According to reports. Nottingham Forest owner Evangelos Marinakis could be about to make a sizeable U-turn. It’s being mentioned today that head coach Steve Cooper could be on the brink.
Speculation has been rife for a few weeks over the future of the man who led Forest to promotion last season. His team hasn’t claimed all three points from any game since early February; a run stretching back nine games.
Several names have been linked with a move to the City Ground. Earlier in the season it was claimed that Rafa Benitez was being lined up, with Jorge Sampaoli the latest name in the mix.
Now, over in Brazil, UOL claims that Cooper is actually close to the sack. In the same news article, they’ve backed up earlier reports that Sampaoli is in fact on the City Ground radar.
The Argentinean boss was in charge of Sevilla until as recently as March. He departed the La Liga club for a second time with a win ratio of 43% and the club languishing in the lower echelons of the table.
MORE FOREST STORIES
The 63-year-old has enjoyed a pretty colourful career. He doesn’t tend to stay in one position for too long and in 2018 he led Argentina to the last 16 of the World Cup before losing to France.
Marinakis could make U-turn
Crucially, it’s important to realise the source of this piece of information. Although UOL are pretty reliable, it’s unlikely they will have any kind of inside information on Forest or what Marinakis is thinking.
Interestingly, Sampaoli is also wanted by a Brazilian top-flight out. Flamego recently let manager Vitor Pereira go and they’re eyeing the experienced manager as a replacement.
This smacks of a Brazilian publication running a story on the back of agent talk. Sampaoli’s agent will be keen to get his client back in the game and Flamengo might act quicker if they think Forest want him.
Forest face Manchester United and Liverpool next. As a result, sacking Cooper now doesn’t make much sense and it seems unlikely that Marinakis will be performing a U-turn just yet.