Nottingham Forest fans gave Steve Cooper a huge vote of confidence in the hours before it was announced that the manager had signed a new contract with the struggling club.
Cooper worked wonders last season to turn the Reds from relegation candidates to Championship play-off winners, ending a 23-year exile from the top-flight.
However, this season has been tough on Forest and their head coach, the Reds enduring a five-match losing run that has left them bottom of the Premier League table and looking like candidates for a rapid return to the second tier.
Cooper’s task in steadying the Forest ship has been made more difficult by a glut of summer signings as the groundwork was laid for life in the Premier League. As a result, he has found it difficult to establish a settled side, a key factor in thumping losses at Manchester City and Leicester City, and worrying defeats to fellow promoted sides Bournemouth and Fulham.
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However, as pressure grew on the manager, amid reports that the Forest hierarchy were sounding out alternative candidates, the club’s supporters were making their feelings on Cooper crystal clear.
A survey conducted by NottinghamshireLive in the wake of that 4-0 defeat at Leicester has revealed overwhelming support for the Welshman, with 89 per cent of respondents stating they were still right behind the manager, with just five per cent calling for a change.
Instead, supporters blamed the Reds players (41 per cent) and club owners (31 per cent) for the current struggles, with just five per cent laying the blame at Cooper’s door. More specifically, they believed the club’s summer transfer policy had got out of hand, with more than 61 per cent of more than 1,500 respondents believing it went too far, although another 32 per cent said the owners had done what was needed to be competitive in the Premier League.
It was a similar verdict when fans were asked if the club owners were culpable for the current woes at the City Ground, with half of respondents claiming their summer recruitment had been shambolic but another 40 per cent saying they had merely tried to give Forest a fighting chance of survival in the top flight.
With the manager now contractually tied to the club for at least another two years, focus will turn to Forest’s next big challenge - a game with Steven Gerrard’s underperforming Aston Villa at the City Ground on Monday night (8pm kick-off) when a home victory could very well put another manager in the firing line.
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