Nottingham Forest are bottom of the Premier League after eight games, but have decided to keep the faith with Steve Cooper; Forest appointed Filippo Giraldi as their sporting director earlier this week; Cooper: "I don't know how close I was to being sacked"
Friday 7 October 2022 22:53, UK
Nottingham Forest have given head coach Steve Cooper a new contract until 2025.
Cooper's position was reportedly under pressure with Forest bottom of the Premier League after eight games, but the club have decided to put their faith in the former Swansea boss.
Forest also appointed Filippo Giraldi as their new sporting director earlier this week.
"Everyone who knows me knows how much I have loved and am loving my time at Nottingham Forest, and knows how important it is to me," Cooper said at his press conference on Friday ahead of Monday's game against Aston Villa on Monday Night Football.
"I'm not much of a media follower, so I've not been as informed about what's been said [this week] as anyone else, but internally there's only been normal conversations after Monday's game.
"We were obviously disappointed with the result and performance, but the conversations with ownership and the CEO have just been about that - but that's like it is after every game. My mindset is on my job, being the head coach of the club."
Cooper guided Forest to promotion from the Championship through the play-offs last season, but has overseen a complete makeover of the squad over the summer with 23 signings arriving.
After claiming four points from their opening three games, Forest's new-look side have lost five games in a row.
A 4-0 defeat at rivals Leicester on Monday has left them bottom of the table.
Asked if he thought he was in danger of losing his job, he said: "I don't know how close that might have been.
"Whether it was discussed, I don't know. That's the club's prerogative with any manager - not just me.
"I always said to myself, coming into first-team football, even before Swansea, that you know what you're coming into - what you just alluded to.
"I tried to promise myself then, and I've stuck to that promise, that through the real highs and real lows, and you do go through those as a manager, I would stick to what I believe in and stick to who I am.
"I promised myself there'd be difficult moments.
"I've been quite lucky, in my three years in management, that there haven't been loads.
"And I haven't really had to go through that. But, at the moment, we are and I keep saying stick to what you believe in."
Cooper was previously coy about his contract situation and even as recently as last week insisted he was not bothered by it.
But he revealed that talks have been going on in the background for some time and the new deal is not a result of this week's speculation.
"That hasn't happened this week. We spoke after the game, as usual," he said. "I have to say the conversations I have with the ownership and with Dane (Murphy, chief executive), they have always been a discussion, rather than one person talking.
"This is just normal. We were all really disappointed after Monday. Me, first of all. But so were they. We talk about what went wrong in the game, what went right. I am always the first one to say, 'we should have done that better'.
"But don't think that it has been along the lines of, 'let's start the process now of negotiating a contract' on Tuesday morning. It has been something that has happened over a long while.
"I have had conversations with the hierarchy in the last few days. But they were just normal conversations."
Sky Sports' Adam Smith
Forest sit rock bottom of the league table with four points from eight games and a goal difference of -15. Leicester have the third-worst differential with -8, and the Foxes thrashed Forest 4-0 on Monday.
So it might come as a surprise Forest tied Cooper down with a three-year extension when there was growing speculation suggesting the club could pull the trigger on him.
Most promoted sides would be expected to be among the relegation places, but the £157.3m summer spending spree has heaped added pressure on the manager to deliver - with his outlay surpassed only by Chelsea, Manchester United, West Ham and Tottenham.
In fact, Forest's spending sets a new record for summer transfer expenditure after winning promotion to the Premier League - surpassing Aston Villa's £152.7m splurge in 2019/20.
The graphic below lists each promoted club's outlay since 1995/96 and reveals a link between investment and survival come the end of the season - with eight out of nine previous teams to have spent in excess of £49m retaining top-tier status come May.
Indeed, all of those eight teams registered 35 points or more, with Leeds clocking 59 after a £106m summer spend in 2020/21, but Ipswich actually hold the record for the most points won in the Premier League after promotion - shelling out £8.6m and winning 66 points in 2000/01.
So while evidence suggests Forest's investment should secure survival, the club needed to sign players on permanent contracts to replace a raft of expired loan deals.
In addition, Forest's overhaul of 23 new recruits was unprecedented. The previous record for a promoted club was 14 signings, set by Norwich in 2021/22.
Arguably, the unsettling overhaul and financial outlay have been mitigated by the necessity to do so, and Cooper reiterated the need to bed his recruits in after the bruising defeat at the King Power - and it appears the club's hierarchy agree.
October 10: Aston Villa (H) - kick-off 8pm, live on Sky Sports
October 15: Wolves (A) - kick-off 3pm
October 18: Brighton (A) - kick-off 7.30pm
October 22: Liverpool (H) - kick-off 12.30pm
October 30: Arsenal (A) - kick-off 2pm
