114 Days, 35 Shots, Zero Goals – How Dyche Lost the Dressing Room and the Owner's Faith in One Chaotic Night

 NOTTINGHAM, England – Evangelos Marinakis rarely makes the midweek trip to the City Ground. When the Greek owner materialised in the directors' box on Wednesday night, Sean Dyche should have known his time was up.

By 11:47 PM local time, it was.
Nottingham Forest have sacked their third permanent manager of a season that has descended from European qualification into administrative farce. Sean Dyche, the boyhood Forest fan who returned home to rescue his childhood club, lasted precisely 114 days .
But the official club statement—terse, bloodless, thanking Dyche for his "efforts" before wishing him "best of luck for the future"—tells only a fraction of the story .
What happened inside the City Ground after full-time paints a portrait of a club in complete organisational meltdown.

Forest dominated Wolves in a way that should have yielded three points. Thirty-five shots. Ten on target. José Sá making saves like a man possessed. The kind of xG that usually guarantees victory .

But the scoreboard read 0-0. Bottom-of-the-table Wolves escaped with a point. Forest remain three points above the relegation zone with twelve games to play .

According to sources who spoke to Vietnamese news outlet Znews, Marinakis did not wait for the post-match press conference. The owner descended from the stands—an unusual act in itself—and immediately convened emergency meetings with key players .
The message was damning. Several first-team squad members had, in recent weeks, expressed formal concerns about Dyche's management style and coaching methodology .
The Portuguese head coach, sources indicate, had lost the dressing room without ever fully possessing it.
The 114-Day Carousel

To understand how Forest arrived at this precipice, rewind to September 8.

Nuno Espirito Santo had delivered seventh place and European football—Forest's first continental campaign since 1995-96. He signed a new three-year contract in June. By September, he was sacked .

The official line cited a "breakdown in relationship" with Marinakis and global sporting director Edu. Those close to the club speak of irreconcilable differences over recruitment strategy and the £180m spent without commensurate return .

Enter Ange Postecoglou: 39 days, eight games, zero league wins. The shortest-serving permanent manager in Premier League history to be dismissed mid-season. Marinakis ended his tenure within minutes of a 3-0 defeat to Chelsea .

Dyche was supposed to be the antidote—a return to Nuno-esque pragmatism, a safe pair of hands who knew the club's DNA having been on the books as a youth player under Brian Clough .

He stabilised the ship initially. Seven wins from his first twelve games. Mid-table form. A nomination for Premier League Manager of the Week as recently as last week .

But two wins in the last ten league games, an FA Cup exit to Championship side Wrexham on penalties, and mounting internal dissent rendered his position untenable .

Dyche addressed the media after the Wolves draw sounding like a man reading his own obituary.
"The owner has been fair to me, without a shadow of a doubt," he said. "If anyone chooses to change in football now, that's their decision. We've all seen it" .

There was no defiance. No fighting rhetoric. Just the weary acceptance of a veteran manager who has survived multiple relegation battles and now recognises the familiar scent of administrative bloodlust.
"I work very hard. I care about this club. I've made that clear," he added. "If the owner wants to make a change, then that's up to him" .
Eight hours later, the change was made.
The Vitor Pereira Gambit

Forest do not operate without contingency plans. Within hours of Dyche's departure, the club's recruitment apparatus had identified his successor.

Vitor Pereira, 57, is the leading candidate to become Forest's fourth manager of the season .

The Portuguese has been unemployed since November, when Wolves terminated his contract after failing to secure a single victory in his first ten league games. The irony is not lost on observers: Forest are pursuing the man Wolves discarded, while Nuno—the manager Forest discarded—has propelled West Ham to within three points of his former club .

But Pereira possesses one credential that trumps all others: relationship capital with Marinakis.
During the 2014-15 season, Pereira delivered a Greek league and cup double at Olympiacos—the crown jewel of Marinakis's multi-club empire. The owner trusts him. In an organisation where managerial tenure is measured in weeks rather than years, trust is the only currency that matters .
'An Embarrassment'
Alan Shearer, speaking on Match of the Day approximately sixty minutes before Dyche's dismissal, backed the manager to survive. "With his know-how and his experience in the Premier League, I would without a doubt stick with Sean" .
Danny Murphy went further: "I think they'd be crazy to get rid of him" .
Both were rendered obsolete before the programme concluded.
The statistical autopsy is brutal. Since results from Dyche's appointment are isolated, Forest would sit mid-table, six points above third-bottom Tottenham. His 40% win percentage exceeds Nuno's final months. He achieved this without Chris Wood—absent for his entire tenure—and after the sale of leading assist-provider Anthony Elanga .
Yet here Forest stand: 17th in the Premier League, three points from the Championship abyss, preparing for a Europa League knockout tie against Fenerbahce without a permanent manager .
The club's statement offered no explanation, no roadmap, no timeline for appointment. "We will be making no further comment at this time" .
What Comes Next
The fixtures offer no mercy. Fenerbahce away on February 19. Liverpool. Fenerbahce home. Brighton. Manchester City. Fulham .
Forest have 12 games to preserve their Premier League status and salvage a season that began with Champions League aspirations and has curdled into a fight for survival.
They are searching for their fourth permanent manager of the campaign—a feat no Premier League club has achieved since Blackburn Rovers in 2012-13 .
Marinakis has proven he is willing to pull the trigger repeatedly, compulsively, without regard for stability or sentiment. Dyche is the third casualty. He will not be the last.
But as the City Ground emptied on Wednesday night and the owner retreated to his private discussions, one question hung in the cold Nottingham air:
Who, in their right mind, is desperate enough to be the fourth?