The Steve Cooper thread

[airedale]

He said in an interview a little while ago that he's now got the 2 players he always wanted with us ...

James Garner and Keinan Davis.

James Garner can be a bit of a maverick at times though.

 

[Marchamjack]

Cooperball nearly killed my love of football. Surrendered the play off final. Touted himself round for other jobs while with us. In short. Fck him

 

[STID2017]

There's a few things here

Not sure I could ever agree with the "one of the greatest achievements in living memory" - he has got a decent tune out of a half decent side in a pretty bang average division. It's not really Leicester City material is it :lol: And certainly not in any comparison to Brian Clough taking a side to win back to back European Cups.

"He was sacked by Swansea City" - not really true. Cooper wanted out the moment we lost last years play off final - he pretty much said so in his post match interview https://planetswans.co.uk/2021/05/29/coopers-talksport-comment-was-a-crystal-palace-hint/ - the summer was spent with him failing to get the jobs he craved so maybe the narrative should actually be "the one that got away" for the sides that overlooked him when they elected he was not the right man for the job

It will always remain my belief that Cooper did not fancy a rebuild ahead of him - look at where we were at the start of the season and the question will always be would Cooper have done a better job this season than Martin - we will never know but I'm certainly not convinced.

Forest had 4 points from 8 games when he arrived - they now have 76from 43 - 68 points from 35 games is a superb return and promotion winning form but in the same time Fulham have 71 points, Bournemouth 61, Huddersfield 63 and even Luton 62 - its not the Roy of the Rovers stuff the media would like to believe it.

A good manager with a good squad that he inherited who had clearly decided the old manager was not for them - he has worked well with them and even if they dont go up automatically they should be overwhelming favourites for the play offs. Not taking anything away from him but him leaving Swansea was inevitable as soon as we lost the play off final and remains the right decision.

This, but I would like to summarise into a shorter sentence:

Nice guy who bottled getting us up playing dreadful football before schitting the bed at the prospect of a rebuild job who I'm more than happy to see promoted at Bournemouth's expense.

I'd rather Bournemouth go up and Cooper's Florists crash and burn in the play offs.
I will never forgive him for Wembley.
His mind was already elsewhere.
He deserves nothing and I hope that is what he gets.
Plus the Forest fans writing off Saturday's game before a ball has been kicked.
Cocky barstewards.
COYS !!

 

[Swansea93]

I love how all the fans from the outside say Cooper played stunning football at Swansea can’t believe they let him go etc etc don’t they realise us fans who watched us week in week out under Cooper was absolutely dreadful and nothing like Forest are playing now? Not also realising the spineless performance at the play off final to have 0 effort on goal which comes down to him, his interview after the final basically pimping himself out to other jobs, and then supposedly having talks days before the game, good luck to the bloke he’s done a great job at Forest if they get promoted, but I’ve never took to him at all always seemed like a sleeze ball.

 

[STID2017]

I love how all the fans from the outside say Cooper played stunning football at Swansea can’t believe they let him go etc etc don’t they realise us fans who watched us week in week out under Cooper was absolutely dreadful and nothing like Forest are playing now? Not also realising the spineless performance at the play off final to have 0 effort on goal which comes down to him, his interview after the final basically pimping himself out to other jobs, and then supposedly having talks days before the game, good luck to the bloke he’s done a great job at Forest if they get promoted, but I’ve never took to him at all always seemed like a sleeze ball.

Excellent summary of what happened.
I wish him no good luck though sorry

 

[Swanjaxs]

I love how all the fans from the outside say Cooper played stunning football at Swansea can’t believe they let him go etc etc don’t they realise us fans who watched us week in week out under Cooper was absolutely dreadful and nothing like Forest are playing now? Not also realising the spineless performance at the play off final to have 0 effort on goal which comes down to him, his interview after the final basically pimping himself out to other jobs, and then supposedly having talks days before the game, good luck to the bloke he’s done a great job at Forest if they get promoted, but I’ve never took to him at all always seemed like a sleeze ball.

Funnily enough there's a re-run of Swansea v Brentford in the playoff final last season on SkySport Football at the moment if anyone can stomach it :lol:

 

[Roger]

Very good, underrated manager. He might not be the prettiest man on the planet like our Russ but he’s a far, FAR better manager.

I loved our football under Cooper. Quick counter attacks. Not this sideways pish Russ plays.

I hope Forest go up, Cooper will probably end up managing a Wolves or Everton type of club next.

 

[Uxy]

I think there's a fair bit of revisionism about last year's playoff final. It seems pretty clear to me what his tactics were, which was to keep it tight against a better and more talented team and hope to shithouse our way to the win. I don't think we froze, it's just that they tore up the script by scoring (thanks to one of Woodman's less than clever decisions). I remember driving down to the game and discussing how they're either going to score first and win at a canter, or we'll get lucky. Sadly for us, it wasn't the latter. That wasn't a bottle job, it was pretty much his modus operandi at the business end of the season.

