Simon Jordan can’t understand why Steve Cooper would want to replace Chris Hughton at Nottingham Forest after twice leading Swansea City into the Championship play-offs, speaking to talkSPORT (16 September, 10am).
Hughton was supposed to be a ‘safe bet’; a second-tier specialist capable of finally dragging one of English football’s great underachievers off the seat of their pants and back into the Premier League after two decades of plumbing the depths.
But during the past 11 months, Forest have gone backwards rather than forwards under a man who led Brighton and Newcastle to promotion while guiding Birmingham City into the top six.
Hughton was put out of his misery this morning following a 2-0 home defeat to Middlesbrough, a sixth defeat in seven games leaving one of the biggest and best-supported clubs in the division bottom of the table.
Chris Wilder and former England captain John Terry have been tipped to take over but, according to The Telegraph, it’s 41-year-old Cooper who appears to have emerged as Forest’s top candidate.
Should Steve Cooper be wary of the Nottingham Forest job?
“Why would you want to go from Swansea, who have been in the play-offs, to Nottingham Forest?,” asks Jordan, the straight-talking ex-Crystal Palace owner.
“If you look at a club of this stature, a far greater stature than Palace, they’ve not got back to the Premier League for more than 20 years.
“What is it about my tenure and Steve Parish’s tenure that dragged Palace out of the Championship that prohibits Forest, with far bigger crowds, greater revenue streams and sometimes better financially heeled owners?
“They still don’t get where they need to get to.
“I look at the list of mangers (Forest have hired in recent years) and none of them have grasped me. They seem to have gone to a group of managers who will do a decent job rather than an exceptional job.”
It’s not all doom and gloom, of course.
In Lewis Grabban and Lyle Taylor, Forest have two experienced strikers who have scored regularly in the Championship while in Brennan Johnson, Joe Worrall, Alex Mighten and Philip Zinckernagel, there’s some real talent in the squad.
The question is, can Cooper or Wilder succeed where so many before them have failed?
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