Nottingham Forest midfielder Ryan Yates has shared that the departure of one man in the summer left the dressing room upset. The Reds star sat down with the new podcast last week and made the claim about one of Steve Cooper’s trusted lieutenants.
Yates has been discussing all things Forest, his career and last season’s promotion win with the On and Off the Pitch podcast on the Reds’ official YouTube channel.
Steven Reid was already at the club when Cooper arrived. He had just guided Forest to their first three points of the campaign away at Huddersfield and was the only member of Chris Hughton’s backroom team to be kept on.
The former Premier League player proved a popular figure on Trentside. He always had a smile on his face but after winning promotion he chose to walk away from football and focus on a new project which involved combating the issues surrounding mental health.
Yates has now admitted that his departure did stun the dressing room. He’s also explained the quirky way in which he got Forest to score more goals from set pieces during the 2021/22 campaign.
The Forest midfielder told the On and Off the Pitch podcast: “When Cooper came in, Steven Reid was part of his backroom staff. Unfortunately, he left to pursue his career elsewhere and we were all so disappointed about that. We’re really pleased for him though.
“He came up with an idea for set pieces – because we weren’t scoring enough from them – that we’d all put £10 in a pot and when whoever scored from them collected the pot. I went through a phase of scoring loads from set pieces so found myself in the money quite a lot.
Yates upset by Reid departure
It was so interesting when Reid replaced Hughton as caretaker manager that he ripped everything up and went with a completely different shape and new tactics.
It’s a shame that the coach did decide to walk out of football after promotion. He’s been replaced in the role by Andy Reid but his namesake was a wonderful coach.
Reid seemed a great character around the dressing room. On the rare occasion he did come out and speak he also seemed happy at the club and a real football man.
Yates spoke well on the latest edition of the club’s new podcast. It’s clear that the players miss Reid and it’s one disappointment they had to overcome in the summer.