Nottingham Forest had agreed deal for former Tottenham man but Steve Cooper didn’t want him

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Nottingham Forest agreed a deal to bring set-piece coach Gianni Vio to the club earlier this season but Steve Cooper didn’t want him.

The Reds had been on the lookout for a coach that specialised in set pieces for a while, with Evangelos Marinakis frustrated at Forest not having one.

Vio is a trusted lieutenant of Antonio Conte, with the 70-year-old working alongside the Italian head coach at Tottenham.

The Reds have recently managed to appoint a set-piece coach. Simon Rusk has joined Forest having previously managed Stockport and teams in the England youth setup.

Forest chose not to appoint Vio after Cooper rejection

According to The Athletic, Forest had agreed everything with Vio and the coach was ready to come back to England. However, Cooper vetoed the deal, claiming that he wasn’t overly enthused by the thought of him coming in.

Instead, Cooper wanted his own man at Forest. With that in mind, they went out and appointed Rusk into the role as he became the club’s first-ever specialised set-piece coach.

Forest have been dreadful from set-pieces this season. They’ve scored just one and haven’t registered a goal from such a situation since August when Willy Boly scored against Manchester United.

At the other end, things haven’t been any better. Forest have conceded no fewer than 11 goals from set-pieces this season and quite frankly that’s an embarrassing statistic.

Cooper wanted his own man in key role

There is something that doesn’t sit quite right about this. Rusk has only been a place just over a week and it’s bizarre that Forest let Cooper appoint a coach when his position was clearly perilous and weren’t insistent on Vio.

It’s perhaps another bizarre episode on the sometimes erratic nature of Forest behind the scenes and this one really is a bit of a strange one.

Details of Nuno Espirito Santo’s arrival leave some question marks over the backroom team. It’s not clear who will form part of it just yet and it remains to be seen if Rusk will make a quick exit.