There’s a peculiar futility in watching Vitor Pereira return to the Premier League limelight not as a successor to a stable project but as another hired hand trying to stave off disaster.
When Nottingham Forest announced his appointment on February 15, it didn’t feel like a fresh chapter so much as déjà vu – the fourth time in a single season that the club had changed managers, a modern-day emblem of turmoil rather than continuity.
Forest’s 2025/26 campaign before Pereira’s arrival was a frenetic carousel of coaching philosophy and conflicting tactical identities.
Nuno Espirito Santo, who had led them to an unexpected seventh-place finish in 2024/25, was dismissed amid tensions over transfer control; Ange Postecoglou lasted barely a month; Sean Dyche’s pragmatic approach soon stalled, epitomised by a goalless draw against bottom club Wolves that sealed his fate.
Into this churn steps Pereira – a man with a résumé that reads like a well-travelled journeyman more than a household name.
His managerial career began in Portugal, where he first cut his teeth domestically and rose to prominence with back-to-back Primeira Liga titles at Porto, before weaving through Greece, China, Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Brazil – a globetrotter whose tactical fingerprints are hard to pin down with any certainty.
Pereira’s first crack at English football came at Wolverhampton Wanderers, a tenure that is the closest thing he has to a clear blueprint for his managerial identity.
Appointed in December 2024 with Wolves adrift in the relegation zone, he orchestrated a remarkable reversal of fortunes: from 19th to safety in 16th place in the 2024/25 season, including an eye-catching six-game winning streak that carried them clear of danger.
His efforts earned him a Barclays Manager of the Month award in April 2025, a nod to his ability to galvanise a struggling side.
Five wins in a month 👏
— Wolves (@Wolves) May 9, 2025
Vitor Pereira has been named @premierleague Manager of the Month for April 🏆
Wolves rewarded him with an enhanced contract, but the following season collapsed disastrously. A winless flirtation with relegation, yielding just two points from 10 games, saw him dismissed by November.
The same man who had seemingly rescued a sinking ship found himself unable to repeat the trick.
This inconsistency is the central tension of Pereira’s hire at Forest. His track record screams ‘capable of short-term rescue’ rather than ‘architect of long-term progress’.
His teams tend to move the ball methodically but often lack the incisiveness to turn that control into clear cut chances – an issue echoed in the complaints from Wolves fans about long spells of sterile possession that rarely translated into goals.
Forest’s position – 17th in the Premier League table with 12 games remaining, just three points above the relegation zone – neatly encapsulates the knife-edge Pereira has stepped into.
The squad has shown flashes. Forest took 35 shots against Wolves but failed to score, a paradox that typifies their season’s frustrations. They’ve been competitive but wasteful, creating opportunities without converting them consistently.
Can Pereira fix that? His experience suggests he may be adept at tightening defensive issues and injecting organisation, especially in tight relegation battles. In that respect, he mirrors what Wolves fans saw last season: a manager who could turn results around in the face of adversity.
But there is also a worry that his style, rooted in measured possession and cautious build-up, might not be the radical spark required to unlock Forest’s ailing attack.
Morgan Gibbs-White – another former Wolves man – is Forest’s most creative outlet, but Pereira will need to extract more from those around him.
The deeper question, however, is not simply whether Pereira can keep Forest up – it’s whether anyone can thrive at the City Ground under the current regime.
The fact that Forest have appointed four permanent managers this season alone – a Premier League rarity – signals a club culture where short-term results are prized above all else, often at the expense of a cohesive footballing identity.
Contrast this with teams that ride out rough patches and back their coaches through adversity. Forest have not afforded any manager that luxury, swinging from Nuno’s structure to Postecoglou’s intensity to Dyche’s pragmatism, culminating in a chaotic blend of philosophies that has left the squad uncertain of its identity.
In a league as unforgiving as the English top-flight, managerial continuity often underpins stability; Forest’s revolving door suggests the opposite.
Pereira’s appointment also highlights another irony: he has previously worked with Forest’s owner, Evangelos Marinakis, at Olympiacos, yet familiarity with the boss doesn’t necessarily translate to success.
His time at Wolves ultimately buckled under the pressure of poor results and heightened expectations. That history could both help and hinder him in Nottingham; familiarity breeds understanding, but it also raises the spectre of repetition.
The run-in looms as a brutal test. Forest must balance their Europa League play-off tie against Fenerbahce, a club Pereira knows well, with a Premier League schedule that offers little reprieve, including games against Liverpool and other heavyweights.
It’s a crucible in which patience will be thin and results paramount.
Premier League relegation odds (via Sky Bet)
- West Ham - 4/7
- Nottingham Forest - 11/4
- Tottenham - 13/2
- Leeds - 10/1
- Crystal Palace - 16/1
- Brighton - 25/1
Odds correct at 14:15 GMT (17/02/26)
Ultimately, whether Pereira succeeds will be defined less by his tactical nous and more by Forest’s willingness to give him room to impose a coherent philosophy.
In a club where managerial tenure has become ephemeral, success might hinge on a measure few Forest managers this season have enjoyed: time.
The best Pereira can probably hope for is to generate a semblance of stability that translates into survival.
But to truly thrive at the City Ground, the club must confront a broader truth: no manager, no matter how skilled, can prosper in an environment where permanence is an alien concept.
And if Forest don’t address that institutional fragility, then Pereira will be yet another fleeting chapter in a long history of uncertainty.
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