The Telegraph journalist John Percy has claimed that Dane Murphy wanted to replace Nottingham Forest head coach Steve Cooper with Leeds boss Jesse Marsch.
It’s no secret that Forest held meetings behind the scenes regarding Cooper in October. The Reds were sat on just one Premier League victory at that point and relegation looked very likely.
Rafa Benitez was touted as the primary candidate for the role. That prompted a fierce backlash from supporters and it ended with Evangelos Marinakis handing Cooper a new deal.
Since then things have settled down. Last week, Forest beat Southampton 1-0 to claim their first away win in the Premier League and leave the bottom three for the first time since August.
Cooper can literally walk on water in the eyes of supporters. He took Forest from the bottom of the Championship to the Premier League in a matter of months and fans are unanimous in their support.
Murphy departed Forest after 18 months as the club’s CEO and now John Percy has made an astonishing claim. It’s thought that he was plotting a raid on Leeds for their American manager.
Marsch, at the time, wasn’t particularly popular among the Leeds faithful. He too was thought to be under pressure and it perhaps wouldn’t have been popular had Forest appointed him.
Murphy wanted to replace Cooper with Marsch
This would have been a bizarre move. People are being cynical about Percy suggesting they don’t believe that Murphy would lose faith in Cooper.
Modern football is strange though. As a result, just because Murphy was responsible for hiring Cooper, it doesn’t mean he was happy with the alarming run of form.
Marsch has hardly been pulling up any trees at Leeds. They have enjoyed some good results but they’re still rather open defensively.
Nobody will truly know what has happened behind the scenes with Murphy. It has to be said, however, that the criticism of a very reputable journalist in Percy has been very harsh.
Thankfully, Cooper has gone onto pick up some results. Murphy has now sailed off into the sunset and if this does hold any substance it’s a case of good riddance.