Steve Cooper faces twin challenge after Nottingham Forest’s summer of excess

08/04/2022

Forest are back in the top flight for the first time since 1999

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After a 23-year absence from the top table of English football, Nottingham Forest won’t be able to point to the excuses of a Norwich City or a West Brom if their stay only lasts a single season. Where the Canaries opted for financial prudence, Forest have been outlandish in their spending. Where the Baggies kept faith with many who saw them promoted, the Reds have made wholesale changes to the squad.

It’s a bold (and partly necessary) move from those both in the ownership and management groups, with the official tally currently standing at 21 departures (including youngsters, loans and out of contract players released) and a current net expenditure of around £70m, with more to come.

Already a dozen players have been added to the club this season, though the “real” current tally is somewhat lower than that: Ryan Hammond is only with the U23s, while Brandon Aguilera is straight back out on loan in Costa Rica, one for the future.

Still, it’s a hefty investment and a big turnover, with more likely to be on the way. Morgan Gibbs-White remains a target. Orel Mangala is the latest new addition. And Alex Moreno, a left-sided player for Real Betis, is another possible addition – even though both Harry Toffolo and Omar Richards are new signings who would be expected to fill that wing-back role.

The improvements to the squad, it can certainly be argued, were necessary: this was a team which earned promotion against the odds after a fantastic run last season culminated in winning the play-offs, yet they still tallied just a 50 per cent win rate across the campaign against the 21st to 44th best teams in the country. Put that way, it isn’t difficult to see why so many teams struggle when they suddenly have to face the very finest, and still need to rack up around one win in four.

But the additions, the expense and the very different squad of players present two new challenges for head coach Steve Cooper: firstly having to form a new group with the same close-knit, fighting spirit as was in place last season, then actually incorporating those new faces into the team in the right way to get results.

Neither one are easy to manage and the timescale to do so is short, as a whole host of managers and promoted teams have found out previously.

Forest’s window started in splendid style, it should be acknowledged. Taiwo Awoniyi is a terrific capture, a player capable of leading the line and scoring regularly as he at last gets his chance in the Premier League. Neco Williams and Dean Henderson are known quantities, easily Premier League quality, while Moussa Niakhate is a fine addition who was in demand on the continent after captaining Mainz.

Individually, the players are not the issue – it’s the collective integration which could prove problematic in the short term.

Fulham, who came up this summer with Forest, are a good example of why.

They won the 2018 Championship play-off final, then under Slavisa Jokanovic, before embarking on a £100m-plus spending spree to bring in a dozen players of their own over the summer, between loans and big-money additions. Aleksandar Mitrovic might have been a long-term success; the same cannot be said for club-record signing Jean-Michael Seri, who has just signed for Hull on a free transfer. And what of those who have since been forgotten from that scattergun summer? Andre Schurrle, Luciano Vietto, Fabri, Maxime Le Marchand?

Adding proven quality who will contribute to survival, and then to a club’s growth, has always been more difficult than it looks.

Fulham overdid it by an enormous margin that summer, even without questioning which players were well-suited for manager and style. Jokanovic was gone by mid-November; his successor Claudio Ranieri followed him out the door by late February. The Cottagers went down by 10 points and never came close to making the overhaul work.

It’s a warning for Forest, even if their own recruitment this summer does at least look more of an immediate fit to the system and style played last season.

The Forest coach is under pressure despite getting them promoted last season

There have been suggestions in some areas that the wages on offer may also enforce something of a split in the dressing room, though from a professional standpoint it seems unlikely.

Even if Jesse Lingard’s wages are at the upper end of the reported spectrum, the number of teammates who can put FA and League Cup final goals, plus a Europa League winner’s medal on the table, are few. Other than (new, obviously) back-up goalkeeper Wayne Hennessey, there’s also nobody in the squad with more than Lingard’s 32 senior international caps right now. But it’s still a huge task to integrate those faces and have them immediately on board with the team ethos of last season and have them all pulling in the same direction to at least avoid relegation – especially given the start to their fixture list.

In the opening five matches, Cooper and Co will come up against champions Man City, Champions League side Tottenham, Europa outfit West Ham and maybe the world’s richest club in Newcastle. It’s a daunting opening, Everton aside, and the manager needs to gel the squad fast, tactically at least and mentally if possible.

Steve Cooper faces twin challenge after Nottingham Forest’s summer of excess

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Steve Cooper faces twin challenge after Nottingham Forest’s summer of excess

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