Something happened at Nottingham Forest between Steve Cooper and owner Evangelos Marinakis which should encourage the Leicester City fans.
Nuno Espirito Santo guided Nottingham Forest to safety last season despite it turning out to be a turbulent campaign filled with VAR errors and points deductions.
The Portuguese manager took over in the latter stages of last year after Steve Cooper was sacked by the Reds.
Now months on from departing Forest, Cooper finds himself back in Premier League management having been handed the job at Leicester.
Former Forest and Leicester striker Stan Collymore has now weighed in on the appointment after some concern has been raised by those at the King Power Stadium.
Steve Cooper formed solid relationship with Evangelos Marinakis
Despite facing his critics during his time at the City Ground, but he had the backing of the club’s owner Evangelos Marinakis who handed him a new deal back in 2022.
The 44-year-old has put pen to paper on a three-year deal with the Foxes following their return to the Premier League.
Cooper’s time at Forest lasted just over two years and saw him oversee 107 games where he managed to earn an average of 1.43 points per game.
And Collymore has admitted there is something from his time with Forest that Leicester fans should be encouraged by.
Speaking to Caught Offside, the pundit hailed the relationship between Cooper and his players, as well as the club’s owner.
“I think with Steve, he inspires a lot of loyalty from his players – that was obvious at Forest,” he said.
“Even the owner, Evangelos Marinakis, if you remember in the first season when Forest came up, Steve was under a lot of pressure because of how many games they were losing. Marinakis gave him a new contract because the Forest fans were calling for Steve to stay.
“Leicester City fans will like that. They’ll like the passion Steve brings and I think in a season that may potentially start with some kind of punishment, Steve Cooper is a better choice in this moment (not necessarily overall compared to Graham Potter), whereas Graham will probably be looking to go to a stable club and take them from the middle of the table into European positions.”
Forest have their own issues to resolve this summer
Despite having players of the quality possessed by the likes of Morgan Gibbs-White and Murillo, Forest endured a tough 2023/24 campaign.
Of course, the points deduction played its role in their struggles, however, Forest need to improve over the summer to avoid a repeat.
It can be argued Sheffield United and Burnley are being replaced in the league by stronger outfits in Leicester and Southampton which will ramp the pressure up on the sides who narrowly avoided the drop.
But Forest are seemingly making some moves already this summer with Carlos Miguel’s release clause activated to provide them with a new man between the sticks.
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