Filippo Giraldi’s six months at Nottingham Forest: ‘Of course I’m angry’

In a restaurant on the Piazza della Repubblica in Florence — Filippo Giraldi’s home city — the former Nottingham Forest sporting director is ready to talk for the first time about his six months at the club. “I prefer to work, then talk,” he tells The Athletic.

The club devoted just 46 words to his dismissal statement in April. Two months on, he’s still wrestling with their decision. “Of course I’m angry, of course I would have liked to have finished the season and I don’t understand why.

“I accept it though and I’m thankful. I’m not a person who has a bad feeling. I’ve been given a great opportunity. I played my part and did my best, that’s for sure. It still hurt me and I still don’t understand, but it’s life.”

The 49-year-old was sacked in the aftermath of the 2-0 defeat at Aston Villa which — after losing to relegation rivals Leeds four days earlier — left Forest in the relegation zone for the first time since January. It seemed that someone had to carry the can.

“I should be more angry with (the club’s ownership) because it feels undeserved about how it finished, but I’ve loved them because they love the club and they are extremely generous in the way they make themselves available for the club.”

Giraldi speaking to The Athletic’s Adam Leventhal

Giraldi says of Forest owner Evangelos Marinakis and his son Miltiadis: “From a working point of view, it has been fantastic. No interference at all. Of course, I have a daily relation with the owner and Miltiadis, a different type of relation and we talk about different subjects.

“With the owner, it is about the general workings of the club, where we want to go and what we want to achieve. With Miltos, it was more about players. But they haven’t interfered once and more than that, they have helped. The perception sometimes is wrong.”

Emotions ran high in the run-up to Giraldi’s sacking. Leaks suggested Steve Cooper was on the verge of being sacked. “It came out that if we lose (against Leeds) that Patrick Vieira would become our coach,” says Giraldi.

“I phoned the owner because also with the previous game something similar came out. I said to him we can’t have that coming out all the time before the games because it’s the wrong message to the players and to everyone. We are in this together and we have to stick together.”

Between the Leeds and Villa games, Marinakis released a statement backing Cooper but said “results and performances must improve immediately” to arrest the slide.

“I was extremely happy that the owner put out that statement because it was the right way to defend your club and your people, and I think it was a brilliant move,” says Giraldi. “But sometimes, owners, in general, always look at the next result, not just at Nottingham Forest.”

Giraldi had put his neck on the line by defending Cooper. “I’m proud I fought a lot. There was a moment, and it’s normal when you go into losing games, that the owner can also think about looking at something else because you need to prepare it. You cannot avoid that. You have to do it.”

He adds: “I didn’t believe at that point that there was anyone better than what we already had. I said that to Steve as well so he’s aware. We’re still friends outside of the pitch — we talk and text — but if I thought at that time the right decision was to change him, I would have changed him or fought for him to be changed.”

It meant when the defeat arrived against Villa, Forest’s sixth in nine games, the immediate upturn that the statement demanded had not arrived. “At that time, he (the owner) had to make some change because he wanted to change something. I know it’s difficult to listen to that, but I prefer it to be me than to be the coaching staff because, in that moment, I was far less important than the coaching staff.”

Giraldi’s stance on Cooper came with recent history attached. While Giraldi was Watford’s technical director, the club sacked head coach Javi Gracia just four games into the 2019-20 season. They went on to have two further permanent head coaches that season — Quique Sanchez Flores and Nigel Pearson — before being relegated from the Premier League.

“It’s been like the closure of a circle because one of the very few regrets I have in football is that I didn’t fight enough to keep Javi that season. I’ve always looked at myself and I didn’t want to repeat the same mistake. This year, I said whatever it cost me — and it cost me a lot — I will not allow that to happen.

“If I have to change a coach (chosen or inherited), it’s a failure, so I tried everything I can to make it work. I’m not the owner of the club and I know their responsibility is much greater than mine in terms of risk taken and everything.”

Forest appointed Giraldi’s successor, Ross Wilson, into the position of chief football officer within 24 hours. It meant Giraldi watched the remainder of the season from a distance, detached but still invested.

“I’m extremely proud that the thing I believed in has come to a final positive result. There was no change of manager at the end and I know how much I fought for that and everyone who is involved knows as well. So that’s enough for me. The end result was to help to keep Nottingham Forest in the Premier League. My job is done now.

“When I left, I received messages from a lot of the players — not everyone, but the majority. I’m proud that players who were out of the squad also texted me and it means on the human side I’ve let everyone understand that we were all Nottingham Forest, not only the starting XI.”

Giraldi’s association with Watford’s revolving managerial door meant he had to break the ice when he arrived at Forest, especially with Cooper. It appeared the Italian’s arrival might signal a change in the dugout.

“Jokingly, and I think it was a good way to start the relationship, I said to him ‘I’m here to sack you’, and we laughed about it,” he says with a chuckle. “We had a relationship built on trust. From my side (it existed) from day one. I believe they need to get to know me before (they can decide on that) because unfortunately sometimes my reputation and (a possible) change of coach came out.

“I told him how I worked and he accepted that from day one. In terms of players, I trusted him completely during the week in terms of training and tactics and we had a lot of discussions about that. What I loved was we stayed at the training ground after everyone had gone.”

Giraldi would always fight Cooper’s corner when asked by those above him, even if things hadn’t gone to plan in matches. “It’s part of the job. It’s why we are in that position and what we’re paid for. Sometimes the frustration and the anger of the owner is right and they’ve got a point most of the time. I also understand why they are not always as patient as I am.

