Oliver Glasner takes his first league match in charge of Nottingham Forest on Saturday, at a club that worked its way through four managers in the previous twelve months and still reached a Europa League semi-final. "Number one priority is getting stability into the club," he said before the season. "Nobody wanted so many changes last season, but it happened. We need stability for everyone. And then we can talk about establishing in the top half of the table, but we have to be humble and go step-by-step."
The league position that came with the upheaval was 16th, on 44 points from 11 wins, 11 draws and 16 defeats. Forest had taken 65 points and finished seventh the season before. Only Liverpool, down 24, and Wolverhampton Wanderers, down 22, lost more points between the two campaigns than Forest's 21. Leeds United finished 14th on 47 points in their first season back up.
Glasner has been blunt about what he found. "Sometimes, this is what we have to look at, the atmosphere is maybe a little bit too laid back," he said. "We really must find the balance between hard work on the pitch, giving the best, and all coming together to get to our top level." On the target: "We think we can do better than 16th. But we have to be realistic."
Forest have switched to Glasner's preferred system and reshaped around it. Ousmane Diomande arrived from Sporting for a fixed fee of around £34.3m on a four-year deal, a defender Glasner had tried to sign while at Crystal Palace, and is expected to line up in a back three. Xaver Schlager, who played under Glasner at Wolfsburg, joined on a free transfer in July and could also make his debut. Morgan Gibbs-White has stayed despite interest elsewhere, and Glasner is pushing for "one or two more" before the window shuts.