Vitor Pereira hopes the ‘fire and passion’ he shared with Evangelos Marinakis at Olympiacos, can help revive the fortunes of Nottingham Forest.
Marinakis has appointed Pereira — who secured a league and cup double during a short spell at the Greek club in 2015 — as Forest’s fourth head coach of the season.
The Portuguese coach has 12 games in which to guide Forest, who sit three points outside the relegation zone, to safety.
The 57-year-old pledged to give his ‘body and soul’, as he looks to repeat the job he did at Wolverhampton Wanderers, who he guided to safety in 2024-25 after a mid-season appontment.
“He’s ambitious. He wants to win, he’s emotional and I know him very well,” Pereira said of Forest owner Marinakis.
“The conversation was about our time in Olympiacos. I remember the energy and the fire we created. In Greece, there is fire inside, they like to see the energy and he asked me to be myself.
“He liked the way that when we worked together, we got the league and the cup. It was in the middle of the season and we created a good relationship. He trusts my work, I trust his personality because in football we need passion too.
“I don’t need to change to have fire. I have fire and I have passion. Football is my passion, something that sleeps and wakes with me.”
Pereira follows on from Nuno Espirito Santo, Ange Postecoglou and Sean Dyche at Forest this term.
“I cannot change a lot at this moment of the season but it’s about making the players comfortable playing in the roles I’m demanding,” he said in his first Forest press conference.
“It’s important the players feel they can help the team with their qualities. The qualities are important for them to express themselves but to express themselves for the collective way of thinking. This is my work with the team.
“Creating the spirit, the identity, the tactical idea, and giving confidence to them.
“I like my teams with tactical organisation, commitment, courage to play and to be themselves. This is the way of creating energy and the way we face the next games.”
Pereira’s first challenge will be to face another of his former clubs, Fenerbahce, in the first leg of Thursday’s Europa League play-off game.