As for last summer, I pin that pretty much on the yanks. They could have let him leave after the final whistle, and everyone would have been happy enough. Pretty clear it was a gamble on receiving some compo. He was under contract, so the terms of departure could never be entirely his. How much it's hamstrung us this season is open for debate ... my earlier thoughts that its hampered us loads are tempered somewhat by Martin's inability to learn from mistakes. He's had long enough to shore up our defence after all, and he can't pin that on a lack of a pre-season. It probably did cost us a few points though, which is the difference between us being in the playoff mix or not.

He did a good job for us, and he's doing exactly the sort of job I thought he'd do at Forest, which has a better and deeper squad than we had last year (Ayew and Guehi aside). He's lucky Houghton made such a pig's ear of it.

But am I happy he left? Aye, absolutely. We'd lost our identity, and it wasn't much fun to watch. Given his Forest team are quite fun to watch, the fault there may not entirely be with him, but he certainly didn't help with it. For all Martin's faults, and there are quite a few, it's been much more fun this year and football should be fun.

 

[Roger]

I think there's a fair bit of revisionism about last year's playoff final. It seems pretty clear to me what his tactics were, which was to keep it tight against a better and more talented team and hope to shithouse our way to the win. I don't think we froze, it's just that they tore up the script by scoring (thanks to one of Woodman's less than clever decisions). I remember driving down to the game and discussing how they're either going to score first and win at a canter, or we'll get lucky. Sadly for us, it wasn't the latter. That wasn't a bottle job, it was pretty much his modus operandi at the business end of the season.

As for last summer, I pin that pretty much on the yanks. They could have let him leave after the final whistle, and everyone would have been happy enough. Pretty clear it was a gamble on receiving some compo. He was under contract, so the terms of departure could never be entirely his. How much it's hamstrung us this season is open for debate ... my earlier thoughts that its hampered us loads are tempered somewhat by Martin's inability to learn from mistakes. He's had long enough to shore up our defence after all, and he can't pin that on a lack of a pre-season. It probably did cost us a few points though, which is the difference between us being in the playoff mix or not.

He did a good job for us, and he's doing exactly the sort of job I thought he'd do at Forest, which has a better and deeper squad than we had last year (Ayew and Guehi aside). He's lucky Houghton made such a pig's ear of it.

But am I happy he left? Aye, absolutely. We'd lost our identity, and it wasn't much fun to watch. Given his Forest team are quite fun to watch, the fault there may not entirely be with him, but he certainly didn't help with it. For all Martin's faults, and there are quite a few, it's been much more fun this year and football should be fun.

A very good post, agree with you.

 

[Swansea93]

Martin is far from perfect but I’m enjoying us a lot more than I did under Cooper, Martin had the stomach to come in and change the whole style of play, have no parachute money and build a squad and he’s done a good job so far imo and I’m looking forward to what next season has for us, Cooper on the other hand couldn’t stomach the thought of having no parachute money, Ayew and his Premier League loans and wanted out as soon as he could possibly leave.

 

[STID2017]

I think there's a fair bit of revisionism about last year's playoff final. It seems pretty clear to me what his tactics were, which was to keep it tight against a better and more talented team and hope to shithouse our way to the win. I don't think we froze, it's just that they tore up the script by scoring (thanks to one of Woodman's less than clever decisions). I remember driving down to the game and discussing how they're either going to score first and win at a canter, or we'll get lucky. Sadly for us, it wasn't the latter. That wasn't a bottle job, it was pretty much his modus operandi at the business end of the season.

As for last summer, I pin that pretty much on the yanks. They could have let him leave after the final whistle, and everyone would have been happy enough. Pretty clear it was a gamble on receiving some compo. He was under contract, so the terms of departure could never be entirely his. How much it's hamstrung us this season is open for debate ... my earlier thoughts that its hampered us loads are tempered somewhat by Martin's inability to learn from mistakes. He's had long enough to shore up our defence after all, and he can't pin that on a lack of a pre-season. It probably did cost us a few points though, which is the difference between us being in the playoff mix or not.

He did a good job for us, and he's doing exactly the sort of job I thought he'd do at Forest, which has a better and deeper squad than we had last year (Ayew and Guehi aside). He's lucky Houghton made such a pig's ear of it.

But am I happy he left? Aye, absolutely. We'd lost our identity, and it wasn't much fun to watch. Given his Forest team are quite fun to watch, the fault there may not entirely be with him, but he certainly didn't help with it. For all Martin's faults, and there are quite a few, it's been much more fun this year and football should be fun.

A very good post, agree with you.

Glad to see you agres with that Roger.
Assume you read the last part ". For all Martin's faults, and there are quite a few, it's been much more fun this year and football should be fun."
As on your post about Martin you stated you hope he wouldn't stay as you couldn't stand much more of this dross.
Must be very entertaining dross then, eh ?

