Nottingham Forest Appoint Oliver Glasner as New Head Coach
Nottingham Forest have rolled the dice again. For the fifth time in less than a year, a new head coach walks through the doors at the City Ground. This time, it is Oliver Glasner, the Austrian tactician who turned Crystal Palace into cup winners and carved out a reputation as one of Europe’s sharpest operators.
He replaces Vitor Pereira, sacked on Tuesday in a ruthlessly timed decision that came just two minutes before an exit clause in his contract was due to expire. The message from the ownership could hardly be clearer: sentiment does not stand in the way of ambition.
“Oliver is a winner,” declared owner Evangelos Marinakis, who has finally landed a coach whose CV matches his grand plans. “It was clear that we share the same vision, the same ambition and the same relentless desire to succeed.”
Forest had opened lines of communication with Glasner earlier in the summer, aware that the 51-year-old was out of work after leaving Crystal Palace at the end of last season. When the Pereira experiment unravelled, the club moved decisively.
A revolving door, a serious résumé
Nuno Espirito Santo started last season in the Forest dugout. Since September, Ange Postecoglou, Sean Dyche and Pereira have all taken a turn in the technical area. Now comes Glasner, tasked not only with stabilising a restless club but with elevating it.
His record suggests he thrives in exactly that kind of challenge.
Glasner arrived at Crystal Palace in 2024 and immediately rewrote the club’s history. In his first season, he delivered their first major trophy, lifting the FA Cup. He followed that by guiding Palace to Europa Conference League glory last season, then added the Community Shield in August with a penalty shootout win over Liverpool.
Before his Premier League success, he had already made his mark on the continent. With Eintracht Frankfurt, Glasner won the Europa League in 2021-22, joining a select group of only three coaches to have claimed both the Europa League and the Conference League titles.
Those honours have not gone unnoticed at Forest, where Marinakis has long spoken of restoring the club’s European stature.
“He has consistently demonstrated throughout his career that he can build outstanding teams and deliver success against the strongest competition,” the owner said. “He has earned success through his leadership, his personality and the style of football his teams play.”
A coach who walked away on his own terms
Glasner’s exit from Palace was not born of failure. In January, in the midst of success and with a new contract on the table, he announced he would leave at the end of the season in search of a new challenge. That decision now leads him to Nottingham.
“From my very first conversations with the owner and the leadership team, it was evident to me that they have a clear vision for this football club and complete trust and belief in me and my staff to build a strong future together over the long term,” Glasner said after his appointment was confirmed.
“That trust and shared commitment, together with the potential that I see within the squad, were key factors for me and I am excited about what we can achieve together.”
Forest’s gamble, Glasner’s stage
Forest’s rapid-fire hiring and firing has raised eyebrows across the league, but Marinakis has never hidden his intentions. He wants Nottingham Forest back among the elite.
“It has always been our goal to establish Nottingham Forest once again among the leading clubs in England and Europe,” he said. “Our ambition is not simply to compete – our ambition is to win, to challenge for major honours and to create a football club that our supporters can be proud of for many years to come.”
Now he has entrusted that ambition to a coach who has already proved he can topple bigger budgets and grander reputations.
The question is no longer whether Glasner is a winner. His medals answer that. The real test begins now: can he turn a club addicted to change into one that finally settles on a long-term identity and fights its way back towards the heights it once knew?
