Ange Postecoglou has shared fresh details of his ‘brutal’ sacking at Nottingham Forest, with the Australian dismissed just 18 minutes after his final game in charge.

Postecoglou, 60, endured a miserable spell with the East Midlands club after taking over from Nuno Espirito Santo earlier this season. 

He oversaw an eight-game winless run, with owner Evangelos Marinakis giving him his marching orders after just 39 days in charge, with the team’s 3-0 loss at home to Chelsea the final nail in the coffin for the charismatic Australian.

Postecoglou has since admitted that the decision to join Forest was not the right one, but in an interview with SEN 116 back in Australia, he has shed light on the aftermath of the Chelsea defeat and his dismissal. 

‘I haven’t told the story but it was brutal mate, I literally got sacked straight after the game,’ he said.

‘I knew it was coming so it was one of those that could come any day now but they literally sacked me straight after the game. I hadn’t done the press yet but the press already knew. I just wanted to leave because I was going to do something I regret.

The Australian was dismissed by owner Evangelos Marinakis 18 minutes after the team lost 3-0 to Chelsea at home

‘I hadn’t spoken to the assistant coaches who I knew also were probably going to be sacked so I needed to say something to them and I’m doing this walking through throes of press and people who are just all looking at me and I just wanted to get out of there.

‘Security said to me Ange, how do you want to get out of here, you know [with] Premier League games all the roads are blocked for half an hour.

‘And then after half an hour they said Ange, the roads have opened but there’s obviously traffic out there and they did there best to try and get me through.

‘I got stuck at one set of traffic lights for at least 15 minutes, I’ve got Chelsea supporters giving it to me, Forest supporters weren’t much kinder.

‘I’m sitting in the car laid back and in between I got little kids coming up asking for a selfie, so what do you do, I don’t want to disappoint. So I paid for my penance, whatever mistake I made, I paid a pretty heavy price for it.’

Postecoglou was replaced by Sean Dyche, who was sacked by Forest in February. New boss Vitor Pereira is the club’s fourth manager in charge this season. 

Forest’s 3-0 win at Tottenham on Sunday gave them much-needed breathing space in the relegation fight, with Pereira’s side three points clear of 18th-placed West Ham. 

Postecoglou believes Spurs, another of his former clubs, are in ‘a hell of a fight’ to stay in the Premier League, but has backed them to secure safety.

Tottenham are 17th and only one point above the relegation zone after a run of two league wins in 22 fixtures.

Postecoglou, who was dismissed last June despite guiding the club to a first trophy in 17 years with Europa League success, feels his old team have what it takes to turn things around in their remaining seven matches.

‘I still have a really strong attachment to the club,’ Postecoglou added to SEN 1116.

‘It was two years and they were by no means easy years, but we invested a lot into them. Second last game we won a European trophy, which was an incredible high.

‘The connection there will be there forever. To watch them struggle has not been easy and it’s not the way I thought it would go. They’re in a hell of a fight, relegation is massive for any club but for Tottenham, it’s a pretty big deal.

‘They have some fighting to do and they have the quality to get out. They need a circuit-breaker, for sure.’

With no fixture until April 12, Tottenham players and staff have been given time off during the first week of the March international break.

However, former Spurs midfielders Tim Sherwood and Gus Poyet have put forward their services in recent days to help the club if current interim head coach Igor Tudor departs after a run of five defeats in seven.

Tudor is mourning the death of his father Mario on Sunday and that has added another layer of complexity to a situation which the club are eager to handle with sensitivity.

There has been heightened speculation around ex-Brighton boss Roberto De Zerbi in recent days, but the Press Association understands the Italian is unlikely to accept a role mid-season after his February dismissal from Marseille, and is expected to wait until the summer to assess his options.

Reports in France continue to link former Monaco head coach Adi Hutter to the Tottenham job.