Oh to be a fly on the wall at Nottingham Forest.
- Originally published June 16, 2025 and re-published following the sacking of Nuno Espirito Santo
The eight years of Evangelos Marinakis' ownership haven't been lacking in terms of incident, with the bearlike Greek shipping billionaire sure to make an appearance in his white t-shirt, powerpack in hand, whenever he feels his team has been on the receiving end of egregious treatment.
I must admit, I find him particularly entertaining, if a little frightening.
His paw prints are all over Forest's latest complaint, blocking Morgan Gibbs-White's move to Tottenham as the club considers legal action over what they believe to be a breach of confidentially regarding his £60m release clause.
In fairness, it had been a quiet few days at the City Ground, with this news coming fresh off the back of Forest's promotion to the Europa League at Crystal Palace's expense following UEFA's decision to demote the Eagles to the Conference League because of multi-club ownership rules; in early June, and let's just say they weren't on Palace's side.
But less about Palace, more about Forest! It's been an absolute age since there was any controversy directly associated with the East Midlands club, with us having to go all the way back to the final match of the season when in reaction to his criticism of the Forest owner in early May.
Neville had described his behaviour as "scandalous" after a visibly angry Marinakis immediately entered the pitch following Forest's home draw with Leicester to encourage Nuno Espirito Santo into an animated discussion.
"Fake news," said the club. Clever.
And we're only talking about the last couple of months here.
Earlier in the season Marinakis was banned for five games after spitting at match officials. In the previous campaign, Forest were charged and ultimately fined £750,000 for a social media post after what the Football Association described as an "attack on the integrity of a match official on an unparalleled scale," with video assistant referee Stuart Attwell the target on that occasion.
It's some rap sheet, even when we're just looking at the best bits.
There is a but...
As overbearing and bombastic as he may be, Marinakis does deserve huge credit for taking a club meandering in the Sky Bet Championship, without top-flight football for 23 years, to within a result of unexpectedly qualifying for the Champions League.
To bring a club back from the abyss there is certainly an argument to be made that only the extreme will do. Convention will not create disruption, as proved by their much-criticised level of player turnover when first promoted back to the Premier League, something that eventually resulted in a points deduction, but in many ways has been vindicated in the longer term.
But at some point, the kind of siege mentality that is now the norm in Nottingham simply cannot be sustained. Much like their playing style.
Six defeats and only 18 points from their final 14 fixtures ultimately cost Forest a place at Europe's top table.
A thin squad, an extra-time ridden run to the FA Cup semi-finals, teams eventually working out their atypical tactical set-up, and a game model that over time gives the opposition a better chance of success, all contributed to a considerable drop-off.
Nuno's preference for a low block, counter-attacking style means it is more likely Forest would overperform underlying numbers, with xG data ranking them down in 14th, but that overperformance is considerable.
The playing style theory can be a misnomer too, as in three top-flight seasons never once did Nuno's Wolves team overperform their underlying data.
Last term, Forest were by far the most significant outlier in the division, with no other club finishing more than two places higher in the actual table than their position according to xG; Crystal Palace and Tottenham were the most significant underperformers but nowhere close to the proportions of Forest.
With Thursday night football to come, Anthony Elanga departed and Gibbs-White likely to follow and little in the way of incomings, on the pitch this will be a challenging season for Nottingham Forest and Nuno.
As megalomania is further embraced it appears unlikely calmer waters will arrive any time soon.
And I just can't shake the feeling that the Marinakis Forest project is unsustainable on far too many levels.
This could be the season it starts to unravel.
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