Only about 27 months since Nuno was winning Manager of the Month at Spurs
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No man with Saudi Pro League winner on his resume can be a bad manager
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Shame on Forest fans for running a good man.
Divock Origi could have saved him
Itâs a results business innit, was coming unfortunately.
Yes. Its just been a terrible run. It happened last year and he was given chances, he just ran out of rope this time. There seems to be a lot happening behind the scenes too with the likes of Worrall and McKenna training alone, not sure whats going on there.
Coops gave us the best years in decades and will always be a Forest legend
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The club has handled this deplorably and with a total lack of respect to Cooper. Fair enough if Marinakis thought it was time for a change. But to actively tout other managers while Cooper was still in the job is below the belt.
Cooper being the gentlemen that he is, has conducted himself with dignity throughout. He gave us probably our two greatest seasons in 25 years. Ultimately I feel he was let down by the players, but his place in Forest folklore is secure.
As for Nuno, letâs hope we get the Valencia and Wolves version, and not the Porto and Spurs one.
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It wonât be pretty to watch anyway if his previous is anything to go by
Honestly couldnât give a shit once we start winning games. Pretty football is overrated.
That rules Stephen Kenny out.
Andy for the Ireland job
Exiled players and a battle for control: The story of Steve Cooperâs Nottingham Forest sacking
Manager made fans fall in love with club again, but his relationship with owner Evangelos Marinakis broke down as bad results piled up
John Percy19 December 2023 ⢠3:20pm
Steve Cooper was unable to deliver Evangelos Marinakisâs vision for Nottingham Forest
By the end, the statement announcing the departure of Steve Cooper from Nottingham Forest could have included the phrase âmutual contemptâ.
Cooperâs strained relationship with Evangelos Marinakis is finally over â after two years and three months, he becomes the second Premier League managerial casualty of the season.
He will forever be remembered as the hero who pulled this famous old club up by its boot-straps, uniting players and supporters and propelling them into the top division after 23 years away.
Cooper made those supporters fall in love again, at a time when Forest were exhausting the ways to fail in the Championship. Ending that painful period in the wilderness means Cooperâs achievements are the most significant since the magical tenure of Brian Clough (and that is not ignoring the impact made by Frank Clark post-Clough in the 1990s).
He was the âPontypridd Pepâ
Keeping Forest in the top division, after a season in which 30 new players arrived, was arguably even more impressive and allowed the club to keep building.
There may never be another Forest manager who enjoys the relationship Cooper had with supporters. He was the âPontypridd Pepâ who understood the clubâs rich history and taught them to dream again. Yet, inevitably, when managers leave football clubs, it has clearly unravelled down the track.
Not many at this level survive a run of one win in 13 games, regardless of past achievements, and Cooper is dismissed just two weeks after the Forest ownerâs discarded accreditation pass was found in nearby bushes following a 5-0 drubbing by Fulham.
The narrative of Cooperâs departure outside of Nottingham will be framed as another club panicking, and stretching beyond their means. It is of course far more complex than that. In the final weeks, Cooper and Marinakis were barely on speaking terms. Their relationship had broken down a long time ago, to the point where even phone calls were being ignored.
Marinakis was patient with Cooper but eventually acted CREDIT: Getty Images/James Williamson
Marinakis had stuck with Cooper longer than anyone at the club imagined. The Greek billionaire has a fearsome reputation for being âtrigger-happyâ, which he resents.
At Olympiacos, the Greek powerhouse club he also owns, it may be justified. At Forest, it is undeserved. He has high expectations and results have not been good enough in recent months. Since completing his takeover in May 2017, he has sacked Mark Warburton, Aitor Karanka, Martin OâNeill, Sabri Lamouchi and Chris Hughton.
None of them could really have any complaints â indeed, it could be argued that Lamouchi and Hughton, in particular, were given more than enough time to turn results around. Marinakis will feel the same applies to Cooper.
It was perhaps only the fear of a backlash from fans that allowed Cooper to limp on.
For the many supporters who pay money to watch their club every week, there has also been a feeling it was coming. It is possible to regard someone highly and have gratitude, yet also feel they have lost their way. The fanbase has become increasingly split, and Cooper did not deserve the situation to turn toxic. As has been well documented, he was very close to losing his job many times last season.
The 4-0 defeat at Leicester in October 2022 was the most notorious occasion when Rafael Benitez was lined up as a possible replacement. With Cooperâs future uncertain, Wolves and Southampton both reached out to intermediaries over potentially appointing him. A frantic few days ended in the Welshman signing a new ÂŁ2.5 million a year contract.
There were many other crucial moments â after a 4-0 defeat at West Ham in February, Marinakis was seriously close to wielding the axe. After a 2-1 defeat at Leeds on April 4, even Cooper thought he was going.
