Nottingham Forest, a competitor in the English Premier League, announced on Wednesday that they have signed coach Nuno Espírito Santo to replace Steve Cooper. The club stated, "Nuno will join the club on a two-and-a-half-year contract and will assume responsibility starting with Saturday's match when Forest faces Bournemouth at the City Ground."
Forest parted ways with the struggling Cooper on Tuesday, just days after suffering their fifth defeat in six Premier League matches, with a 2-0 loss to Tottenham Hotspur. Forest currently sits in 17th place with three wins this season, accumulating 14 points from 17 matches, five points clear of the relegation zone. The club earned only one point from their last six matches, which also included a 5-0 loss to Fulham.
Nuno Espírito Santo, the former manager of Wolverhampton Wanderers and Tottenham, was the leading candidate to succeed Cooper. Cooper is the second coach in the Premier League to lose their job this season, following the dismissal of Sheffield United's newly promoted coach Paul Heckingbottom earlier this month.
Cooper joined Forest in September 2021 on a two-year contract when the team was at the bottom of the second division. He led the team to promotion to the Premier League by the following May. Forest, which broke the record for the number of signings made by a team in a Premier League pre-season transfer window in 2022, had a difficult start to their first season in top-flight football since 1999. They escaped relegation fears after losing four consecutive matches in April 2023 by winning against Arsenal and Southampton in May, finishing the season in 16th place, four points clear of the bottom three.
