Pereira recounts shock at Nottingham Forest departure

Pereira says his departure from Nottingham Forest caught him off guard. The Portuguese coach says he had received no indication that the club wanted to end their relationship, even though he had helped Forest secure its place in the Premier League. Football Presse reports that he has spoken publicly about the separation for the first time.

“It came as an enormous surprise,” Pereira says. He draws a clear distinction between the club’s decision and how he learned of it: Forest had the right to decide what came next, he says, but the way the news was delivered left him deeply disappointed. “I had never heard anything that made me think or feel that they no longer had me in their plans. In the end, they had the right to decide what they wanted for the club, and I accept that,” he explains.

The email sent two minutes before midnight remains, for him, the defining detail of a departure he had not expected. Pre-season preparations had already been arranged. “The only thing that wasn’t right was the way they did it. […] To send an email two minutes before midnight, when we had already planned everything ahead of pre-season,” he said. He would have preferred a direct explanation, even if the club had another option in mind: “Vitor, even though you’ve planned everything, we have another option.” To Pereira, “that’s football.”

The timing also mattered because of his contract. Pereira understood it to include a clause allowing either party to end the agreement before its scheduled expiry, provided action was taken before the end of June. That helps explain why the hour of the notification stayed with him, without changing his position on the decision itself: he accepts the club’s freedom to choose.

The contrast with Forest’s survival also helps explain his surprise. Pereira says he has spent many years working in different countries and cultures and has gained considerable experience. He knows football can bring this kind of situation, but that does not make the way it was communicated more acceptable in his eyes.