Nottingham Forest Appoints Oliver Glasner as New Head Coach

Nottingham Forest have turned to serial European winner Oliver Glasner as their new head coach, in a bold and politically charged move that underlines the club’s growing ambition – and reopens old wounds with Crystal Palace.

The Austrian replaces Vitor Pereira, dismissed last week despite steering Forest to Premier League safety and a run to the Europa League semi-finals, where they fell to eventual champions Aston Villa. Survival and a European last four would usually buy time. At Forest, they have become a springboard for the next leap.

A proven European operator

Glasner arrives with a CV that fits the rhetoric coming from the City Ground boardroom. He has lifted three major European trophies in the last four seasons with two different clubs, and done it playing front-foot, aggressive football.

At Crystal Palace he delivered what many thought impossible. First, an FA Cup triumph, then a Europa Conference League title last season, capped by a 1-0 win over Rayo Vallecano in May. Those two trophies dragged Palace into a new bracket of respectability on the continent and turned Glasner into one of the most coveted coaches in Europe.

Before that, he led Eintracht Frankfurt to the 2021-22 Europa League crown, their first major European trophy in more than 40 years. That night in Seville marked him out as a coach who could organise, inspire and out-think richer opponents on the biggest stage.

Now that pedigree belongs to Forest.

“I’m delighted to join Nottingham Forest as head coach,” Glasner said. He spoke of “a clear vision” from owner Evangelos Marinakis and the hierarchy, stressing the “trust and shared commitment” that convinced him to take the job and the “potential” he sees in the squad.

He did not dwell on what he leaves behind in south London. Forest’s own announcement barely did either.

A pointed silence over Palace

Glasner’s switch to the City Ground does not happen in a vacuum. Relations between Forest and Palace have been strained since last season’s European allocations, and the way this appointment has been framed will do little to ease that tension.

UEFA’s ruling that Forest, and not Palace, would enter the Europa League last season became a flashpoint. Palace were blocked because former co-owner John Textor also held a controlling interest in Lyon, a conflict of interest under UEFA rules. Forest took the Europa League slot; Palace were shunted into the Conference League.

Palace fans responded with a graphic banner aimed at Marinakis during a 1-1 draw at Selhurst Park on August 24. The Football Association charged the club with misconduct. The resentment lingered.

Glasner, demoted to the third-tier European competition through no fault of his own, responded the only way he knows how: by winning it. Palace lifted the Conference League, booked their place in this season’s Europa League, and ended the campaign with a European trophy in their hands while Forest were left without continental football.

That backdrop makes the wording of Forest’s statement on Monday all the more striking. It highlighted Glasner’s achievements at Selhurst Park, but never once mentioned Crystal Palace by name. Wolfsburg and Eintracht Frankfurt were referenced. Palace were not.

In the coded language of club communications, that silence was deafening.

Marinakis lays down the marker

If the omission of Palace felt deliberate, the tone from Marinakis was anything but subtle. Forest’s owner used Glasner’s unveiling to restate his ambitions in the starkest terms.

“In our discussions with Oliver, it was clear that we share the same vision, the same ambition and the same relentless desire to succeed,” Marinakis said. He praised Glasner’s record of building “outstanding teams” and delivering success “against the strongest competition”.

He then pulled the curtain back on Forest’s wider plan.

“It has always been our goal to establish Nottingham Forest once again among the leading clubs in England and Europe. 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.

“Oliver is a winner,” he added, crediting the Austrian’s “leadership”, “personality” and the “style of football his teams play” as reasons he is “the right person to lead us into this next chapter”.

The message was clear: survival and the odd cup run will not do. Forest want nights under the lights in Europe to become a habit, not a happy accident.

A club of history, a coach of momentum

Glasner spoke with obvious awareness of the badge he now wears. He called Forest “a club with incredible prestige and history, a two-time European Champion with one of the most passionate fan bases in football”.

He set out his mandate in simple terms: build a team that can “take the club to the next level” and one that supporters “can be proud of”. The short-term focus, he said, is on meeting players and staff and getting to work as pre-season begins. The longer-term promise is of tireless work “to bring success on the pitch”.

Forest have hired a coach whose career arc has been pointing upwards for years. From Wolfsburg to Frankfurt to Palace, Glasner has shown he can step into clubs that sit just outside the elite and push them closer to it, often upsetting the established order along the way.

Now he takes over a side that has already tasted the edge of Europe under Pereira and wants more.

The questions write themselves. Can Glasner turn Forest into the kind of relentless, high-intensity machine that thrived under him in Germany and then exploded into life in south London? Can he deliver the trophies Marinakis openly craves in a league where the margins are brutal and patience is short?

Forest have made their move. They have taken Crystal Palace’s trophy-winning coach without uttering Palace’s name, doubled down on their European aspirations, and handed the keys to a man who specialises in making history.

The next chapter starts in pre-season. How far it goes will define what Nottingham Forest want to be in the modern game – noisy upstarts, or genuine contenders on the stages they once ruled.