Nottingham Forest were considering appointing Jorge Sampaoli back in April and he could be on the market again. The Argentine boss is walking away from Flamengo after just 39 games in charge.
It was the Daily Mail who claimed that Evangelos Marinakis was willing to appoint the renowned manager. Eventually, he stayed loyal to Steve Cooper and that proved a very popular decision.
The 43-year-old head coach has worked wonders for Forest. He kept the club up with a game to spare and he’s a universally likeable figure of the East Midlands-based club.
Sampaoli was linked with Forest in April
It seemed a little bit like idle paper talk at the time. Forest were without a win in 10 games and clearly, there wasn’t any smoke without some fire and the board were perhaps weighing things up, with Sampaoli on the radar.
Sampaoli ultimately ended up at Flamengo in Brazil. Now, according to Brazilian journalist Julio Miguel Neto, the manager is set to depart after winning 20 of his 39 games.
It’s not clear why the manager is leaving. However, it would appear that he’s already said goodbye to his players and won’t be returning to the top-flight club.
Forest right to stick with Cooper
This would have been a disaster waiting to happen. Sampaoli hasn’t stayed anywhere for too long in recent years and he does seem like a temperamental character.
Furthermore, the experienced manager has never worked in the Premier League. Appointing him would have been risky with just a handful of games left last season.
Sampaoli clearly had his doubts about joining Forest. It was claimed in some parts that he actually rejected a move to the City Ground in favour of heading to Brazil.
Cooper is worth his weight in gold at Forest. He deserves time to get things right and after landing 13 new recruits in the summer, it’s likely that any talk of a sacking will be parked during the 2023/24 campaign.
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