Replacements were considered, including Patrick Vieira and even former Wolves manager Bruno Lage, but Cooper survived. He was aware of Forestâs work behind the scenes and used it to build a siege mentality at the clubâs training ground.
âIâve given you the playersâ
Over the summer, he lost even more control over signings, as Forest were unhappy with some players he had previously recommended. Backroom staff who were club appointments were added.
He angered Marinakis on the opening day defeat at Arsenal with post-match comments about the clubâs transfer business.
Cooper was frustrated when seven new players came in on deadline day, as he felt it left them playing catch-up to understand his methods. They were also picking up injuries after an unsettled pre-season. Yet in terms of pounds spent he had more investment in his squad than most managers in Europeâs top five leagues. Marinakis has spent more than ÂŁ250 million on fees alone since promotion and has designs on Forest becoming a top-10 club.
He is an owner whose mindset is: âIâve given you the players, now itâs over to you.â
Without question, Marinakis is demanding. He could not fathom tactical decisions, team selections, game management and the inability to cut out mistakes. There did not seem a consistent, identifiable style of play. When they were without forward Taiwo Awoniyi the entire set-up seemed to collapse and Cooper reverted to a low block.
Forest have won just two of their 28 away games since promotion, losing 19 of them.
Tension started to build in the dressing room. Scott McKenna, the Scotland international, was frozen out after the club made it clear he would not be getting a new contract.
Cooper then had a major disagreement with Joe Worrall, the Forest captain. Worrall was informed on the morning of the game against Aston Villa on November 5 that he would not be in the match-day squad. Reacting angrily, Worrall did not attend the game as he did not feel in the right frame of mind.
Club captain and promotion hero Joe Worrall was frozen out by Cooper CREDIT: PA/Mike Egerton
Reporting to the training ground days later, he then had a heated confrontation with Cooper and was instructed to train with McKenna away from the first-team squad before matches. From âmatchday minus 2â, and sometimes even earlier, they were given personal programmes and only called in to train with the first-team when numbers were low.
That situation occurred only weeks after Worrall had endured the tragic death of his uncle. Two of Forestâs promotion heroes had been coldly discarded.
Some players also clashed with Cooper and the coaching staff over what they regarded as inconsistent team selection.
Two summer signings, Chelsea loanee Andrey Santos and ÂŁ11 million recruit Andrew Omobamidele, have not made a single league start while Nuno Tavares and Gonzalo Montiel â the latter a World Cup winner with Argentina â have just one each to their name so far. There will be inevitable questions over recruitment, and they are entirely understandable.
As results nosedived, the atmosphere at the training ground is said to have become âstrainedâ in recent weeks.
Cooper marginalised former chairman Nicholas Randall KC and other senior key figures who fought for him in board meetings last season when his position appeared bleak, particularly after the Leicester defeat.
A 2-2 draw at home to Luton, in which Forest conceded twice late on after some strange substitutions, was hugely damaging. Chaotic defeats by West Ham and Brighton cranked up the pressure. After the Brighton home defeat, there were furious confrontations in the tunnel between Cooperâs coaching staff and Roberto De Zerbiâs backroom team.
After the 1-0 loss to Everton at home, some fans jeered Cooper and the team. It was a rare occurrence and felt significant at the time. The heavy defeat at Fulham â when Marinakis stormed out after the fourth goal â was the final blow.
Though Cooper took charge of the Wolves and Tottenham games, he was on the way out: it was not a case of Marinakis judging him on a match-by-match basis, but about finding the right replacement.
What next?
Nuno Espirito Santo is poised to make his return to English football, after his departure from Saudi Arabian champions Al-Ittihad last month. He will have a point to prove after his unhappy spell with Tottenham. He worked wonders at Wolves before a fall-out with chairman Jeff Shi, and for three years it was exhilarating to watch.
Julen Lopetegui, the former Wolves and Real Madrid manager, was initially sounded out. It is said he is holding out for a âbiggerâ job and considers himself a contender for Manchester United (if Erik ten Hag departs) or West Ham.
Marco Silva was highly admired but a potential move ended after he signed a new contract at Fulham in October. Former Eintracht Frankfurt head coach Oliver Glasner had talks but Marinakis was unconvinced.
Nuno Espirito Santo did an impressive job at Wolves before struggling at Tottenham CREDIT: NMC Pool/Paul Marriott
What about Cooper?
Leaving Forest will hurt but, equally, feel like a relief. If Forest had plunged into the bottom three on his watch it would have been uncomfortable. He was in danger of tarnishing his legacy.
His reputation remains relatively high and Crystal Palace are known to be admirers. Palace would not have to pay any compensation now if they were to replace Roy Hodgson with the 44-year-old.
When Cooper inevitably returns to the City Ground in charge of another team, the reception will be incredible. Palace visit on March 30.
