It’s two years to the day since Steve Cooper waltzed into Nottingham Forest – and he’s now proved Neil Lennon wrong.
The Reds incumbent brings up the two-year milestone today, with Forest sitting pretty in eighth place in the Premier League.
Two years ago, Forest were propping up the Championship. In just 24 months Cooper has won promotion and kept the club in the top flight.
It’s quite remarkable what he’s managed to achieve. Cooper is worshipped on the banks of the River Trent and he loves working at Forest.
In the process of achieving what he has, Forest boss Cooper has proven Lennon wrong.
When he took the job, the Celtic legend was quite detrimental about Forest as a football club.
He told Sky Sports in 2021: “They’ve had good managers there. Chris (Hughton) has a great track record in the Championship and the Premier League.
“Mark Warburton was there too, Martin O’Neill as well.
“It’s very volatile. It’s a big club getting good crowds but there’s something missing.
“Maybe they’ll give Steve a standing where he can take control of the recruitment because that’s going to be important.”
Cooper has proven Lennon wrong by succeeding at Forest
The position at Forest wasn’t volatile at all. The managers previously had reputations from other glories but couldn’t cut it at Forest.
In fairness to Evangelos Marinakis, he gave Hugton plenty of time. Ultimately, the football was bland and extremely dated.
It’s always easy for pundits to critique. However, the Greek businessman knows what he’s doing and he’s backed Cooper considerably.
All the owner wanted was a manager to get the football club. Cooper has done that from day one and the club are extremely lucky to have him.
Lennon made a bit of a lazy assumption back in 2021 and Cooper has now proved him wrong that the position is volatile.
Receive a digest of our best Nottingham Forest content each week direct to your mailbox
