Nottingham Forest agree to appoint Vitor Pereira as new head coach

By Akpo Esco

Nottingham Forest have moved to appoint Vitor Pereira as their new head coach until the end of the 2025-26 season, with the Portuguese manager set to take charge immediately after final paperwork—a dramatic mid-campaign reset that makes him Forest’s fourth permanent boss of the campaign.

Pereira, 57, returns to the Premier League just three months after being sacked by Wolverhampton Wanderers, where he famously rescued Wolves from the drop in 2024-25 but lost his job in November 2025 following a 10-game winless start. Forest owner Evangelos Marinakis accelerated talks after dismissing Sean Dyche on Thursday (114 days in charge) following a 0-0 draw with Wolves that left the club 17th, three points above the relegation zone.

The Marinakis-Pereira connection goes back to Olympiacos in 2015, when Pereira delivered a league-and-cup double; that prior trust helped push him ahead of other names. His brief is clear: keep Forest up. The team has scored just 25 goals in 26 league games despite a £180 m summer spend, and the new coach’s first assignment is a brutal one—Europa League play-off away to Fenerbahçe on 19 February, then Liverpool at the City Ground three days later.

Forest’s season has been volatile—Nuno Espirito Santo, Ange Postecoglou and Dyche have all departed—so Pereira arrives with a short-term deal and an immediate survival mandate, with Marinakis expected to reassess again in the summer.