Every week, after he has completed his pre-match media duties at the City Ground, Nuno Espirito Santo takes a deep breath, pulls out his car keys and says the same thing: “Time to go to work.”
The Portuguese is most at home when he is with his players. He dislikes anything that takes him away from being able to focus on that — and he has rarely been more excited to get to work than he was last summer.
According to club sources, who wished to remain anonymous to protect relationships, conversations were had among the Forest hierarchy at the end of the 2023-24 season about whether to persevere with the head coach, who had done a steady job of leading the club to survival in the Premier League amid a flurry of off-field distractions.
Keeping faith was a wise decision.
Nuno was appointed because Forest believed he was a step up from Steve Cooper. How much of a step up has become fully evident only this season.
The former Wolverhampton Wanderers and Tottenham Hotspur manager has emphatically revived Forest’s fortunes while revitalising his reputation.
Any shadow hanging over him from his ill-fated, 17-game spell at Tottenham — who visit the City Ground on Boxing Day — has long disappeared. He has flourished at Forest and allowed fans to dream of more than just survival.
Here, The Athletic tells the story of how Nuno reshaped Nottingham Forest in his mould and how his previous managerial experience helped shape this transformation.
Nuno and his players after beating Southampton in August (Steven Paston/PA Images via Getty Images)
Knowing Nuno
There had been one constant throughout all of his previous managerial jobs, at Rio Ave, Valencia, Porto, Wolves, Spurs and Al Ittihad in the Saudi Pro League: Nuno had started every one in the summer.
After his December 2023 arrival at Forest — and as he plotted a course to survival through VAR controversies and a four-point deduction for breaching profit and sustainability regulations — Nuno constantly referenced the importance of pre-season.
With his winter arrival, he initially found it difficult to forge a bond between himself, his staff and the players as the pressures and time constraints of the fight to avoid relegation mounted.
Back in 2018, when he won promotion from the Championship after his first season with Wolves, he credited their success to a pre-season training camp in Austria.
Ten days on the training pitches with a clutch of friendly games enabled Nuno to get across his ideas and to forge an ‘us against the world’ mentality. “Nuno makes the players think they’re all that matters, regardless of any noise from outside,” said former Wolves midfielder Dave Edwards in a previous interview with The Athletic.
Nuno in summer pre-season with Wolves in 2017 (James Baylis – AMA/Getty Images)
Forest last summer held their pre-season training camp in Spain and played three games. As at Wolves, Nuno had the chance to implement his idea, his ethos. There were double training sessions and the days were long, but by spending an intense period of time together, that unity was generated.
Speaking with journalists last month, captain Ryan Yates explained an injury-free pre-season was also crucial. “Most of the players were involved in the games and we were able to try different systems. A lot of the new lads signed early, which helped them to bed in.
“That galvanised things. There was a culture. Everyone knew what they were coming into by the first game. We were ready to go. We were prepared. We were fit. Everyone knew what was expected. We knew the manager and his style of play, exactly what he wanted.”
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Seven signings arrived on summer deadline day 2023, with the Premier League campaign already under way. It took time for them to settle. Last summer, however, the most important additions – Elliot Anderson (£15million plus Odi Vlachodimos, from Newcastle) and Nikola Milenkovic (£12million, Fiorentina) – had both joined by mid-July. They had time to integrate.
The finale of the 2023-24 campaign had been chaotic, but from the moment the players reported for pre-season training, the mood was focused and calm. It was Forest, and Nuno, against the world.
Nuno with Milenkovic after the win at Old Trafford in December (Martin Rickett/PA Images via Getty Images)
Learning from successes and failures
Back in 2021, as the end of June approached, Tottenham had a problem: their search for a replacement for Jose Mourinho had been going on since his dismissal in April.
In May, it had been announced Nuno would end his four years at Wolves, but Tottenham had no interest in him at that point. His style was seen as too similar to that of Mourinho and chairman Daniel Levy had pledged their next appointment would bring attractive football back to the club.
As explained by Jack Pitt-Brooke and Charlie Eccleshare here, Spurs had been turned down by Hansi Flick and had considered reappointing Mauricio Pochettino. Erik ten Hag, then at Ajax, had been in the picture. Paris Saint-Germain refused to allow Pochettino to depart, Antonio Conte decided Tottenham were not the right fit, talks with Paulo Fonseca fell down and links with Gennaro Gattuso prompted a negative response among fans.
