[Albion] Steve Cooper.

[Simster]

Heavily backed = given a free transfer and a young kid to replace a £140odd million centre midfield pairing going into our first campaign in Europe, with a squad not topped up in January despite a crippling injury crisis.

Let's be clear here, the board are as culpable for the second half of last season as De Zerbi was, both had shockers.

But yeah, I'm not anti Cooper, he actually might be a good fit for us. It's just a bit 'meh'.

But even that can be reframed:

Heavily backed = always knew that we would not stand in the way of players and predictably sold our £140m centre-mid pairing, but replaced with two hand-picked expensive signings, one a supposed wonder kid from Barcelona (a regular at one of the biggest clubs in the world prior to injury).

The board are not remotely as culpable in my view. Yes, they are "culpable" for not keeping up to last season's standards but you can bet RDZ was told all about the way the club operates when he was offered the job and were entitled to expect a lot better than we saw in his final half-season.

Agree regarding Cooper. I still think we'll end up with someone nobody has heard of.

 

[Doc Lynam]

Can’t see this happening, but this might be clouded by I don’t want to see this happen.

 

[kevo]

This would be the most 'meh' managerial appointment ever.

 

[Justice]

No I really don't think he is a massive downgrade at all and that it is easy to overthink these things, or focus too heavily on only one attribute that makes a manager good at his job.

There are many attributes that go to make a good manager in my view - tactical knowledge, discipline, man-management and motivation, being able to spot a player's strength and best position where it's not obvious, implementing more than one system, counteracting other manager tactics. I would contend that Cooper is good at many of these things. You don't get to transform a club like Forest (and Swansea to a lesser extent) without some or all of these skills.

Tactically, RDZ played a low block which was exciting and a progression from Potter's tactics, but when it eventually unravelled he didn't have the tactical know-how (or should that be "the will"?) to change it. So what's so clever about that? Do we really want that again?

My view is that there are dozens of competent managers available, and the football industry as a whole has lost sight of that - preferring a "steady hand" when going through a difficult time.

It didn’t unravel the injuries made the difference remember the first ten games of the season nothing was unraveling.
I don’t know what he was meant to do go defensive hoof it to Welbeck? Plan B is a fans ideology top managers don’t change they get the personnel in to make it work and that was RDZ’s gripe.
Klopp had a bad season what did he do? spent a load of money on the midfield and played exactly the same way as he’s always done.

 

[Not Andy Naylor]

Cooper would be an uninspiring appointment and I can't believe TB would settle for that when PB has always said that he wants to enjoy watching the team. Any manager/head coach joining us would be left in no doubt as to what was required. So if Cooper is the last man standing, he will have to play the way that got Forest promoted, not the way they eventually stayed up.

 

[kevo]

Cooper would be an uninspiring appointment and I can't believe TB would settle for that when PB has always said that he wants to enjoy watching the team. Any manager/head coach joining us would be left in no doubt as to what was required. So if Cooper is the last man standing, he will have to play the way that got Forest promoted, not the way they eventually stayed up

Yes. TB wouldn't want another Hughton.

 

[Simster]

It didn’t unravel the injuries made the difference remember the first ten games of the season nothing was unraveling.
I don’t know what he was meant to do go defensive hoof it to Welbeck? Plan B is a fans ideology top managers don’t change they get the personnel in to make it work and that was RDZ’s gripe.
Klopp had a bad season what did he do? spent a load of money on the midfield and played exactly the same way as he’s always done.

Of course it unravelled. Yes he had injuries but RDZ didn't adapt and instead just moaned and whinged in the press. I'd have expected a drop off in form but not to the relegation form we saw.
And no you don't know what he was meant to do, but you're not the one being paid big bucks to solve the problem. Perhaps a good start might have been not to insist on the club signing Fati on an eyewatering £150k a week or replacing a world cup winner with Mahmoud Dahood (who was never as bad as publicised but was also never really trusted by the very man who insisted on signing him).
As for Klopp - he'd done his time at smaller clubs to get the job where he was able to do that, but I suspect you're missing a lot of nuance to his managerial capabilities. He's brought through a ton of very good youngsters in his time at Liverpool, for example. Or are you saying that RDZ was entitled to think Brighton should do what Liverpool do? I mean those two jobs and clubs are so similar aren't they.

 

[gripper stebson]

I do wonder how things would be on here if Cooper was a good looking Spaniard called Seve Coopez!

 

[Clive Walker]

OMG how far down the list are we now?

 

[fisons]

I do wonder how things would be on here if Cooper was a good looking Spaniard called Seve Coopez!

To be fair Gripper that requires quite a vivid imagination to consider

 

[Coldeanseagull]

I do wonder how things would be on here if Cooper was a good looking Spaniard called Seve Coopez!

