Nottingham Forest boss Steve Cooper will ignore the noise around his future at the club and focus on Saturday’s trip to Wolves.
Speculation the Welshman could be the second Premier League manager to lose his job this season – following Paul Heckingbottom at Sheffield United – intensified following last night’s 5-0 thrashing at Fulham.
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Cooper apologised after the game to the fans, who continued to sing his name throughout the evening at Craven Cottage, although owner Evangelos Marinakis was seen to storm out of his seat long before the final whistle.
A report on talkSPORT this morning suggested Cooper has one game to put it right – against Gary O’Neil’s side at Molineux.
Although he accepts the situation he is in, the former Swansea boss is trying not to place too much emphasis on the weekend. Forest go into the game having won just two of their 27 away games in the Premier League following promotion in 2022.
He said this morning: “I don’t think like that, that’s not a good way to think, it’s like saying to a player ‘You’ll have to do well in your next game or you won’t play again for the club’. It’s just not a thought process I believe in using.”
Full time at Craven Cottage. pic.twitter.com/Hel9h3ZHuT
— Nottingham Forest (@NFFC) December 6, 2023
Cooper knows results have to improve, however, and quickly.
“Of course we are disappointed with the results, and particularly the one last night and the performances – but more than ever you have got to show belief and character in what you want to be and what you stand for and what the football club and supporters want to see as well.
“That is my thought process more than ever. Of course there are going to be a lot questions, stories and whatever else said and rightly so, I respect that, that’s the life of a manager and I don’t think it should be any other way
“But you have to stay honed in on your day’s work and honed in on where you are at in terms of preparation for the next game and if I let anything else creep into my thoughts then I am not giving 100 per cent to the job, and that’s what I want to do.”
Cooper was asked if he felt let down by the players last night, but he was not willing to put the focus on them.
He said: “I never split myself from the players, we are a collective.
“It’s not about me getting let down, it was the supporters that were let down by all of us and that starts with me.”
