Steve Cooper in profile: World Cup winner ends Forest’s Premier League exile
Cooper has taken the Reds back to the Premier League after less than a year in charge.
Steve Cooper has become the manager to finally lead Nottingham Forest back to the Premier League.
Here, the PA news agency looks at the City Ground boss and his career so far.
What is his background?
He moved to the FA and took charge of England Under-16s and Under-17s.
What did he achieve with England?
The team included Phil Foden, Marc Guehi and Callum Hudson-Odoi, while Jadon Sancho, Emile Smith Rowe and Conor Gallagher were on the bench.
Earlier that year the Under-17s had lost the European Championship final to Spain.
How has he fared in club football?
Forest is just Cooper’s second league club job having previously spent two years at Swansea.
It is his third play-off campaign, though, having taken the Swans to the play-offs in both seasons in charge. In 2020 Swansea beat Forest to the top six on goal difference only to lose to Brentford in the semi-final.
A year later they made it to the final – but again lost to Brentford with Cooper departing a few weeks later.
How has he transformed Forest?
He has won 27 of his 45 games and managed to utilise an underperforming squad, which has seen them rout Leicester in the FA Cup while also beating Arsenal.
Cooper has harnessed the talents of Brennan Johnson, Djed Spence and James Garner to develop one of the most exciting squads in the league.