It's funny you say that, I was going to post all mentioned candidates with a foreign twist...I had Coopernikov, Potterssen, Martinez, Ruiz Edwardinho, Stillencio....then lost interest!

 

[Flounce]

I do wonder how things would be on here if Cooper was a good looking Spaniard called Seve Coopez!

Not sure we’d be enamoured with anyone how ever exotic his name was if he’d been relegated with a PL team. Would you be any more enthused with Martinez? Given the players at his disposal he under achieved with Belgium too.

Not saying Martinez is shit but I’d be a bit “meh” with him as an Albion manager, about as “meh” as I am with the thought of Cooper TBH. But I’m realistic and no elite proven manager is going to jump at the thought of managing us are they?

Except maybe Gallardo, my dream choice currently

 

[Hometownglory]

Come on people, our amazing 'succession planning' is all hyperbole. It's a term used merely to make our selling philosophy and our lack investment in keeping staff at our club more palatable to the fans. Our 'succession planning' has been shit since RDZ came in (bar Pedro). Having a list of targets means f*** all if they won't come or we won't give them assurances they request. It must be quite rare to find an ambitious manager who accepts the 'our way, or the highway attitude' from the club. We just needed to give RDZ some bloody money to spend out of those profits. Surely, the majority of fans would agree there were glaring gaps in the squad and RDZ was let down in the summer and Jan. This isn't to say I agree with him publicy displaying his frustrations though.

 

[Flounce]

Come on people, our amazing 'succession planning' is all hyperbole. It's a term used merely to make our selling philosophy and our lack investment in keeping staff at our club more palatable to the fans. Our 'succession planning' has been shit since RDZ came in (bar Pedro). Having a list of targets means f*** all if they won't come or we won't give them assurances they request. It must be quite rare to find an ambitious manager who accepts the 'our way, or the highway attitude' from the club. We just needed to give RDZ some bloody money to spend out of those profits. Surely, the majority of fans would agree there were glaring gaps in the squad and RDZ was let down in the summer and Jan. This isn't to say I agree with him publicy displaying his frustrations though.

Not me, RDZ’s head was changed by the hype and he believed it and came up short on tactics and his inability to work with what he had without going all head mental.

 

[Hometownglory]

Not me, RDZ’s head was changed by the hype and he believed it and came on short on tactics and his inability to work with what he had without going all head mental.

I do understand that view and I certainly questioned him at times. I just feel like had he been sold short in the summer and January.

 

[Redinpeace]

Just seen rumours about Steve Cooper, as a man and a representative of my club I can’t speak highly enough of him, I’d genuinely love him to get a good job like BHA and succeed, it doesn’t count for everything but he’s a great fella, personally if our owner, son and their acolytes hadn’t interfered so much with transfers and team picking I‘m confident he would have continued to push Forest forward.

 

[Hometownglory]

Imagine working under Marinakis? Cooper deserves some credit just for that. Whilst hes no oil painting, he did well keeping Forest up with all those new players. Appointing a manager who has done well in a farmers league is much more of a risk in my book.

 

[sparkie]

OMG how far down the list are we now?

A long way. A long, long way if we've reached Cooper.

 

[Kosh]

Just seen rumours about Steve Cooper, as a man and a representative of my club I can’t speak highly enough of him, I’d genuinely love him to get a good job like BHA and succeed, it doesn’t count for everything but he’s a great fella, personality if our owner, son and their acolytes hadn’t interfered so much with transfers and team picking I‘m confident he would have continued to push Forest forward.

Thanks for that... Cooper strikes me as someone who'd interview exceptionally... and if he gets that opportunity it could swing things in a big way.

However, I'm still of two schools of thought:

1 - Cooper, if an actual target, could prove to be the best appointment we've ever made.

2 - Cooper, as above, could prove to be one of the worst appointments we've ever made.

lol... as with all coaches/managers I guess.

I'm not going to say I'd be excited, but I'm sure we'd all give him a chance to prove his championship style could be employed at a club better suited to being able to provide the stability his approach perhaps requires.

All of that said, is he genuinely a possibility ? no one can say for sure, but time will tell.

 

[Stumpy Tim]

Just seen rumours about Steve Cooper, as a man and a representative of my club I can’t speak highly enough of him, I’d genuinely love him to get a good job like BHA and succeed, it doesn’t count for everything but he’s a great fella, personality if our owner, son and their acolytes hadn’t interfered so much with transfers and team picking I‘m confident he would have continued to push Forest forward.

A guy who works for me is a season ticket holder at Forest, and loves Cooper. The anti-Cooper stuff here is an anti-British bias IMO