Sean Dyche defends Nottingham Forest record and insists he would’ve kept them up

Sean Dyche has defended his record as Nottingham Forest boss and insists he would have kept them in the Premier League.

The 54-year-old was sacked last month following Forest’s goalless draw at Wolves.

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His departure came just 114 days after succeeding Ange Postecoglou as the club’s third manager this term.

Dyche, who began his playing career at the City Ground, won six of his 18 league games in charge, losing eight times.

He also guided Forest to the Europa League knockout stages after finishing 13th in the League phase.

But Dyche was relieved of his duties by owner Evangelis Marinakis with Forest sat 17th in the table, despite having been nominated for the Premier League’s Manager of the Month award a week earlier.

Despite being denied the opportunity to complete his task of steering Forest to Premier League safety, Dyche says he was proud of the job he did at the club and hopes new boss Vitor Pereira can help his former side avoid the drop.

‘We we’re doing a good job’

“I was very proud to do it because obviously I had a soft spot and still have for Forest,” Dyche told talkSPORT.

“And just to make that clear and to reiterate again, I don’t hope there’s trouble for them.

“We worked very hard trying to change the culture for the third manager in. Very difficult.

“I had no problem with the owner by the way, he gets a lot of flak especially about me. I have no problem with him at all and still don’t.

“Things change, the noise changes quickly. We went in there, all ex-Forest people one way or another with good heart to do the job and were doing the job. The points said that, the table said that.”

Dyche touched on the changing nature of being a Premier League manager.

His managerial career has taken him to Watford, Burnley and Everton before his stint at the City Ground.

And despite the pressures he faced in leading the Midlands club, Dyche unreservedly believes he would have kept Forest in the top-flight.

“Demand is high now. It’s like ‘why aren’t you playing this way or that way’. It’s just part of management now,” he said.

“You’ve got to answer to everyone and everything and still win by the way.

“The bit that we went in there for – is to win. We got 22 points out of their total so far. That doesn’t sound a lot but it is when you look at their total.

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“Then you go, ‘Well actually then, that’s a pretty healthy return’.

“I think we were eighth in the form table and I think if I’d have taken over at the beginning of the season, we’d have been 12th.

“Now, I’m not arguing with anyone and they can all decide on good form and bad form – but you’ve got to win and you’ve got to win enough.

“And in a change-around season with that many parameters, overall I thought we were actually doing a reasonable job.

“Not a brilliant job, a reasonable job.

“And we’d have got the job done, there’s no two ways about it. And they will get the job done. I hope so anyway.”

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Dyche has recently been linked with the Tottenham job and responded to those rumours during his appearance on the show.

Spurs are locked in a tense relegation battle alongside West Ham, Nottingham Forest and Leeds and Dyche talked up his credentials as a Premier League manager.

Myth-busting

“I know what I’m doing in the Premier League and I don’t say that like I’m patting myself on the back,” Dyche said.

“It’s just a fact. I’ve been doing it a long, long time in the Premier League and it’s not an easy league to do it in.

“We can laugh about it now but at the time it was terrible,” he said of his Forest exit.

“Some of the stuff when you think back, ‘Oh, he was working the players too hard’.

“I’d never heard anything like that.

“It’s that utter woke stuff that people say that I talk about, you know what I mean!”