Steve Cooper has gone as Forest nanager. That will leave many Forest supporters with conflicting emotions given that the manager and owner have, between them, conjured up the happiest times at the City Ground since the turn of the century.
On the one hand, the fans’ affinity to Cooper could be gauged by the remarkable support that was shown to him during the recent 13-match sequence when Forest won only once and fell to 17th in the Premier League table, leaving them five points above the relegation zone.
On the other hand, those fans are extremely grateful for Marinakis’ financial support and have grown to recognise that, at the heart of all he does, the Greek shipping mogul is determined to keep the club on an upward trajectory.
His methods can be unconventional at times, and anyone who has followed Olympiacos’ story — conspiracies, riots, near-constant drama, and an official statement recently claiming Greek football was run by a mafia — will understand how wild it can be inside the Piraeus-based club, where Marinakis recently appointed his sixth head coach in 16 months.
To a generation of Forest supporters, however, the good has far outweighed the bad since Marinakis took control from Fawaz al Hasawi in 2017 and bought a stagnating club that had little in its favour other than the comfort blanket of nostalgia.
Marinakis has deep pockets, big ambitions and a level of commitment that will always be appreciated by a fanbase that had, until Cooper’s appointment, spent almost a quarter of the century outside the top division.
And yet, there was also a thick portfolio of evidence that Cooper’s popularity with the fans troubled and, at times, irked the owner.
Marinakis did not believe Cooper had done enough as a Premier League club in the previous 18 months to merit the songs of praise, good headlines, and lack of genuine criticism. It was hardly what he expected from the supporters of a Greek club suffering relegation. It was also not the culture he desired at Forest.
Marinakis, according to those who know him well, wants to change Nottingham’s perception of itself as a football city. He wants an attitude more akin to Olympiacos, the Greek champions a record 47 times, where there is an expectation of success every season and a mentality that anything less is unacceptable.
Leave a Reply