Des Walker worries that Ange Postecoglou won't be afforded sufficient time to establish his philosophy at Nottingham Forest. The Reds icon, who arrived as a youth player in 1980 and remained until 1992 before returning for another three-year stint in 2002, thinks Evangelos Marinakis has taken a 'brave' gamble by axing Nuno Espirito Santo.
He believes the new manager will require 'a long while' to fully transition from Nuno's defensive tactics to the possession-heavy, attacking football he's renowned for.
The ex-England centre-back insists supporters' tolerance will be crucial in determining how much opportunity the Australian receives.
Speaking on The Overlap - and questioned about Nuno's exit, Walker was candid: "It's a shame really because they've stabilised themselves, they've come up, they've been in a wilderness for such a long time," he said.
"It's difficult to come up out that division and the chairman's done fantastic really because he's put his money where his mouth is. He's backed the team and they stabilised last year".
"Obviously Nuno - did a fantastic job last year and whether he could keep that up this year remained to be seen.
"To sack him is brave. I say it's brave because Forest fans have got the smell of success and once you've got that smell of success, then if it don't happen they can be very, very critical, that's any fan.
"And you've got such a contrast in managers, in styles, that next 2-3 weeks will be so interesting to see how they contrast that.
"You've got one that just played purely off the break and with less possession probably than most teams.
"Then Postecoglou's come in and if you look at his recent record, he's got a completely different style.
"So I'll be interested to see because it takes a while to change from one style to another, a long while to be fair.
"Whether he can do it, whether the crowd will stick with you that long, I don't think so because they will just look at Nuno's record, that's all they'll do.
"As a team I think Forest, when the crowd are negative, they're poor and that's been over the last 20 years that I've seen [that]".
"They've got themselves in good positions, and as soon as the crowd were negative..
"The crowd have been probably the best crowd in the last three years in the division, in the Premier League. I've never seen Forest fans like it.
"Honestly, we won loads of things. I've gotta be truthful and got boos at times cause they didn't think we won by enough goals.
"But at the moment, the momentum was with the whole football club and the whole was going like that and you look at it now, if it plateaus, that's not good enough.
"Every manager needs time to adjust. I don't think he'll get time."
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