Nottingham Forest part ways with Pereira as Glasner appointment moves closer

The writing had been on the wall for several weeks. Pereira succeeded Sean Dyche in February 2026, and Dyche had himself lasted only 25 matches, five more than his successor managed. Forest finished the recently concluded Premier League campaign in 16th place, a single point above the relegation zone, while in the Europa League the so-called Reds reached the semifinal under Pereira before being eliminated. That European run offered some consolation, but the league form proved unsustainable.

The Pereira dismissal opens the door for Glasner, who left Crystal Palace at the end of last season. According to the BBC, the appointment of the Austrian is all but a formality. The Athletic reported on Wednesday that Glasner was the leading candidate to take over at the City Ground, replacing what the British outlet described as the "unlucky quartet of coaches from the past season."

Glasner in line to take over

Glasner's track record makes him an attractive candidate for a club that has spent heavily but underperformed. He won the Europa League with Eintracht Frankfurt in 2022 and then moved to Crystal Palace in February 2024, where he lifted the FA Cup in 2025 before adding the Conference League title in May. The trajectory, in terms of trophies, is unusually consistent for a coach operating outside the elite of the European game.

At Crystal Palace, however, Glasner's tenure ended against a backdrop of frustration. His squad was significantly weakened over the summer by the departures of Eberechi Eze, sold to Arsenal for 69 million euros, and Marc Guéhi, who moved to Manchester City for 23 million euros. Glasner did not hide his dissatisfaction publicly, repeatedly pointing to the difficulty of replacing players of that calibre within a single transfer window.

Heavy investment, fragile results

For Forest, the context is unusually turbulent. Owner Evangelos Marinakis has invested heavily since the club's promotion back to the Premier League for the 2022/23 season, with 677 million euros spent on the squad over four campaigns. Despite that outlay, the team has cycled through four head coaches in a single season, suggesting structural as much as sporting issues at the City Ground.

Nottingham Forest's history frames the present anxiety. Founded in 1865, the club enjoyed its greatest era in the late 1970s and early 1980s, crowned English champions in 1977/78 under Brian Clough and adding the European Cup the following year. Two FA Cup triumphs, in 1898 and 1959, round out a trophy cabinet that has been largely dormant in the decades since. A brief flicker of the old days came in 2024/25, when Forest finished seventh in the Premier League and qualified for European competition.

A club shaped by its history

Pereira's dismissal is therefore as much about resetting expectations as it is about league position. With the new Premier League season still weeks away, Forest have time to install Glasner and give him a pre-season. Whether the Austrian can stabilise a squad that has been repeatedly reshaped by transfers, and a club that has cycled through four managers in twelve months, is the central question now facing Marinakis.

For Glasner personally, the move would represent a return to English football's spotlight after a frustrating exit from Selhurst Park. He is no stranger to taking over mid-build projects, having inherited a Frankfurt side in transition in 2021 and turned them into European champions within eighteen months. The scale of the rebuild at Forest, however, looks considerably more demanding.

The Pereira era in numbers underscores just how compressed the season has been. Across his 20 matches in charge, results oscillated between promising Europa League nights and anxious league afternoons. The Europa League semifinal run bought him time, but a 16th-place finish left little room for patience, particularly given the size of the wage bill and the investment behind the squad.

What Glasner inherits

Glasner's likely arrival will be framed by Forest as a statement of intent. A coach with two European trophies in four years signals ambition, even if the recent history of the club suggests that ambition alone has rarely been enough. Marinakis's investment, the squad's collective market value now stands at 517.80 million euros according to data tracked by the club itself, has produced neither stability nor identity.

Whether Glasner can deliver either will define the next phase of Nottingham Forest. The Austrian inherits a club rich in history but short on recent certainty, a fan base that remembers European glory and a board that has demonstrated a willingness to spend at the highest level. The combination, if it finally aligns, could yet produce something resembling the late-1970s highs. If it does not, Forest will have used a fifth head coach in just over twelve months, and the questions around the project will grow louder.

For now, the formalities, as the BBC put it, are all that stand between Glasner and the City Ground dugout. Pereira's farewell, expressed in the courteous language of a club statement, closes one of the more turbulent single-season chapters in Forest's recent history. The next one begins as soon as the Austrian signs.