In April last year, Craven Cottage played host to one of the many moments that suggested something special might be on the horizon for Nottingham Forest under Steve Cooper.
When Philip Zinckernagel poked home from close range to deliver a 1-0 away win against Fulham, the fans dared to dream. It moved Cooper’s side to within three points of second-placed Bournemouth in the Championship table and, with three regular season games to go, automatic promotion felt like a tantalising possibility.
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Fast forward a little more than 19 months and the man who helped to make those dreams a reality, by ending a 23-year exile from the Premier League — albeit ultimately via that season’s play-offs — heard his name echo loudly around this corner of west London once more.
Only this time it was in very different circumstances.
If that spring evening was a milestone moment in what has become a genuine love affair between Cooper and this club, last night felt equally seismic, but for the wrong reasons. A 5-0 defeat has left him in a perilous position, with Forest now having won one of their last 11 games, and lost the last four.
Yet if Cooper feared the wrath of Forest’s travelling fans as he strode across the pitch to thank them after the final whistle, he had no reason to. Instead, his name was chanted as loudly as ever — just as it had been for most of the dying minutes of the match.
Wall to wall chants for Cooper for near enough ten minutes here.
Everyone saying goodbye, basically. pic.twitter.com/eOdPJMvwIn
— Nick Miller (@NickMiller79) December 6, 2023
Afterwards, Cooper admitted to feeling “embarrassed” at being so heralded after such a defeat. But he has earned this kind of backing – thanks to that glorious play-off final win at Wembley, and through memorable victories over Europe-bound sides Liverpool, Brighton and Arsenal as top-flight safety was secured last season.
But this was the kind of performance that gets managers sacked, and while there is no guarantee that decision is made right now – another game is fast approaching at Wolverhampton Wanderers on Saturday and the Forest hierarchy have historically preferred to have a replacement in place when they make a change — that moment between Cooper and the fans at the end had the feel of a goodbye for the club’s most successful manager since Frank Clark in the mid-1990s.
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Evangelos Marinakis, the club’s Greek owner, had been in the capital for the last two days, where several meetings were held among the Forest hierarchy. That is not unusual. Another is planned for today, and the future of the head coach is almost certain to be up for discussion, along with potential alternative options.
Forest have long liked Julen Lopetegui, the former Wolves, Real Madrid and Spain head coach, but also have an interest in Oliver Glasner, the Austrian who has led Wolfsburg and Eintracht Frankfurt into the Champions League and Frankfurt to victory in last year’s Europa League final.
The majority of the Forest board were in attendance at Craven Cottage to witness what must qualify as the worst performance of Cooper’s tenure.
Marinakis left his seat in the famous cottage section that gives the ground its name roughly around the time of the fourth goal (74 minutes), his patience having evaporated. Afterwards, a Fulham fan claimed on Twitter/X that he had found his lanyard discarded in a nearby home’s front garden.
Found this thrown on a bush in someone’s front garden just outside Craven Cottage… someone clearly left in a strop… 😂 pic.twitter.com/l4M235cE5Z
— Dom Manning (@dommanning) December 6, 2023
The Forest job has a habit of draining those who take it on. The bags under Billy Davies’ eyes grew in direct proportion to his sense of unrest, Dougie Freedman aged 10 years in a matter of months and Cooper — who will turn 44 on Sunday — has never looked as physically and emotionally sapped as he did last night.
The Welshman has handled himself with dignity and decency ever since his September 2021 appointment, with Forest bottom of the Championship eight games into a season that would end in Wembley triumph, and will continue to do so. He has always made a point of bracketing himself with his players; of taking joint responsibility for their failures, as well as their successes.
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But it was notable that he did offer a few barbed criticisms of his squad, accusing them of lacking desire, questioning their commitment in challenges and the quality of their defending, after watching Fulham punish their fragility.
“You have shown more desire asking that question,” Cooper told the reporter concerned. “It will be clear looking back at the goals. That is something that will be embarrassing. A performance will only start and end with being competitive.”
Steve Cooper’s time seems to be running out at Forest (Alex Davidson/Getty Images)Cooper did not rant and rave in the dressing room, but he did make that point about the lack of desire — and how that is a responsibility they carry for supporters.
Marco Silva, the Fulham head coach — who had a season in charge of Athens club Olympiacos under Marinakis between 2015-16 — offered a few words of sympathy to his opposite number, pointing out that Cooper has been in similar difficult positions previously and has the experience to emerge from the other side of them. “Steve knows how to handle this situation and how to react… this is part of our life (as a manager),” he said.
Cooper repeatedly stated that the blame and the responsibility for Forest’s current plight should lie with him. But while it may be him who pays the biggest price for that, he should not stand alone in shouldering that burden.
Of the 18-man Championship squad that won at Craven Cottage back in April 2022, only one was involved last night — Ryan Yates, as a substitute. That is the scale of change that has seen £250million spent on new signings since promotion, including the addition of 13 more new faces this summer.
But it was hard to escape the notion that, while that group of players two seasons ago may have been less technically gifted, less talented even, under Cooper, they did know how to fight for each other as a team. And that is something Forest’s current, expensively-assembled crop must show they are capable of doing now.
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If this really was Cooper’s farewell, he deserved far better.
(Top photo: Justin Setterfield/Getty Images)
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