It is barely a month since Sabri Lamouchi took charge at Nottingham Forest but, talking in a pocket of the City Ground, he seems at home and at ease with the explicit expectation that fills the corridors of this grand old stadium. “I am in a big club with a big past and a big history but we have not been in the Premier League for many, many years. Twenty years. I know many managers tried [to win promotion] before me and I want to try too. For the fans, for the owner, for the club, for the players, the target is very easy but for my staff and myself it is important to focus on the beginning. In August we have seven, maybe eight games, so we just want to focus on Saturday, against a big team [West Bromwich Albion], very tough opposition.”
Lamouchi has done his homework. The former France midfielder finished his playing days in Qatar and has coached there for three years, managing El Jaish after two years in charge of the Ivory Coast, whom he guided to the 2014 World Cup in Brazil. Lamouchi, who was sacked as Rennes manager in December, has watched countless Championship games in preparation.
“It is a marathon league,” he says. “There are a lot of games, a lot of intensity and sometimes the teams are not so compact but some finishes in the games are incredible. You can be winning 2-0 five minutes before the end and lose the game 3-2. Only in the Championship this can happen. The old people that know football, they told me that you will enjoy [it] but it is the worst league in the world – the most difficult, the most intense, but you will take pleasure. They said: ‘Just be ready and not tired.’”
Lamouchi smiles but he knows the ruthless Forest owner, Evangelos Marinakis, a Greek shipping magnate, expects him to return the club to English football’s top table. “He [Marinakis] believes more than the biggest fans because he has put [in] a lot of money, he invests in this club and he knows the right place for Nottingham Forest is not in the Championship – but up. He gave me a big chance. He trusts me.
“When you have a big dream and you give the chance to one guy to realise his dream, it’s a big honour for me. The club has given me a big opportunity, they trust me and when people trust you, you just want to give back this confidence. For you [the media] it’s a big pressure but my job is pressure all the time, every day, every week.”
Asked how the outlook in the east Midlands differs from the other places he has managed in, Lamouchi, who speaks superb English and exudes confidence, shrugs a little. “Here you have a lot of passion, a lot people that want to dream but I’m not a dreamer,” the 47-year-old says. “I am just a manager and I just want to do my job. But I know what the fans want and I also know what my owner wants, so it is easy. But it is a big challenge and I am very excited.”
Another eventful summer, another facelift at Forest, with eight new faces through the door, including Samba Sow, Tiago Silva, Rafa Mir and Aro Muric, on loan from Manchester City, though Lamouchi acknowledges the squad is too bloated; the Forest website lists a first-team squad of 34 players. “I want all players focused and concentrated for the league. We cannot be concentrated if we have 29, 30, 31 players – it is impossible.”
Lamouchi, born in Lyon but of Tunisian descent, knows it will not be plain sailing but is adamant he can succeed where others, most recently Martin O’Neill, have failed. “When you know 11 managers tried just in the last five years, you can imagine in football you need a little bit of stability. For sure, we will face difficult moments but in difficult moments we must be altogether to find the right solution.” There are no blurred lines over Marinakis’s ambition either. “It’s clear. ‘You go up or I kill you,’” he says, laughing. “I’m joking, of course.”