Vítor Pereira’s tenure as head coach of Nottingham Forest ended not with a boardroom handshake but with an email dispatched at 23:58 on Tuesday night, two minutes before a June break clause in his contract lapsed. The timing, confirmed by British media and Pereira’s own statement, meant the Portuguese was technically dismissed before the clause expired, a procedural detail that left the 56-year-old describing the decision as “a complete surprise to me and without any warning.”

Pereira had been hired in February on an 18-month deal and oversaw a campaign that secured Premier League survival and carried the club to its first European semi-final since 1984, in the Europa League. He had already drawn up a full pre-season schedule in Portugal, including friendlies against Barcelona, Bayer Leverkusen and Sporting Lisbon, and had attended a transfer planning meeting in London only days earlier. The abruptness of the dismissal, viewed from Nottingham, reflects a pattern of managerial churn: Pereira was the club’s fourth permanent head coach in under a year.

In a statement released after the news broke, Pereira struck a measured tone. “Although this decision came as a complete surprise to me and without any warning, I fully respect the club’s right to make the decisions it believes are best for its future,” he said, adding that he left “with a sense of pride” in the team’s growth and the “memorable end to the season.” The sentiment was echoed in reports from Lisbon, where the Portuguese sports daily A Bola noted that Pereira had expressed gratitude for the opportunity despite the unusual manner of his exit.

British media reports indicate that Oliver Glasner, the Austrian who led Crystal Palace to the Conference League title and an FA Cup triumph, is poised to take over at the City Ground. The appointment, if finalised, would make Glasner the fifth manager at Forest in less than twelve months. For Pereira, the episode adds a curious chapter to a career that has included brief, eventful spells in Brazil with Corinthians and Flamengo, and now a departure from English football that was as clinical as it was unexpected.