COOPER TAKES THE REINS
NEW BOSS AT FOREST:
NEW Nottingham Forest head coach Steve Cooper has an “exceptional” record for developing young talent, according to Reds chief executive Dane Murphy.
Forest sacked Chris Hughton as manager last week after a poor start to the season. The Reds had taken only one point from their opening seven Championship games, leaving them bottom of the table.
It led to the club’s decision to make a change at the top, with Forest completing a move for their number one target yesterday.
Cooper left Swansea City at the end of last season after leading the Swans to the Championship play-off semi-finals.
“Steve was our first choice as head coach and we are delighted to have secured his services. His record of developing young talent is exceptional,” said Murphy.
“Steve knows what is required to be successful in the Championship and has a proven track record with Swansea.”
Cooper took a Forest training session yesterday before his appointment was officially announced by the club after a compensation agreement was reached with Swansea.
But Cooper is not the only new arrival, with reports claiming that former Swansea head of performance analysis Steve Rands and first team coach Alan Tate have also joined him at the City Ground.
Rands left Swansea at the start of the season, while Tate is said to have swapped the Liberty Stadium for Forest only four days after his new role at Swansea was confirmed.
The coach was due to oversee the Welsh club’s loan players as well as playing a part in the club’s scouting.
The duo will now reportedly join up with Cooper at the City Ground.
It is also reported by The Athletic that caretaker manager Steven Reid will stay at the club and be part of Cooper’s backroom staff.
Meanwhile, former Forest midfielder David Prutton has given his verdict on Cooper’s appointment.
“He was superb (at Swansea City),” Prutton told the Garibaldi Red podcast.
“I had a good long chat with him, what, two, three, four weeks ago.
“He’s very, very reassuring and refreshingly ego-free is Steve.
“(He) just enjoys what the actual brass tacks of the jobs is, which is getting out on the pitch with players, and improving players, building relationships with younger players, with older players, being able to employ his fundamentals and being given the tools to do so.
“Coming out of Swansea, (and) from the outside looking in, I think he was expected to go again with even less resources that he’d had from the previous two seasons.
“Which when, suddenly, top six becomes your bare minimum and you are losing your better players, I think it then becomes a really tough job. Not just a tough job, though, but a really tough job.
“And I think he came out, he felt, at the right time, with his stock high.
“If you’re a Forest fan then you’ve got be rubbing your hands together, thinking: ‘Wow, this next six, seven, eight months could be very, very exciting indeed.”
And former Forest striker David Johnson believes Cooper will be a “good fit” for the club’s new direction under Murphy.
“I think the first time I met Steve was when he was England youth
manager,” Johnson told Sport Chippers, “and he did an unbelievable job nurturing the best young talents, obviously, (winning) the World Cup with them.”
“He got the Swansea job, did a very good job there, just missed out in the play-offs.
“He’s got great connections with getting players on loan; the calibre of player he got for Swansea was fantastic. I think he’ll be a good fit for the direction the club wants to go in.”