“Sometimes the owner can see the team sheet and say: ‘Why is he playing this player or that player? Tell him this or that’, or whatever and they get angry and it happens with all the owners.”

While Giraldi was having to manage up with a combustible owner, he was also managing down. “If someone thinks their words are more important than the owner, he’s wrong. You have to accept who you are and what you represent for the club.

“The day that I will say to someone what he wants to hear from me, I will finish my job. I will always say what I believe in for the better of the club, even if you don’t like to listen to that. This time has not been different.

“I’m not the nicest to deal with because I don’t care about the consequences. I’m paid to be the best I can for the club, not for my own ego, just for the club. It’s the only way I can be as a professional.”

One thing Giraldi and Cooper discussed after the Italian was appointed in October was the team becoming more defensively sound. Forest conceded 18 goals in the five games before Giraldi came in. “I had a long discussion with Steve, who is brilliant as a coach and also as a human being, about trying to do that. We’d just lost 4-0 to Leicester and looked all over the place.

“We talked a lot about tactics and we had to move to a low-block situation, where we were less spectacular and more efficient. We were extremely solid (against Aston Villa; 1-1) then (after losing 1-0 at Wolves) we went to Brighton and drew 0-0.”

He recalls being in the dressing room after the game. “There was a feeling that we hadn’t played a great game so I complimented the team, I said: ‘Well done, this is a clean sheet’, as it had been eight games since we’d done that. It felt like a spark and I saw their faces start to change with belief.”

Giraldi’s appointment at Forest had been bubbling behind the scenes after the close of the summer transfer window. “I went to meet the owners in Greece, first Miltos Marinakis and then Evangelos Marinakis, we had a chat and talked about football in general and then we took a couple of weeks to understand how eventually we’d work together and they made me a proposal I was happy with, so I decided to start.

“My plan at that time was to bring in a good group of people in analytics, recruitment and scouting, but there wasn’t the time to do all that as the season had already started.”

He was ready to put down roots, as he had done at Watford for eight seasons. “I thought the club would have been my club for the next 10 years, so my view was that even if I don’t get my people within the first six months it doesn’t really matter. Come the end of the season, they will join and they will be a force and asset for the club. You don’t see yourself at the club for a short-term appointment, otherwise you can’t make things work.”

Giraldi takes no credit, or otherwise, for the 22 players brought in at Forest during the summer window. Seven would come in on his watch during January: Andre Ayew (free agent), Keylor Navas (Paris Saint-Germain), Felipe (Atletico Madrid), Danilo and Gustavo Scarpa (Palmeiras), Chris Wood and Jonjo Shelvey (Newcastle).

He has “no regrets” over recruitment, having worked closely with Cooper on it “for 10 to 12 hours” every day. “I’m not hiding about the ones who have not worked because these players have helped us win games since January and stay up in one of the most difficult relegation battles.”

That includes Chris Wood, who scored one goal in seven games (albeit in a 1-1 draw with Manchester City) before getting injured: “I know there’s been criticism about that but, for the cost, it was for us the best choice possible at that moment because we have a financial fair play limit. We cannot go and buy a striker for £40-50million.

“Taiwo Awoniyi’s injury meant we had to react. I know people wanted the best in the world, but in a relegation battle you have to go for what is available and what was very important for us was players used to these types of games.”

Criticism of Shelvey is taken on the chin, too. “His performance should have been better. I’m not hiding from that, but he got 200 games, including at Newcastle last year who were in the same position as Forest. So he was used to this type of game psychologically.”

Giraldi was instrumental in getting Brazilian Danilo to the City Ground, who came to the fore after the defeat at Villa. “I’d loved Danilo for a long time. He was too young to sign when I was at Watford, but it’s a market I have a strong connection with and have kept watching a lot of players since leaving.

“I pushed so much to make it happen in January. I was convinced, despite some others having doubts, that it was the right time so he could spend six months adapting.”

Giraldi also worked hard, with the owner, to bring in their first-choice goalkeeper target Keylor Navas from PSG after Dean Henderson’s injury. “Without (the owner’s) love for the club, it’s impossible to sign a player like Keylor. I was in contact with (Navas) and he was eager to come even before the Manchester United cup game. He said: ‘I have my luggage and I’m ready to come’. It wasn’t possible to find an agreement with PSG, so we tried everything and with the salaries for players like this being so huge, you need an owner to make the extra effort.”

Felipe’s experience also made a difference, and it was another signing in which Giraldi’s connections played a part. “The sporting director at Atletico Madrid is Italian (Andrea Berta), I’m Italian and we had a small issue before the signing so I had to push the deal strongly and take personal responsibility at a certain moment because we were struggling.

“When you want to stay up, you want men like this: who’ve played Champions League finals, 200 games, won the league in Spain. You know what you’re going to get: a positive character, that even if they lose one or two games they don’t fall apart, they stay solid.”

Giraldi admits the final signing of Andre Ayew was “a special gift from the owner to the coach” due to their previous link at Swansea, but to add depth he “was happy because the reasoning behind the signing was correct”.

The Italian was confident, even during a difficult run of form — and a freak catalogue of injuries including Scott McKenna and Willy Boly limping off at the same time at Fulham — that they would survive. “Because we stuck together when the times were tough, we reaped the rewards later in the season.”

He feels he left the club in a better place, but his only regret is not being able to thank the fans in person. He also hopes his next project lasts longer. “I want to win and build something I can be proud of.”

(Top photo by Adam Leventhal)