Nottingham Forest’s season has started lacklusterly, and they have lost their last five games.
Steve Cooper, the manager of Nottingham Forest, is constantly “walking a tightrope,” and GIVEMESPORT has spoken with Neil Moxley, chief sports journalist for Sunday People, about if the dugout at City Ground could alter.
Cooper took over at Tricky Trees following an agreement to compensate Swansea City, where he had been placed on gardening leave two years prior.
Cooper lauds players despite worrying form
According to MailOnline, Cooper stated that Forest’s performance against newly promoted Luton Town last weekend was their best since returning to the top flight. However, the loss means that his team will enter Sunday’s match against Liverpool having lost their previous five games.
After avoiding an instant return to the Championship the previous season and investing over £100 million on new players during the summer transfer window, the Tricky Trees have found it difficult to get going and are currently residing in the lower part of the Premier League standings ahead of their trip to Anfield.
Cooper was able to spend lavishly as he sought to develop his team, but he was dealt a severe setback just minutes before the September transfer deadline when Brennan Johnson was sold to Tottenham Hotspur at a fee of £47.5 million.
Even though the Welsh tactician signed a new deal last year that will keep him at the City Ground until the summer of 2025, he will be aware that results need to improve because there has previously been much discussion over his future.
Neil Moxley update – Steve Cooper
Despite Cooper’s repeated statements in press conferences that he is eager to stay in charge of Nottingham Forest for the foreseeable future, Moxley feels that his position is continuously in jeopardy.
The esteemed journalist believes that even if the former Liverpool under-18 manager is revered by the team for leading the Tricky Trees back into the Premier League following a protracted departure, he may still be fired at any time.
Moxley told GIVEMESPORT:
“I think he is walking a tightrope all the time. I think he has effectively reached out to the supporters and done ever so well to foster the kind of relationship that he has with them.
“He has reached out to them and is at pains to stress that he doesn’t want to go anywhere else. He sees his future very much in Nottingham and loves the place. He makes that very clear in every press conference we have with him.
“I get the feeling that Forest fans – after spending two decades in the wilderness – are eternally grateful to him for picking the club up by its bootstraps and dragging them through the Championship in a season that had to be seen to be believed because it was just a runaway train of non-stop success.
“Obviously, he then kept them in the Premier League at the first time of asking, when he had a threadbare squad immediately after the play-off final success over Huddersfield.
“Steve Cooper has done a wonderful job, but the feeling is that the Sword of Damocles is hanging over his head, and it could be cut at any time. I think it is one of the pressures you’re going to have to deal with as Nottingham Forest’s manager.”
Leave a Reply