Suddenly Nuno, a man who had been a long way down Tottenham’s wanted list — or not even on it at all — found himself in the job.
The protracted search for a manager damaged Nuno’s authority before he had even started, as did the fact he was given only a two-year contract. The ongoing saga with Harry Kane, who had spent the summer trying to engineer a move to Manchester City, further undermined him.
Nuno lasted just four months at Spurs (Tottenham Hotspur FC via Getty Images)
Nuno revealed in his first press conference he had not had contact with Kane during his first few weeks at the helm. It was a message he repeated even in August after Kane had failed to show up for pre-season training. It enhanced the sense Nuno had not established his authority in a dressing room containing big-name players on big money and, in some cases, with big egos.
It was not a good fit for Spurs or Nuno and the relationship lasted only 10 Premier League games.
But that was not the only shadow Nuno had to step out of when he took over at Forest. His predecessor, Cooper, secured hero status in the city by leading Forest into the top flight after a 23-year exile.
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The Welshman had formed a remarkable bond with supporters, but replacing him was exactly the kind of challenge Nuno wanted.
His successes had come at his first club, Rio Ave in Portugal (2012-14) — who he led to Europa League qualification for the first time in their history — and at Wolves (2017-2021), where he followed promotion with back-to-back seventh-place finishes and European football.
In the more demanding surroundings of ‘bigger’ clubs — Valencia (2014-15), Porto (2016-17), Tottenham (2021) — he did not have the same impact. Forest was exactly the project he craved: a club he could help to grow, to take the next step forward.
A year on from Nuno’s appointment, it is telling that Cooper’s name comes up far less regularly in Forest fans’ chants. They are now “on the p*** with Nuno”.
Forging an identity
In his time at Tottenham, Nuno was a man of few words. Even with his players, the messages he delivered were succinct and to the point.
At Forest, he remains a blunt, straight-talking and demanding character. But there is also a sense he has allowed the warmer side of his personality to shine through. He expects high standards, but is also approachable.
Having Rui Pedro Silva on his coaching staff has created a different dynamic to the one at Tottenham, where the man who had been his assistant at Valencia, Porto and Wolves did not join him. Rui is a trusted confidant, off whom Nuno can bounce ideas.
Nuno is a hands-on coach, overseeing many of the short, sharp training sessions which generally last no longer than 90 minutes. But they are fiercely intense. Players will tell you that they sleep well at night. But the hard work also gives Forest the ability to sustain some of the highest running stats in the division.
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Much of the work done in training is on making players’ reactions to situations instinctive.
“Identity is based on habits, which afterwards become routine. After you have habits and transform them into routine, everything becomes natural,” Nuno explained in a recent press conference.
Nuno during Forest’s victory at Anfield in September (IAN HODGSON/AFP via Getty Images)
On the first day after his appointment, Nuno stayed up much of the night watching videos of Forest games to learn about his players. In the first few months, the days were long. But he has a number of escapes to take him away from the pressures of the job.
He has two horses stabled in the West Midlands, which he rides regularly in the morning before making the journey to the Nigel Doughty Academy.
With his coaching staff, he plays padel and the former goalkeeper, 50, is an accomplished and competitive player.
At Wolves, Nuno was known for being superstitious. He won the manager of the month award three times at Molineux but felt it would be unlucky to touch the trophy, so it had to be stood on a plinth in front of him for photographs.
When he won the trophy in November at Forest, he had no such concerns. He happily scooped up the silverware (although maybe his original superstitions were well founded, as Forest lost their following two games).
He showed his warmer side again in recent weeks when Nottingham-based Warriors United — a club for children and young adults with learning disabilities — visited the City Ground. Nuno forged a strong bond with their players, engaging in a press conference where they bombarded him with questions.
In his own press conferences, one of Nuno’s stock phrases, as with many managers, is about looking only at the next game and never beyond. But it is not just a cliche. It is a core philosophy. He delivers the same mantra every day to his players and to any non-football staff he runs into.
“He is quite chilled, but he can also be very direct. He will tell you if you are doing something right or wrong. He demands a lot. But that is because he wants us to get better,” Anthony Elanga tells The Athletic. “But that is always his message — it is always about just focusing on the next game and nothing else.”
Togetherness
Another key moment in his 124-day spell at Tottenham was when they travelled to Vitesse Arnhem for a Europa Conference League group game.
He left the first team in London, taking a second-string side to the Netherlands. It damaged the morale of the Tottenham players, who felt a divide had been created — and that there was little opportunity to move from the second-team group into the first team.
