Aitor Karanka has been speaking about the reasons why he left Nottingham Forest.
The Spaniard departed the City Ground in January, and was replaced in the dugout by former player Martin O’Neill.
After replacing Mark Warburton, Karanka guided Forest to a 17th place finish in the Sky Bet Championship in the 2017/18 season.
He would then remain in charge for just over year, until he left the club in the New Year, leaving Forest in seventh place in the league table.
Karanka says that when he left Forest, he hoped that the club would be able to strengthen in the transfer market and make a case to finish in the play-offs.
“I had signed my contract a year before and had been waiting for the right project for ten months and when I arrived I took it,” said Karanka in a translated interview with Spanish outlet AS.
He added: “Imagine what it is to train a club like Forest, but I started to see things that are no longer affecting me but they could touch the squad and I decided to step aside because I saw that if I left the club I still had time to sign players in the winter market with a new coach and get to the play-offs.
“I thought that with my departure from the team I could improve.”
After Karanka left Forest, O’Neill guided the club to ninth place before being replaced by current manager Sabri Lamouchi.