He is assured of a place in Forestâs history. With every fist-pump after victories, he brought a club and its fanbase closer together.
He will always remain âSuper Cooperâ, but in the end there was no room for sentiment. Marinakis wanted more than his Premier League promotion manager could deliver.
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The problem with Marinakis saying âIâve given you the playersâ is that very few of them were handpicked by Cooper. So many players arrived that he had no say in.
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Thats standard enough. The ones Coops did handpick ie Wood/Shelvey were his downfall
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Canât disagree with you there.
Posted on The Athletic yesterdayâŚâŚ
When it became clear that Nottingham Forest were looking for a new head coach, Oliver Glasner was among the candidates who quickly made it apparent he was keen on the job.
Glasner had good credentials because of his work in Germany with Eintracht Frankfurt, most notably winning the Europa League two seasons ago. While he had never managed in the Premier League, overall he was seen as a strong candidate to replace Steve Cooper, even if there were questions about whether the 49-year-old Austrian would be a natural fit for the Evangelos Marinakis regime.
But there was also another reason why Glasner was at a disadvantage.
Jorge Mendes was back on the scene and, right from the start, people with knowledge of the situation were aware that the presence of such a high-profile agent was likely to shape the decision.
Sure enough, Nuno Espirito Santo was put forward and the deal was closed.
This is not the first time in recent years that Forest have had a Mendes client in the dugout â Sabri Lamouchi was another appointment involving a man with legitimate claims to being the most powerful agent in the business. The difference now, however, is that Forest are in the Premier League rather than the EFL and that immediately makes it more attractive for the Portuguese agent to align himself with the Greek billionaire at the top of the club.
As well as arranging the deal for Nuno, Mendes has also fixed up another of his clients, Carlos Carvalhal, as the new head coach of Olympiacos â Marinakisâ Greek club. Pedro Alves, Olympiacosâ new sporting director, also has strong connections with Mendes.
At the same time, Marinakis has just added the Portuguese club Rio Ave to his growing portfolio. And guess who played a key role in making it happen?
Associates say the Mendes-Marinakis alliance, which has been on and off through the years, has taken hold again to the point whereby they are working closer together than ever before, practically as business partners.
All of which is intriguing from a Forest point of view.
Mendesâ involvement a few years ago led to the arrival of an influx of overseas signings at the City Ground without it, ultimately, having the positive impact the club had expected.
(Marc Atkins/Getty Images)
Joao Carvalho, then a club-record signing at ÂŁ13million, was one such arrival. Two fellow Portuguese players, Gil Dias and Diogo Goncalves, also passed through without making any real impact.
Rafa Mir has since established himself as a leading forward in the Spanish league with Sevilla. For Forest, however, he failed to score once after signing on loan from Wolverhampton Wanderers in the summer of 2019. Leo Bonatini did not manage a single goal when the Brazilian striker arrived via the same route, allegedly overweight, the previous January.
To quote one club official at the time: âThe super-agent has taken the p**s out of Forest.â
At that stage, Forest were entitled to think they were getting the rough end of the stick, given Mendesâ involvement throughout the rest of English football. He helped nearly transform Wolves from Championship side into Europa League quarter-finalists, and Sir Alex Ferguson described him as the outstanding agent in the industry.
It was Mendes who arranged for an 18-year-old Cristiano Ronaldo to go to Manchester United from Sporting Lisbon in 2003 and represented the five-time Ballon dâOr winner for two decades before a split earlier this year.
Business remains good, though, even without his long-time star client. Better than good. Mendes is routinely involved in some of the biggest deals in football, year after year, and has a formidable list of clients throughout the top leagues in Europe. He is, in short, exactly the kind of man Marinakis wants to be close to, and vice versa, when he has already told the Forest fans the aim is to build a trophy-winning team.
Their relationship is an intriguing one, including some slightly fractious spells when they have not always been so collaborative.
One story involves Mendes travelling to Athens in October 2019 with associates including Israeli billionaire Idan Ofer.
Ofer, owner of the Portuguese club Famalicao, also had shares in leading Spanish side Atletico Madrid and, according to associates, is said to have wanted to investigate whether Marinakis might be open to selling Forest. Mendes took some part in facilitating the mooted deal. Marinakis was not open to the idea. They stayed for one night only and the idea was never floated again.
To Marinakis, it has always been important to be associated with the most important and respected agents.
Right from the start of his involvement with Forest, he began the process of getting two of them on board. One was Mendes, the other Mino Raiola.
At the time, neither was particularly sold on the idea because, bluntly, they had bigger fish to fry than a drifting club in the English Midlands who had not been in the Premier League for two decades. Even so, the seeds were sown. Marinakis knew it was worthwhile having a direct line to both men. And it suited them to keep the channels of communication open, too.