In an interview with The Athletic, then-Tottenham midfielder Harry Winks revealed how unhappy this had made everyone. “We’re meant to be a team,” he said. “Everybody should be fighting for weekend games and it’s difficult.”
At Forest, one of Nuno’s biggest successes has been to promote a fierce sense of togetherness.
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He and his staff have gone out of their way to create an environment where almost every player in the squad knows they will have a chance of being involved.
“All he spoke about in pre-season was how we are all a team, it does not matter if you do not play for five or six games — he trusts us enough to know that we all want the same thing,” Elanga says. “His motto is he can trust all of us to do a job for the team.”
Nuno with Brazilian defender Murillo (Joe Giddens/PA Images via Getty Images)
Nuno being Portuguese is hugely helpful in a dressing room that includes his fellow countrymen as well as numerous Brazilians, but every player is asked to speak English on the training ground. When new signings arrive from overseas, they are expected to have English lessons at the club and when they have made sufficient progress, they continue those lessons at home.
At Wolves, Nuno would often be criticised by supporters for his reluctance to use his substitutes to make tactical tweaks during matches.
This is something that has become a strength at Forest. In their first 16 games, Forest used 76 of their 80 available substitutions. Only Brighton (77) used more. This underlines that sense of unity in the squad with the players reminded they can have a huge impact on games, even if they do not start.
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Willy Boly’s powerful cameo at the end of the 2-1 win over Aston Villa symbolises this spirit perfectly, with the defender making three vital clearances and one tackle, after coming on in the 93rd minute, for his first appearance since August.
While at Anfield, subs Elanga and Callum Hudson-Odoi combined to provide one of the moments of the season with the winning goal in that memorable victory.
Building on an idea
After the 3-0 loss to Manchester City at the start of December, Nuno surprised many with his positive demeanour. But while the head coach was stung by defeat, he had seen something in the performance that encouraged him.
In his press conference before the following game at Manchester United, Nuno was asked by The Athletic what he had liked. It prompted an uncharacteristically long five-minute answer.
“You start preparing a team. You want an idea and an identity and you start preparing them around that. When you have something new that you want to implement and make it solid; make it so that everyone knows, pre-season is the ideal time,” he said.
“You start from zero and you build that idea. In the first games, you might start to see that identity; that idea building. But as the competition grows, you still have to improve, adapt and change.
“You have to create alternative plans. Even though it sounds absurd, the game at City gave us another plan. A plan that I think will make us better.
“Against Newcastle, we got surprised (by Newcastle’s counter-attacking) and we lost. Against City, we made a (tactical) change when we were chasing the result. The answer from the team was positive. It was something that showed us that we have an alternative plan.”
After working on how he wanted to play with a 4-2-3-1 in pre-season, Nuno is now trying to add different tactical approaches to their repertoire, to keep opposition sides on their toes, as Forest’s reputation grows.
Nuno with Jota Silva (Joe Giddens/PA Images via Getty Images)
“The players are the ones who create an identity, it is not the coach. Every club in the Premier League has different squads, with different players and different characteristics — you cannot ask them to produce things, based on you,” said Nuno. “It has to be the other way around. You can try to develop things based on the players and the squad.
“Winning football is entertaining football… But I do value much more how we do things. If how we do things brings results, then great. But everything we do is based on the players we have, not on our ideas or my thinking.”
Nuno has given Forest defensive solidity. The xG for opposition sides in the first 16 Premier League games was just 1.08 per 90 minutes. Only Arsenal (0.89) and Liverpool (0.98) had achieved lower. Forest scored seven set-piece goals in that time, with only Arsenal (eight) netting more. Last season, Forest conceded 22 times from corners and free kicks — so far they have conceded only two. Only Brentford (one) have been more resolute.
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But perhaps their most valuable commodity is belief. Last season, when Forest held a lead going into the dying minutes of the game, you could almost hear the nails being nibbled. Now they know how to see games out; how to manage them.
“It is a mindset thing; it is about wanting to be a team that is difficult to break down; difficult to beat,” says Elanga. “It all started in pre-season when the manager sat us down and told us his idea of what he wanted us to be.
“He has given us the mentality that we believe we are good enough to be playing in a top-four team. I feel that we are showing that on the pitch. What is our aim? As he says, we take it game by game.”
Additional reporting: Tim Spiers
(Top photo: Richard Sellers/PA Images via Getty Images)
