A huge amount of pressure was building on the Frenchman after Forest’s 1-1 draw at home against Queens Park Rangers at the beginning of November.
However, since then Forest’s performances have vastly improved which has seen them win 2-0 away at Ipswich Town, 5-2 away at Barnsley and beat the league leaders Newcastle 2-1 at the City Ground.
Adapting to the English game
It was always going to be the case that Montanier would need time to adapt to English football after previously managing the likes of Boulogne, Valenciennes, Real Sociedad and Rennes.
His managerial qualities are evident due to what he has previously achieved in his career such as Champions League qualification with Real Sociedad, a feat David Moyes wasn’t even close to achieving.
The Championship does take a lot of getting used to as it is arguably one of the most competitive leagues in the World. Anyone can beat anyone on any given day and it takes a lot getting used to some of the tactics which other teams use.
Will he survive the takeover?
The big question Forest fans will be wondering is whether Montanier will be able to survive the prospective takeover from American John Jay Moores as Fawaz Al-Hasawi looks to sell the club for around the £50 million.
There have been many rumours in the past few weeks that Moores will look to replace Montanier with his own man as soon as the takeover is complete. He is said to be planning to completely reshuffle the backroom staff and replace them all with people he trusts.
If you went a couple of weeks back to the 1-1 draw with QPR, a lot of Forest fans would have had no complaints with these plans. However, after three superb consecutive victories, majority of fans would now be very unhappy to see Montanier replaced, showing how quickly situations in football can change.
Must keep winning
Montanier has continuously played down any talk of his future and got on with his job in a very professional manner. The only thing he can do to increase his chances of remaining in the dugout is winning matches. The more matches he wins, the more difficult it would be for Moores to come in and immediately replace him.
He has retained the support of many fans even throughout the poor run of form which saw Forest win just one game in 12. Forest now have some huge games coming up before Christmas including the highly anticipated clash with local rivals Derby County this Sunday.
If Forest were to come out of this match victorious, they could start looking towards the play-offs rather than behind them for the first time this season and Montanier would begin to secure his position as manager even further.