Steve Cooper mistake at Nottingham Forest now laid bare as five-goal player is among the best in Europe for 2024

Nottingham Forest reached the Premier League for the first time in 23 years under the management of Steve Cooper.

As a result, the Reds’ fan base will forever be indebted to Cooper for the work he did at the City Ground.

However, Forest didn’t always get everything right under the influence of Cooper and the head coach also got things wrong.

As a head coach, he wasn’t always responsible for signing the players but it’s fair to say that he didn’t help himself either at times.

A number of players were signed during the maiden season back in the Premier League and in fairness to Cooper, a lot of those additions weren’t good enough.


In the summer of 2023, however, there was one player who simply didn’t get a sniff at Forest and that now looks like a costly mistake.Andrey Santos stars for Strasbourg after Forest exit
It’s quite sickening just how well Santos is now performing for one of Chelsea’s feeder clubs Strasbourg.

In the summer of 2023, the Blues trusted Forest to take Santos on loan and ensure that he received plenty of game time.Cooper had other ideas though and as he didn’t have any say in his arrival, he chose to simply ignore him despite his team struggling in that area of the pitch.

Santos played for seven minutes of a 3-0 loss at Liverpool in the Premier League and was subsequently recalled by Chelsea in January.

He was immediately sent on an 18-month loan to Strasbourg and now he’s one of the top performers in Ligue 1.

This season he’s bagged himself five goals from central midfield and it’s definitely fair to say he didn’t get a fair crack of the whip at Forest.

Santos among the best in Europe for 2024
Strasbourg have really started to see the potential in Santos.

FBRef shows that he’s sixth when it comes to tackles won using statistics that include European football’s top five leagues.

He also sits ninth on that list when it comes to combining tackles and interceptions with Chelsea looking like they’ve got a real player on their hands.

Cooper didn’t get much wrong at Forest but not allowing Santos the chance to shine more often has to go down as his biggest by some distance.

MSNfootballNews

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