Evangelos Marinakis has already set out Nuno’s Nottingham Forest challenge as new season looms

Latest Nottingham Forest news as Nuno Espirito Santo’s Reds prepare for start of 2024/25 Premier League campaign

Holding court as sunrays streamed through the Turf Moor press conference room, Nottingham Forest head coach Nuno Espirito Santo had a clear point he wanted to make.

The Portuguese tends to be a man of few words when he faces the media. In this instance, he repeated the same ones several times for added emphasis.

“The platform is there,” he said shortly after his team’s final-day victory over Burnley last May. “The platform is there, the platform is there.”

Nuno’s statement holds true several months later as his team prepare for their return to action. But now it is all about how the Reds build on that foundation. That is the challenge ahead of them.

Here we go again with a new season. And this time it will be different for Forest – right?!

After two nerve-shredding campaigns, can the Reds make it a bit easier on fans’ blood pressure in 2024/25. That will certainly be the aim.

Forest want to push on in the Premier League this term. They have had two successive relegation battles after securing their return to the top table in dramatic style; two years where nails have been bitten and permutations pored over in the latter stages of the campaigns.

Progress will be the watch word this time around. It was hoped that would be the case last season of course, but it didn’t quite pan out like that.

But then becoming an established top-flight club was never going to be easy. It was always going to take time. Forest had been away from the elite for more than two decades when they memorably secured promotion in 2022, so ensuring their return was not a short one had to be the immediate priority.

Now they have done that and are heading into their third successive season among the big boys, the goal is to start climbing. Certainly for ambitious owner Evangelos Marinakis, another year of scrapping for survival is unlikely to cut it.

The shipping magnate has made no secret of the fact he wants the club to be challenging further up the table. Indeed, he spoke of targeting trophies in the hours after that magical day at Wembley two years ago. His expectations haven’t exactly been tempered in the intervening period.

“We embraced the challenge; it was something new. But what we didn’t have, what we are getting now, is what you normally achieve in pre-season – the bond. We didn’t have a pre-season. We had to build it, our relationship, through the season while competing.

“When you ask me if it was hard, it was hard because we didn’t have the chance to build what is most important for me in football – the bond. Now we are starting to see that the players are trusting us and trusting each other.”

With that in mind, a full pre-season working with his players will have suited Nuno. As for whether he has sufficient strength in depth, only time will tell on that front, but changes have been made to the dressing room. Forest knew it was an important summer transfer window.

Fans and the team are well versed now on what to expect in the Premier League. They know it is a tough, ruthless division which takes no prisoners.

But supporters also know the potential of the current squad; they know the opportunity is there to progress. Forest will have to work hard for it; it will not come easy.

No doubt there will be the usual mix of ups and downs, twists and turns, but a little less drama than last time around would go down well. Let the countdown to the 2024/25 season begin.