# Ex-Crystal Palace Boss Says Glasner and Marinakis 'Deserve Each Other' — And He's Not Wrong
Oliver Glasner leaving Nottingham Forest is not a shock. It is the logical end of a working relationship that was never actually working.
The unnamed former Crystal Palace manager — someone who has sat across the table from Evangelos Marinakis and knows exactly how that boardroom operates — said it plainly: the two men deserve each other. No malice in it. Just clarity. Glasner brought intensity and a short fuse. Marinakis brings control and an even shorter one. That was always going to end somewhere messy.
Glasner's Problem at Forest
Glasner did exceptional work at Palace. The second half of the 2023-24 season was some of the best football that club had played in years. Quick transitions, high press, players performing above their ceiling. Eberechi Eze looked like the best player in England for a stretch. That was Glasner's doing.
Forest was different from day one. The squad wasn't his. The recruitment wasn't fully his either. And Marinakis — whatever you think of him — is not the kind of owner who writes a blank cheque and disappears. He's present. He has opinions. He picks up the phone.
Glasner is not the kind of manager who takes calls well when they're second-guessing his team selection.
That tension doesn't stay quiet for long.
What the Ex-Palace Man Actually Understands
The point this former manager is making isn't petty. It's structural. Some managers suit certain owners. Pep Guardiola and the City operation. Klopp and FSG for most of his tenure — right up until it wasn't working anymore and he left. The fit matters as much as the CV.
Marinakis runs a tight ship. He did it at Olympiacos. He's doing it at Forest. The owner-as-operator model works when you have a manager who either buys into the vision fully or is tactically brilliant enough that the owner steps back in deference. Glasner was neither of those things at Forest. He had good ideas. But he didn't defer, and he wasn't producing results that commanded deference.
So you've got two strong personalities, neither willing to move, and a mid-table finish that gave the owner all the justification he needed.
Forest's Summer Is Already a Problem
This is the bit that matters now. Forest finished the 2025-26 season in the bottom half of the top ten. Not a disaster. Not a success. The kind of finish that satisfies nobody. And now they're heading into pre-season with another managerial search.
This is the third time in recent memory that Forest have had to rebuild around a new manager mid-project. Every time that happens, you lose months. Players who were bought for one system suddenly don't fit the next one. The recruitment that was done with Glasner in mind might be wrong for whoever comes in.
That's not a one-off problem. That's a pattern. And the pattern points upward — to the owner.
Marinakis isn't a villain. Forest's rise under his ownership from the Championship back to European football was real. But sustained success in the Premier League requires a stable football structure above the manager. Not interference. Not phone calls at half-time. A proper sporting director setup that insulates the head coach from ownership pressure.
Forest haven't built that. And until they do, good managers will keep leaving — or getting pushed — and the club will keep starting over.
Our Verdict
The ex-Palace boss is right. Glasner and Marinakis are similar personalities operating with incompatible management styles. Neither one is entirely at fault. Both contributed to this. "They deserve each other" is the most honest thing anyone has said about this split.
But Forest fans deserve better than a cycle of new managers, misaligned squads, and fresh starts every eighteen months. The club is too big and too ambitious for that to keep happening.
Someone at board level needs to look at the structure and be honest about what's broken. Because it isn't just the managers who keep leaving. It's the project itself — still unfinished, still fragile, still one bad result from another reset.
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