Nottingham Forest head coach Steve Cooper is said to be on a shortlist of potential candidates to replace Graham Potter at Brighton and Hove Albion.
The Seagulls are on the lookout for a new boss after Potter took over from the sacked Thomas Tuchel at Chelsea. And Cooper is reportedly on their list, along with Kjetil Knutsen, Russell Martin and Nathan Jones.
According to The Athletic, Brighton have been planning for the day when they might lose Potter for the past two years. They are said to have a shortlist of potential successors already drawn up, which includes managers working in the UK and abroad. It is said they “will concentrate their efforts on getting one of these candidates over the line based on factors such as availability, cost and the likelihood of landing them”.
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However, it is claimed Cooper “would be expensive to get”. The Welshman has little more than a year to run on the two-year deal he penned when he joined Forest last September.
After replacing Chris Hughton at the helm, he took the Reds from the bottom of the Championship table to a top-six finish, followed by promotion via the play-offs. They have picked up four points from their first six games this season, in what is Cooper’s first experience of managing in the Premier League.
Among the other potential candidates, Bodo/Glimt boss Kjetil Knutsen is said to be “highly rated” by Brighton. Luton Town chief Jones played more than 150 league games for the Seagulls as a player, and had two games in caretaker charge in 2014. And Swansea City manager Martin is Brighton-born and “a disciple of Potter’s passing style”.
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