 

[Neath_Jack]

Hopefully London Lisa posts her Cooper write up in this thread, one of the finest posts on the subject(Cooper).

A very good manager at this level already, I'd go as far as saying a superb manager.

I hope he gets automatic this year, thoroughly deserves it.

 

[MajorR]

I feel like this will be warranted over the next few weeks/month.

I think Forest are going to get promoted, automatically aswell.

If they do then Cooper will rightly be lauded for one of the greatest achievements in living memory, dare I say more impressive than Cloughs first stint there.

And the story will always start with.. "he was sacked by Swansea City.."

Hindsight is a wonderful thing.. and despite which side forced the issue more, was it the right decision?

There's a few things here

Not sure I could ever agree with the "one of the greatest achievements in living memory" - he has got a decent tune out of a half decent side in a pretty bang average division. It's not really Leicester City material is it :lol: And certainly not in any comparison to Brian Clough taking a side to win back to back European Cups.

"He was sacked by Swansea City" - not really true. Cooper wanted out the moment we lost last years play off final - he pretty much said so in his post match interview https://planetswans.co.uk/2021/05/29/coopers-talksport-comment-was-a-crystal-palace-hint/ - the summer was spent with him failing to get the jobs he craved so maybe the narrative should actually be "the one that got away" for the sides that overlooked him when they elected he was not the right man for the job

It will always remain my belief that Cooper did not fancy a rebuild ahead of him - look at where we were at the start of the season and the question will always be would Cooper have done a better job this season than Martin - we will never know but I'm certainly not convinced.

Forest had 4 points from 8 games when he arrived - they now have 76from 43 - 68 points from 35 games is a superb return and promotion winning form but in the same time Fulham have 71 points, Bournemouth 61, Huddersfield 63 and even Luton 62 - its not the Roy of the Rovers stuff the media would like to believe it.

A good manager with a good squad that he inherited who had clearly decided the old manager was not for them - he has worked well with them and even if they dont go up automatically they should be overwhelming favourites for the play offs. Not taking anything away from him but him leaving Swansea was inevitable as soon as we lost the play off final and remains the right decision.

Not sure the maths are right, they’ve now got 76 points and only had 4 when Cooper took over, so it’s 72 points and not 68 from the 35 and 1 point better than Fulham. Forest are closing in on Bournemouth and they have to play each other very soon.

If I was Scott Parker I’d be looking over my shoulder very nervously, they seemed to have promotion sorted but have lost their form could easily miss out.

 

[PSumbler]

There's a few things here

Not sure I could ever agree with the "one of the greatest achievements in living memory" - he has got a decent tune out of a half decent side in a pretty bang average division. It's not really Leicester City material is it :lol: And certainly not in any comparison to Brian Clough taking a side to win back to back European Cups.

"He was sacked by Swansea City" - not really true. Cooper wanted out the moment we lost last years play off final - he pretty much said so in his post match interview https://planetswans.co.uk/2021/05/29/coopers-talksport-comment-was-a-crystal-palace-hint/ - the summer was spent with him failing to get the jobs he craved so maybe the narrative should actually be "the one that got away" for the sides that overlooked him when they elected he was not the right man for the job

It will always remain my belief that Cooper did not fancy a rebuild ahead of him - look at where we were at the start of the season and the question will always be would Cooper have done a better job this season than Martin - we will never know but I'm certainly not convinced.

Forest had 4 points from 8 games when he arrived - they now have 76from 43 - 68 points from 35 games is a superb return and promotion winning form but in the same time Fulham have 71 points, Bournemouth 61, Huddersfield 63 and even Luton 62 - its not the Roy of the Rovers stuff the media would like to believe it.

A good manager with a good squad that he inherited who had clearly decided the old manager was not for them - he has worked well with them and even if they dont go up automatically they should be overwhelming favourites for the play offs. Not taking anything away from him but him leaving Swansea was inevitable as soon as we lost the play off final and remains the right decision.

Not sure the maths are right, they’ve now got 76 points and only had 4 when Cooper took over, so it’s 72 points and not 68 from the 35 and 1 point better than Fulham. Forest are closing in on Bournemouth and they have to play each other very soon.

If I was Scott Parker I’d be looking over my shoulder very nervously, they seemed to have promotion sorted but have lost their form could easily miss out.

Yes my mistake it is 74

But still not the most amazing achievement ever

 

[Sirjohnalot]

He is a bloke that used to manage the team I support, did well when he was here playing dull football, wanted to work somewhere else, now is doing well there. Good luck to him, but with the greatest of respect, other than Saturday, it doesn't affect Swansea so I don't really care either way.

Working or playing for Swansea is a job and people move here then move away. Don't get any dislike of people that move to a different job, Swansea would sack a manager or drop a player if it is in the interests of the club and a manager or player will move on if it is in their interests.

Much prefer the football under RM, plus he is a normal looking bloke which helps