This was 2016, a year before his takeover at Forest went through. The deal had been delayed by the English Football League but Marinakis was already exerting his influence with the clubâs then owner, Fawaz Al-Hasawi, and was involved in some big decisions behind the scenes.
It was Marinakis, for example, who held talks with Pedro Pereira, the sporting director at Fiorentina in Italyâs top-flight Serie A, that led to him being appointed in a similar role at Forest in the summer of 2016. Pereira was understood to be a Mendes recommendation, whereas the blossoming relationship with Raiola could also be seen in the form of Thomas Lam, a Dutch centre-half, becoming his first client in Nottingham.
Thomas Lam (Michael Regan/Getty Images)
After that, there was a long period when Mendes and Raiola â working independently of one another â were both willing to help when they could and to see where it led in the future.
When Forest signed the Brazilian centre-half Rodrigo Ely on the summer windowâs deadline day in September 2021, it came as a surprise to almost everybody. The truth was it was a tactical decision, not necessarily because the team needed another player for that position, but more about keeping Raiola sweet with a view to future business.
Ely was available on a free transfer after leaving Spanish club Alaves, where he had suffered a bad knee injury. Forest wanted to cultivate a relationship with Raiola and the deal was done anyway. Ely did not play a single minute in his four months in Nottingham before it was mutually agreed that his contract should be terminated.
As it turned out, Raiola fell ill in the same year. He died the following April and the man whose clients included Erling Haaland, Paul Pogba and Zlatan Ibrahimovic, as well as a huge stable below that elite level, never had any dealings with Forest as a Premier League club.
With Mendes, the relationship building had also involved him being invited to Mykonos, the Greek holiday island, with its famously expensive restaurants and bars. He was accompanied by some of his high-level colleagues from Gestifute, his Portugal-based company, and Marinakis hosted them.
This led to a deal being arranged to take Daniel Podence to Olympiacos, as one of several players to cancel their contracts at Sporting Lisbon because of a training ground attack by their fans.
To begin with, the idea was that Podence would move to Forest but it was considered too risky while Sporting were contemplating legal action. Sure enough, Sporting brought in lawyers to demand a transfer fee and Olympiacos ended up having to pay around ÂŁ6million in an out-of-court settlement.
A couple of years later, Mendes sent his assistants to Greece to arrange Podenceâs ÂŁ17million transfer to Wolves. The deal was held up because Podence, via Mendes, thought he was owed around ÂŁ400,000 in unpaid bonuses. Marinakis was displeased. It was the first crack in the Marinakis-Mendes relationship and, like many men of wealth, neither wanted to back down.
More cracks occurred when it was the turn of goalkeeper Jose Sa to move from Olympiacos to Wolves and, again, there was a delay caused by a dispute over money. Several middlemen helped to keep communications open. But there is no doubt that the relationship at that stage was not as cordial as it is now.
Not that Mendes ever went away. He attended at least one Forest game in the Championship, as a guest of the club, and it was his business partner in Spain, Carlos Bucero, who represented Aitor Karanka, the clubâs manager for a year from January 2018. Other deals have happened with Mendes in the background and it was probably inevitable he would resurface after Forest returned to the Premier League in the summer of 2022.
When the club were finding it difficult 18 months ago to reach a post-promotion agreement with Wolves over the signing of Morgan Gibbs-White, Mendes became involved behind the scenes and eventually helped it go through.
In that same window, he proposed a deal that would have been, for a newly promoted club, sensational: striker Goncalo Ramos, who scored a hat-trick for Portugal in the World Cup finalsâ knockout phase a few months later, was being offered from Benfica.
Goncalo Ramos (Octavio Passos/Getty Images)
Mendes, whose other clients include Jose Mourinho, David de Gea and Joao Felix, has always specialised in the best Iberian talent. But Ramos decided to stay where he was and Forest missed out on a player who has since moved to Paris Saint-Germain in an âŹ80million (ÂŁ69.4m/$88.1m at current exchange rates) deal.
As for the coming winter transfer window, perhaps the best option â as always with Forest â is to keep an open mind about what could happen.
At this stage, however, nobody should expect a string of Gestifute A-listers, or even B-listers, turning up at Forestâs training ground to help Nuno get the fourth-bottom team he has inherited from Cooper moving up the table and away from the threat of relegation. Forest have to be careful with the financial fair play rules governing how much they can spend.
It is clear, though, that Mendes is very much in favour. He speaks directly with Marinakis rather than going through Miltiadis, the ownerâs 24-year-old son, who takes a leading role in Forestâs transfer business.
It should, in theory, help Nuno that his agent is close to the owner â though Lamouchi left in strained circumstances after one season in charge in 2020. And the impact for Forest is likely to be seen in the form of more and more Mendes-related business.
If so, the club will hope it has a more positive impact than the last time, when they were operating in the Championship, he was directing players their way.
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