Vitor Pereira has told GIVEMESPORT he is ready for a return to the Premier League, revealing he has spent his time away from the dugout recharging with his family and studying English football.

The Portuguese coach left Nottingham Forest in July, having taken over a side in relegation trouble in February and led them to safety and a first European semi-final in more than 40 years.

Pereira was nonetheless replaced by Oliver Glasner over the summer and is now eager to return to work in England's top flight.

"The Premier League is my focus, and I'm preparing as well as I can to come back, because that's where I want to be," said Pereira. "It's where I feel challenged and motivated, and I'm waiting for the opportunity to return."

Pereira, who has been looked at by Fulham in the past, has used his time away to "switch off" and is now keen to return to management as soon as possible.

"Being away from football, I got to spend time with my family and recharge," he said. "I stepped outside the bubble a bit, the football bubble. I enjoyed my city, saw my friends, travelled, and just took the chance to switch off for a while.

"Then I got back into studying the game: watching matches and analysing English football, which is the football that excites me the most. So, I've been following the Premier League closely, keeping an eye on the teams and trying to understand the current trends in how they play."

Having steered both Wolves and Forest away from relegation in successive seasons, Pereira believes his track record shows exactly what he can offer a club.

"Fundamentally, I see myself as an experienced coach, with experience gained across different leagues and different contexts," he explained. "I feel I have the ability and the tactical flexibility to adapt to the quality of the players I find when I arrive at a club: to understand their qualities and characteristics, what they feel most comfortable doing, and then build a style of play that's high-quality and tactically consistent, based on what I find.

"Then it's about building confidence. Making them believe in what we're doing and what we're building together, making them feel that we're creating something solid and strong as a group.

"Bringing everyone at the club together by giving them responsibility and believing in them, so they truly feel they're important to the project and to what we're building. And bringing the fans together, getting them excited with good football, the kind where you can really feel the players are playing with great spirit.

"That's what I've done in my two experiences, at Wolves and at Forest. Both times we came into those clubs, we got results and hit our objectives while playing good football."

Pereira Proud of Forest Job

Pereira arrived at the City Ground in February as Forest's fourth manager of the 2025/26 season, following Nuno Espirito Santo, Ange Postecoglou and Sean Dyche. He inherited a side sitting 17th in the table, just three points above the drop zone.

What followed was a run to the club's first European semi-final since 1984, with Fenerbahçe, Midtjylland and Porto all beaten before an all-English last-four tie with Aston Villa ended the impressive run.

And, in the end, and despite inheriting a side in a precarious position, Premier League survival was secured with games to spare.

"Honestly, the work we did was quality work," Pereira said. "We managed to bring the team together, and bring the fans and the club together too.

"We reached the Europa League semi-finals, which is no easy feat, knocking out strong sides like Fenerbahçe, Midtjylland and Porto along the way. In the league, we secured survival with three games to spare, battling for position with very strong clubs like Tottenham, West Ham and Leeds.

"Above all, we managed to create a positive atmosphere while playing good football. During our time at the City Ground, we were the joint-highest scorers alongside Manchester City, and we cut the number of goals we conceded significantly. So it was a consistent team, and we ended the season proud of what we achieved."

Forest opted to activate a break clause in Pereira's contract in the summer, and quickly turned to Glasner.

Forest often lined up in an effective 3-4-2-1 under Pereira, but he insists his teams are fluid, both on and off the ball.

"Formations and systems don't worry me too much, in the sense that the system is just the starting point. We can attack in one system and defend in another," he said. "With the experience I have of working with every system, every way of attacking and defending, everything I've built up over the years, I adapt easily.

"Above all, I try to make the players comfortable doing what they're good at and make them feel important in the team, getting the message across and making them believe. Fundamentally, it's about making them believe in what we're doing and in the team's process of development.

"That means building a flexible way of defending and attacking. On one side, there's our own tactical identity, which is where we spend 80 per cent of our work: building the team's identity. At the same time, we create strategic flexibility, which allows us to face different types of opponents, as is typical in the Premier League.

"So, an intelligent, consistent team that understands the phases of play well and knows how to play in each of them, with and without the ball. That's what I look for in my teams: that they have a highly developed tactical culture."

Forest Raised Anderson Value

One of the standout success stories of Forest's season was Elliot Anderson, who completed a British-record £116million move to Manchester City in July.

The midfielder had arrived from Newcastle for £35million in 2024 and continued his rise during Pereira's spell in charge, going on to start for England at the World Cup before sealing his switch to the Etihad Stadium.

Pereira is quick to credit Anderson's natural ability, but believes the environment he and his staff built at the City Ground played its part in taking the 23-year-old to the next level and justifying his price tag.

"I think Elliot is a good example of a player whose value we helped to raise," he said. "There's no doubt he has a lot of quality. He's a top-class player who could play for any team in the world.

"But in my view, a manager's main job is to make the players, and everyone around the club, better. To make them more capable, so that by the end of the work everyone has improved.

"With Elliot, among others, we clearly feel that we helped them grow, because that's just how it works. When results come, players start playing better, their confidence is on another level, and their individual value goes up.

"So that's what we felt: that we helped everyone at the club grow and raise their value individually."

It is that ability to unite a dressing room and deliver results under pressure that Pereira believes makes him ready for his next Premier League challenge; and, refreshed after his time away, he is ready to take his next job, ideally in the Premier League.