When double European Cup-winning captain John McGovern was asked to sum up what it was like being part of the miracle men group under Brian Clough four decades ago, he described it wonderfully.
“We were like one of those comets you see flying across the night sky,” he said. “We burned brightly, but it was all too brief. But boy did we burn brightly for a while.”
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It would be foolish to directly compare the achievements of Cooper to those of the greatest Forest manager ever, but boy did Forest shine brightly under his watch for a spell.
Cooper was the man who ended the 23-year wait for Premier League football. He was the man whose trademark fist-pumps punctuated memorable victories. He was just… the man.
He wore a Paul Smith jumper rather than Clough’s trademark green sweater, but he will leave a legacy of his own that will be remembered for a very long time. There is even a case to be made that he deserves a statue.
Yet the spark gradually diminished. In recent weeks, the light had almost been snuffed out. Like many relationships, it was when they stopped talking that the union of Cooper and Evangelos Marinakis was doomed to failure.
It was not the Nottingham Forest owner who informed Cooper of the decision to sever ties after more than two years together. That job was left to chief football officer Ross Wilson, who broke the news to the Welshman at lunchtime that his time as head coach was up.
Marinakis had travelled to Nottingham on Tuesday, but it was largely to undertake negotiations with Nuno Espirito Santo, the man he is hoping to appoint as the seventh permanent head coach of his time as owner.
There is little room for sentiment in football. That is the case at Forest where, in the space of little more than 15 minutes, Martin O’Neill once found out that not only was the manager’s office not his any more, but that it now belonged to Sabri Lamouchi.
The news will have been less of a surprise to Cooper. His position at Forest had been under threat for some time and his relationship with the club hierarchy — and in particular Marinakis — had been eroded to the point of no return.
Senior members of the Forest hierarchy are said to have urged the two of them to talk, to try to rebuild some bridges. But it was a relationship that was beyond repair.
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While Forest’s hierarchy were disillusioned by the performances of a £250million squad of players — 41 across three windows — Cooper, for his part, had become ground down by the environment. There were increasingly fractious interactions with those above him.
In recent weeks, he and Marinakis have barely spoken at all.
Cooper was aware that a conversation was coming. He just might not have known exactly when or who it would be with.
Many had felt that a change would follow after the dismal 5-0 loss at Fulham. Marinakis left his seat at Craven Cottage long before the final whistle had blown — with a laminated accreditation pass carrying his name and image subsequently found in a bush outside the stadium.
In the aftermath of that game, Cooper was calm. In the dressing room, he reminded the players of the duty they had to fans and of what it meant to represent this football club. Cooper was focused on togetherness and unity.
But the hierarchy was already seriously considering change. Cooper repeatedly called it an “outlier” in terms of the quality Forest had produced under his time in charge and it most definitely was.
In another sense, it was also the straw that broke the camel’s back. It led to early conversations with the representatives of Julen Lopetegui, the former Wolves, Spain and Real Madrid manager. Lopetegui could not be persuaded that it was the right opportunity for him. Forest also pondered the option of Oliver Glasner, the Austrian who had led Wolfsburg and Eintracht Frankfurt in the Bundesliga.
The improved performance in a 1-1 draw at Wolves helped to quell the sense of urgency just a little, but only temporarily — and it would be too much to call it a reprieve. Even before the 2-0 defeat against Tottenham at the City Ground last weekend, change was still on the minds of the club’s owners.
At Fulham and Wolves, Cooper’s interaction with supporters at the final whistle had felt like a goodbye of sorts. His name had been chanted throughout both games. He had seemed emotional himself.
When he departed down the tunnel after the Tottenham game, raising his arms to applaud the stadium once more, it followed a performance that did not feel like a sacking performance on its own. But it was a goodbye. The stadium that had been inspired to hit volume levels that you could physically feel in his best moments now felt somehow muted.
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Today was the players’ day off. There was no first-team training at the Nigel Doughty Academy, no opportunity for the squad to say goodbye to their head coach. That opportunity could come for Cooper in the next few days.
The club were in the process of informing all staff of Cooper’s departure when it broke publicly.
News of his departure was broadly greeted with sadness by the players, even if there has been a sense of frustration over his tactical inconsistency in recent weeks. Cooper had at least partially reverted to the more reserved approach that had helped to keep Forest in the Premier League last season. Harry Toffolo, Cheikhou Kouyate and Morgan Gibbs-White had all given public backing to their manager in recent days.
There are also a few in the dressing room who will be grateful of a fresh start under a new head coach. Club captain Joe Worrall had been frozen out of the first team picture following a disagreement with Cooper and may get a clean slate. Andrew Omobamidele and Andrey Santos did not start a league game under Cooper. Nuno Tavares and Gonzalo Montiel — two full-back signings who had prompted excitement when they arrived — were given only one league start apiece.
Now such decisions will be made by a different man.
Cooper’s next chapter is not likely to be far away. Crystal Palace have been monitoring his situation for some time. So, too, have West Ham.
Having forged such a strong bond with the fans of Nottingham Forest and the city, there will still be sadness in Cooper that this part of his story is now over.
In 1996, a young football agent called Jorge Mendes met a goalkeeper in a bar. He ended up brokering his move from Vitoria de Guimaraes to Deportivo de La Coruna. It was the first deal that Mendes had completed.
Almost three decades later, Mendes continues to represent that goalkeeper, Nuno Espirito Santo, among other esteemed clientele.
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This time it’s a move to Forest that Mendes is brokering; another crack at the Premier League. Nuno previously helped Wolves to secure promotion before securing a seventh-place finish — subsequently earning himself an opportunity with Tottenham.
Negotiations are still continuing. If Nuno can get Forest to burn as brightly as they did briefly but emphatically under Cooper, then the club will be in a good place, but that is no insignificant challenge.
(Top photo: Ritchie Sumpter/NFFC via Getty Images)