‘I have to address it’ – Nuno Espirito Santo responds to job doubts after shock defeat to West Ham

Nuno Espirito Santo has refused to rule out a Nottingham Forest departure after he holds ‘clear the air talks’ with club owner Evangelos Marinakis.

The Portuguese coach saw his side surprisingly get well beaten 3-0 by a West Ham team in terrible form, further piling on the pressure amid speculation about his future.

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Nuno earlier admitted that his relationship with the owner had deteriorated with reports claiming Forest are considering replacing him.

Forest have denied those claims, and their manager thinks talks between himself, Marinakis and sporting director Edu Gaspar could solve tensions.

However, following the West Ham defeat, he isn’t so confident about their meeting scheduled for the international break.

“It doesn’t help, of course,” he said of the 3-0 loss. “But I think we have to address other questions. 

“My job now is to see what I can do to make sure that this performance doesn’t happen again.”

Asked if he expects to still be in the dugout for their next game against Arsenal on September 13, Nuno somewhat dodged the question.

He responded: “What I’m going to do now is really work hard so I can help my players. 

“Because today was a day that we cannot afford to repeat ourselves. It doesn’t help. It’s not part of us.

“We are not this team. So I have to address what went wrong.”

What’s gone wrong between Nuno and Marinakis?

Tensions appeared to be rising between the Forest manager and owner in May last season when Marinakis entered the pitch after a draw against relegated Leiecester hugely damaged their chances of Champions League qualification.

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The Greek businessman claimed his confrontation with Nuno was down to the way an injury to Taiwo Awoniyi was handled, but the Forest manager has since admitted things have changed at the club.

Speaking before a 1-1 draw with Crystal Palace, he said: “I always had a very good relationship with the owner, last season was very close, almost [talking on a] daily basis.

“This season, not so well, but I always believe that dialogue and your opinion is always valid, because my concern is the squad and the season that we have ahead of us. But our relations have changed.

“It is not so close [now]. I’m being honest with you, I cannot say that is the same, because it’s not the same.

“The reason behind it, I don’t know. My job is always to try to anticipate what’s coming ahead of us, and that’s what I said with respect.

“It’s not good. I think everybody at the club should be together but it’s not the reality.”

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Speaking ahead of the defeat to West Ham, Nuno confirmed that talks with the owner were yet to take place, but again stressed their importance.

“We need to talk,” he said. “We didn’t have a chance this week, it was a tough week for both of us.

“We have to talk, always these kind of things should be done in the right moment, and the right moment is after the game, then we have the international break and that’s the right moment.”