Is Steve Cooper a good appointment for Forest?

Nottingham Forest’s torrid start to the season resulted in the sacking of experienced manager Chris Hughton.

The reds gained only 1 point out of a possible 21 under the Irishman this season and only managed to win a game once he left and caretaker Steven Reid took over and managed the team to a 2-0 away win at Huddersfield Town.

But the first team coach won’t be managing another game as the forest board moved quickly to appoint former Swansea manager Steve Cooper, so the question on every forest fans mind is whether he is the right man to turn a club that is stagnating into a club that is moving forward.

Cooper is a relatively inexperienced manager with only two seasons in senior management under his belt after 2 decades as a youth coach at the likes of Wrexham, Liverpool and the England national team before being appointed the lead role at the Liberty Stadium in 2019. He quickly used his contacts to bring in many exciting youngsters in on loan including the likes of Marc Guehi, Rhian Brewster, Conor Gallagher and Ben Wilmot in his first season and the likes of Morgan Gibbs-White in the next season.

He delivered a place in the playoffs in both of his seasons in South Wales including the near miss in the final last season, but he still drew criticism from the Swansea fans for his style of football which was a little on the defensive side and when the Swans fans are used to the likes of Brendan Rodgers and Roberto Martinez it was never going to be easy to adhere himself to the fans.

He left by mutual consent at the end of July and was replaced by MK dons boss Russell Martin, Forest fans will be skeptical of the style of play but they can’t deny the asset of the caliber of loans that the Welshman can bring in but that won’t come into effect until January so the likelihood of an instead upturn in form could be low but the fans will need to give him time.