In many ways the appointment of Steve Cooper’s replacement at Nottingham Forest has been more than a year in the making. A 4-0 defeat by Leicester in October 2022 started the process but the head coach’s popularity earned him a new contract and an upturn kept him in situ until the inevitability of his sacking on Tuesday.
Various alternatives were sought last season, from Rafa Benítez to Sean Dyche to Bruno Lage, but the mixture of a lack of interest in the role or an acceptance that they would not be a considerable improvement on Cooper meant plans to change were shelved. Eventually, after coming down to a choice between the former Eintracht Frankfurt head coach Oliver Glasner and Nuno Espírito Santo, the latter was favoured.
Nuno has a number of key elements in his favour that explain why the Forest owner, Evangelos Marinakis, made his eventual selection. The Portuguese has experience of managing in the Premier League, will be able to communicate with Forest’s contingent of Lusophones, took Wolves into Europe and has big‑name clubs on his CV. At Wolves he earned promotion and two seventh-placed finishes, which is the level Forest want to reach.
A four-month spell as Tottenham manager and his dismissal by Al‑Ittihad following a poor start to the season after a title win do not reflect well on Nuno. His failure in north London is an important reason for his desire to return to the Premier League – he feels it unfairly tarnished his reputation.
Nuno arrives at a club that seem to be in a constant state of flux. The amount of change caused by 23 signings after promotion resulted in a disjointed team and a struggle for Cooper to settle on a first‑choice XI. By the time Forest lost against Leicester, Cooper was questioning whether he was the man for the job. It looked as if that decision would be taken out of his hands but he recovered and Forest survived. A further 13 signings were made over the summer and it never felt as if Cooper knew his best team. There were repeated changes in formation and personnel as Cooper grasped for an effective unit.
There was a lot to deal with for Cooper in terms of the churn of people working above him, too. The chief executive who pushed for his appointment, Dane Murphy, departed and the head of recruitment who shaped the promotion squad, George Syrianos, was dismissed and replaced by a sporting director, Filippo Giraldi, who lasted eight months.
Ross Wilson is overseeing football operations and faces a tough job to keep the ship steady because Cooper was the man keeping everything on course, but after one win in 13 matches Marinakis decided to act, his relationship with Cooper having become strained.
In January Nuno will not be afforded the level of investment Forest made in previous windows, with the club needing to abide by financial fair play rules after recent splurges. What money that is available next month will need to be focused on the areas most lacking. A backup striker for Taiwo Awoniyi is a must, and the club are considering signing a right-sided centre‑back but, in all likelihood, will need to sell first.
The hope is there will be a relatively seamless transition from Cooper to Nuno because their playing styles are similar, although Forest believe their latest coach is a better defensive organiser.
Glasner would arguably be more suited to the players available because he used a 3‑4‑2‑1 most often at Eintracht Frankfurt. Nuno’s Wolves implemented a 3-4-3 in the Premier League but adjustment will be required if he is to get the best out of the key man, Morgan Gibbs-White, a Cooper disciple, who Nuno believes is most effective centrally. Overall, Nuno’s football is seen as quite dour and fan reaction to his selection has been underwhelming but he has the credentials to manage an upward‑looking club with a squad capable of improving.
Cooper was never Marinakis’s man; the owner needed convincing to appoint him over Chris Wilder. Nuno, however, is the Marinakis choice and is backed by the Forest hierarchy. That support will serve him well, especially as he is unlikely to reach the levels of popularity felt in stands by his predecessor. Cooper transformed a sleeping club and, alongside the football on the pitch, was fantastic with the supporters away from it. Countless people took selfies with him in restaurants, he always spoke with passion about Forest and he made numerous gestures that ingratiated him further. He changed a city.
The plan was always to find someone who was a huge improvement on Cooper and Nuno does not offer that impression from his recent managerial exertions. Glasner would have been the bolder appointment but it is understandable that Forest would want someone with prior knowledge of the league. It is up to Nuno to prove their faith correct, otherwise it could be a sideways step. The only guarantee is that Nuno has a hard act to follow.
