Steven Gerrard has hailed Steve Cooper’s promotion success with Nottingham Forest as an “out of this world” achievement.
Gerrard’s Aston Villa are the visitors to the City Ground on Monday night, with the hosts looking to turn the tide as they go in search of a positive result. They slumped to the bottom of the Premier League table this week after falling 4-0 at Leicester City.
That was a fifth straight defeat for Cooper’s side. However, since then, he has put pen to paper on a new contract with the club - and Villa boss Gerrard says he hopes people don’t have “short memories” when it comes to judging his opposite number.
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Cooper replaced Chris Hughton at the helm little more than a year ago, when Forest were heading towards League One. He oversaw a remarkable transformation which led the Reds all the way to Wembley and an end of their 23-year exile from the top-flight.
Gerrard, who was already aware of Cooper’s reputation from his time at Liverpool’s academy, told Villa’s official website: “He was really highly thought of (at Liverpool). When I was a player at Liverpool, people spoke really well about him on the grass, how he coached. He’s a great guy, with a really infectious personality.
“He’s had an incredible career so far. The job he’s done at Forest is out of this world, in my opinion - to take over when they were bottom of the Championship and get them promoted into the Premier League after so long.
“I hope people haven’t got short memories, because I certainly haven’t - because that’s one of the best jobs in recent years, in any league, anywhere in the world. He needs to be praised for that.
“I don’t know him extremely well. I know him well enough to pick the phone up and have a conversation with him, but we’ve had very little time together. Even though we worked at the same club, we were in two different buildings.
“But the reputation is certainly there - it always has been. And he’s certainly gone and backed that up when he’s gone into the big-time, in terms of the Premier League.”
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