The Australian was eventually removed less than a fortnight after winning the final against Manchester United.
"It was unusual because it's never happened to me before. It's the first time I've been sacked. It's the first time I've had an off-season off. You wonder about the next opportunity. What I did know was I really keen to go to a club that would give me the platform to continue what I've been doing in my career," he said.
"If you asked me at the start of the year if a job with Nottingham Forest was a possibility then I'd have said no because of the job Nuno had done. The opportunity presented itself and I was here to take it."
On that exit from Spurs, he added: "It wasn't great, I knew it was coming before the final. It wasn't a surprise. We had the parade but I knew it was done. From my perspective you have a chance to process that. We put the Spurs supporters through some tough times but there isn’t a Spurs fan that I have come across that doesn’t hug me and want to take me out for dinner, so I must have done something right!"