Nottingham Forest will forever be indebted to Steve Cooper for what he managed to achieve during his time at the City Ground.
He took a bunch of no-hopers from the bottom of the Championship to the Premier League in a matter of months and that can never be taken away from his time at Forest.
However, imperfections were evident in the Premier League at Forest. Although some signings clearly weren’t chosen by him, he adopted a somewhat stubborn approach and ultimately, that cost him a little bit.
Cooper was recently sacked by Leicester. Now, he waits for his next opportunity in the game and it will be fascinating to see where he does end up after two pretty ordinary spells in the Premier League.
Andrey Santos is now one of the top defensive midfielders in Europe. However, under Cooper, he managed just seven minutes from the bench in the Premier League with the former Forest head coach choosing not to play him.
There is another player who has made Cooper look extremely foolish too. Now, he could be winging his way back to the Premier League in the near future, with clubs looking to sign him.
Newcastle and Liverpool battle for Loic Bade
It’s no secret that Bade wasn’t a Cooper choice. Miltos Marinakis was responsible for signing the Sevilla centre-back on loan, with the ex-Forest boss preferring a back three of Scott McKenna, Joe Worrall and Steve Cook.
He was sent back to Sevilla in January 2023 without playing a single minute for Forest and just months later he was lifting the Europa League trophy aloft and starring in the final!
Now, according to The Sun, Newcastle and Liverpool are going head to head in order to try and sign the French defender, with the league leaders currently winning the race.
It’s a really bad indictment of some of the decisions Cooper made at Forest. When Bade was at the club, the Reds were shipping goals for fun and blind loyalty to the three promotion-winning centre-backs almost cost Forest.
Forest missed a trick with Bade
Cooper will surely hold lots of regrets from his time with Forest. During the season that Bade was at the club, the Reds stayed up but had the French defender played, Forest might have signed him permanently and completed a coup.
Clearly, other Premier League clubs believe he’s got something about him. Liverpool are signing him it seems despite having a wealth of talent already available to Arne Slot in the centre of defence.
In hindsight, Forest have now hit the jackpot with their central defenders. Nikola Milenkovic and Murillo are quality with Morato and Willy Boly boasting very competent backup options.
Bade will forever be known as one that got away from Forest, however. It might sound harsh but that is one mistake that Cooper will always have to take the flak for and he seriously dropped the ball with the defender.
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