The mid-December excitement about Santa coming to Nottingham was quickly dismissed as a cruel mistype, with Forest fans instead seeing beloved head coach Steve Cooper dismissed and replaced by Nuno Espirito Santo.

Supporters are rarely this openly affectionate about the bloke in the dugout. They chanted Cooper’s name when 5-0 down to Fulham in Gameweek 15, never forgetting that he took them from the bottom of the Championship back into the Premier League after a 23-year absence. Then survival.

But ambitious owner Evangelos Marinakis felt that a ceiling had been reached. One win in 13 games has Forest down in 17th place, so the switch was made on Wednesday. In comes Santo, returning to manage his third English club.

So can the 49-year-old win over the fans and what Fantasy Premier League (FPL) impact will he have?

We’ll attempt to answer those questions below.

THE HISTORY

Not many goalkeepers go on to become top-level managers but Wolverhampton Wanderers have hired two in recent times – Santo and Julen Lopetegui. Although, in truth, Santo was mostly a backup stopper throughout his playing career, using that time on the bench to observe.

Arguably his biggest impact on football is introducing the game to super agent Jorge Mendes. In 1996, he met up with the then-nightclub and video shop owner and became his first client. When a transfer to Spanish side Deportivo stalled, the duo hatched a plan for Santo to feign drunkenness in front of his Vitoria Guimaraes president, giving the impression that he was feeling down. Sensing a red flag, the move was then quickly approved.

It began a great friendship between Santo and Mendes. Another point of interest is he was one of Jose Mourinho’s first signings at Porto – a man he’d later go on to replace as Spurs boss.

* League positions taken at the time of Santo’s departure

Once retired, he managed Rio Ave for two seasons between 2012 and 2014. Looking back, it’s incredible to note that the two competing goalkeepers throughout his first season were Jan Oblak and Ederson (£5.5m). He took them to both cup finals, Santo spent one year at Valencia before one trophyless year in charge of Porto.

But it was still a surprise to see him drop down into the Championship with his next move. Perhaps not so much when noticing that Mendes had invested in Wolves. Somehow, the likes of Ruben Neves, Helder Costa and Diogo Jota (£7.7m) were captured, making the following promotion as champions feel inevitable.

Yet what Santo achieved next was genuinely impressive. Successive seventh-placed Premier League finishes alongside reaching a Europa League quarter-final. A natural slide during his fourth season took Wolves down to 13th and it was that point where he decided to move towards a new adventure.

However, his time as Mourinho’s replacement in north London was brief. Spurs won their first three league games 1-0 but he was gone by November, after losing five of the next seven.

A brief sabbatical preceded Santo’s appointment at Al-Ittihad. He guided the Saudi Arabian side to their first league title in 14 years but was sacked in early November, paving the way for this City Ground switch.

FAVOURED TACTICS

His favoured tactic at Wolves was an organised 3-4-3 formation, set up to counter-attack with fast forwards and wide, overlapping wing-backs. Defender Matt Doherty (£4.3m) was a big beneficiary of this, accumulating eight goals, 15 assists and 311 points over two seasons. Jota and Adama Traore (£4.9m) also flourished.

A fan of three-at-the-back, Santo occasionally opted for 3-5-2 instead, as his three campaigns brought nine, 13 and 10 clean sheets. Only in the latter was 4-2-3-1 sometimes used.

“We have to be compact, close to each other, knowing that the outside [space] is there but the moment it goes we are there to engage on our defensive process. But the main idea is to be compact when we defend and achieve maximum width when we attack.” – Nuno Espirito Santo, speaking in 2020

Despite this, his few months at Spurs revolved around a back four. Maybe he acknowledged that a more proactive system was required at one of the big clubs, knowing that Wolves were prone to stuttering when challenged to force their own breakthrough.

But it didn’t work, was unattractive and, in fact, it was his replacement Antonio Conte who strolled in and enforced a wing-back system. At Al-Ittihad, Santo liked going 4-2-3-1 with wide overloads.

FPL PROSPECTS OF SANTO + FOREST

Meanwhile, Forest have been alternating between three-man and four-man backlines. Should Santo settle on the former, he has plenty of centre-backs to choose from. Although early quotes have him already referring to having too many players in general – an overinflated squad.

“In terms of numbers, I have to be honest with you, I have never managed a squad of 30 players so that is a challenge for us.” – Nuno Espirito Santo

They’ve handed starts to 27 individuals so far, a league-high. How the squad adapts to both Santo’s tactics and authoritative man-management style, colder than Cooper’s, remains to be seen.

Fixtures look tough for a while, including the two meetings with now-in-form Bournemouth. Furthermore, many will be departing for AFCON by Gameweek 21 – the likes of Willy Boly (£4.5m), Moussa Niakhate (£4.5m), Serge Aurier (£4.5m), Ibrahim Sangare (£4.9m) and Ola Aina (£4.5m).

Someone who could appear on Fantasy radars is Harry Toffolo (£4.4m). He’s started every league game since Gameweek 11, racking up three attacking returns along the way. Joint-sixth for chances created (10) and third for expected goal involvement (xGI, 2.03) amongst defenders in this time, a reliance on attacking wing-backs would encourage investment from FPL managers.

Elsewhere, guessing who takes the goalkeeping spot from Matt Turner (£3.9m) and Odysseas Vlachodimos (£4.5m) is about to get even tougher.

Also noteworthy is the reunion with both Boly and Morgan Gibbs-White (£5.7m). The latter emerged from Wolves’ academy but never truly received Santo’s approval, being neither a central midfielder nor wide man for his usual 3-4-3. What didn’t help was his off-pitch discipline, being caught breaching lockdown rules by attending a party in May 2020.

But time moves on, situations change and people mature.

“I was happy to meet them [Gibbs-White and Boly] again. Morgan is a father now, he is a man. We had him when he was 16 years old and we grew together. It is great to have him back. I think he is better now.

“I think Steve [Cooper] managed to put Morgan at a very good level – but like I always say, there are always things to improve. Morgan is achieving the right moment to take the next step. He is more mature, the talent is there, it is up to us to make him even better.” – Nuno Espirito Santo

Gibbs-White ended 2022/23 with three goals and five assists inside the closing seven matches. His 17 attacking returns finished joint-10th of all FPL midfielders. Whereas it’s currently just one goal and four assists.

The attacking midfielder is key to Forest and Santo becoming a fruitful partnership, so supporters will be hoping that fences are quickly fixed and the pair can work in tandem. If so, set-piece taker Gibbs-White will become a player of FPL interest.