Mark Warburton has been confirmed as the new manager of Nottingham Forest on a two-and-a-half-year contract.
Warburton returns to management a little over a month after leaving Rangers in somewhat confusing circumstances, with the Glasgow club insisting he had resigned from the post and the 54-year-old insisting he had been sacked.
Warburton takes over from Gary Brazil at the City Ground and is tasked with lifting the fortunes of a club – two-time winners of the European Cup – who sit 19th in the Championship and have been characterised by chaos under the ownership of Fawaz al-Hasawi. Since the Kuwait businessman took over at the City Ground in 2012, Forest have been involved in a series of winding-up orders in the high court, transfer embargoes, and started the current campaign with a reduced capacity because their stadium did not have a safety-certificate holder.
Warburton, who has experience of managing in the Championship with Brentford and is Forest’s sixth different manager in a little over four years, is believed to have been the choice of Evangelos Marinakis, the owner of Olympiakos who the Guardian revealed on Monday has held secret talks with al-Hasawi over a proposed takeover.
His first match in charge of Forest will be Saturday’s east Midlands derby against Derby County, who themselves have a new manager in Gary Rowett.
