manager.

Postecoglou, in turn, was replaced by Dyche, a boyhood Forest fan and former academy player. The 54-year-old lasted 25 games, winning 10, losing 10 and drawing five.

Six of these wins came in the Premier League, but Dyche had reportedly lost sections of the dressing room due to his personnel decisions and style of play. Even though the performance against Wolves was encouraging - Forest had 35 shots - only drawing with the bottom club was ultimately the straw that broke the camel's back.

With Pereira now unveiled, Forest have officially become the first club in Premier League history to have had four permanent managers in the same season. Overall, it is the 10th instance of a Premier League club having four different people in the dugout in one campaign.

The 57-year-old arrives after being sacked by Wolves in November, following a disastrous start to the season. However, the season before, Pereira had managed to pull off something of a great escape and ultimately kept the Molineux side in the Premier League with games to spare.

Marinakis, who previously hired Pereira for Olympiacos where he would go on to win the domestic double in 2014/15, is now hoping for a similar new-manager bounce to the one that saw the Portuguese save Wolves.

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