Even Jürgen Klopp made his case for Steve Cooper deserving the award for manager of the season and it is impossible to argue otherwise after Nottingham Forest ended their 23-year exile from the top flight with promotion to the Premier League on Sunday – though not without controversy.
When Cooper took over in September Forest were bottom of the Championship but after an extraordinary run they are back in the big time. The captain, Joe Worrall, led his teammates up the steps to the royal box wearing a bucket hat collected from a supporter en route. Cooper leaned on the steel railings, exhaled deeply and considered what must have been a quite magnificent view, the air a Garibaldi-red haze from the smoke bombs let off in a throbbing Forest end.
