Nottingham Forest head coach Steve Cooper insists he is "not thinking about" relegation rivals Leeds United hiring Sam Allardyce as their new manager.
Leeds, who sit just one point and eight goals above Forest in the Premier League table, have hired Allardyce in a desperate attempt to avoid relegation to the Championship. Cooper says while that decision might indirectly affect Forest, they are focused solely on themselves and the task at hand.
Speaking to talkSPORT ahead of the game against Southampton, Cooper was coy when asked about Allardyce and whether or not the veteran manager can change the dynamic of the relegation battle.
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"I'm not thinking about it too much, to be fair. We're just focusing on ourselves and it's the time of the season where there's even more reason to do that.
"Of course what happens elsewhere can have an effect on us and other teams can say that, but in the end it's about what we do - that's going to determine what the season ends up looking like. We're just focusing on ourselves."
When asked if Allardyce changes the dynamic of the run-in, Cooper added: "It doesn't for us because we don't play them. We're in a similar league position and we're looking to do the same thing, but we don't know. Respectfully, we're not going to spend too much time thinking about others. When you're thinking about others, you're not thinking about yourselves and that's counter-productive.
"We're all-in on the job in hand, we're not thinking about anything else apart from Southampton. We're very much now in preparation mode from Brentford to Southampton is feeling like an age, because it's a Saturday to Monday wait, but we're committing to the plan we've put in place.
"One thing that's been a constant this year, there's been a real connection among the players and the training ground staff. With all that might have been said about lots of new players and doing something quite unique, i've got to say we've built a real strong togetherness among the group. That's helped so far, after difficult results and we've never got too high when we've won a game or two. We're going to need that togetherness going forward as well, that's for sure."
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