Pep Guardiola recognises the moment that gave England the impetus they needed to push on with their demand to step out of international football’s shadows and compete again as a contender. In October 2017, in India, England won a World Cup at any age group for the first time since 1966 when their Under-17 team beat Spain 5-2 in the final.
“Big congratulations to the manager,” Guardiola said. “It is the step England needed. It happened in Spain. Spain was always in the last-16, quarter-finals. Then they arrived one moment in the semi-finals and since then they have won every time. That’s why it is so important. To finally win.”
The stars of that England team were its young attackers, a group of teenagers who finally had overwhelming evidence to push for regular league minutes. From the 2015 Under-17 World Cup squad, only one has made a senior international appearance. Five years on from 2017, five of that squad already have: Phil Foden, Jadon Sancho, Conor Gallagher, Emile Smith-Rowe and Callum Hudson-Odoi. Marc Guehi could become the sixth after receiving his first call-up last week.
It was also a masterclass of the coaching system, the strategy through which the Football Association really did hope to shift the preconceptions of English football. The Under-17s took separate in-possession and out-of-possession coaches, a goalkeeper coach, two fitness coaches, two analysts, two physios, a doctor, a chef, an education officer and a psychologist.
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Steve Cooper, the head coach of that World Cup-winning team, has since enjoyed a rapid progression of his own. Leaving his role in 2019 to join Swansea, he led them to two successive Championship playoff campaigns before departing at the end of his second season (Swansea are now 16th). When Chris Hughton was sacked in September, Nottingham Forest had taken one point from seven league games. Since then, only leaders Fulham have taken more Championship points. Cooper is masterminding another remarkable rise.
On Sunday, Forest play in the last eight of any competition for the first time since Bayern Munich in the Uefa Cup in 1996. This club has undergone several mini-eras since, few of them pleasant: play-off heartache, League One relegation, the chaos of Fawaz Al-Hasawi’s ownership, the managerial merry-go-round, Greeks bearing gifts. Supporters have seen enough false dawns to fill a calendar, but few managers have got under their skin quite like Cooper.
Sunday’s tie offers a fine chance to reflect on Cooper’s coaching career, now almost 25 years in length despite him still being the ninth youngest manager in the top two tiers of English football. A steady but unspectacular player – by his own admission – he began coaching young age groups at Wrexham at the age of 19. Budgets were tight; Cooper became a minibus driver, a manager, a mentor and a fixture secretary all at once. He immediately fell in love with coaching. This was his vocation.
In 2008, having already become one of the youngest coaches in Europe to earn their UEFA Pro Licence, Cooper was headhunted by Forest’s Sunday opponents Liverpool. Initially overseeing the development of academy players aged between 12 and 16, in the space of five years, he was promoted to academy manager and then Under-18s coach, working with Trent Alexander-Arnold, Raheem Sterling and Conor Coady, amongst others. More importantly, he worked under Jose Segura, a Spanish coach who would go on to be Barcelona’s head of academy and then general manager.
It was through Segura that Cooper defined his preferred playing style: possession-based, aggressive pressing when the ball is lost and a coach who demands that his players are courageous with their forward passing. At Swansea, that occasionally became quite defensive without enough flair players to shift through the gears. At Forest, Cooper appears to have got the balance right.
That long history in academy football and with England’s age-group teams provides Cooper with a distinct advantage. The breakout stars of the Forest team that will take on Liverpool are Middlesbrough loanee Djed Spence and academy graduate Brennan Johnson, aged 21 and 20 respectively. Keinan Davis, 24 but with only 22 career league starts before this season, has been a revelation since Lewis Grabban got injured. James Garner, on loan from Manchester United, has kicked on again under Cooper. Ryan Yates has become an excellent all-action midfielder who reinforces the connection with the local community.
“Steve is prepared to place trust in young players,” says Ian Foster. Foster was one of Cooper’s coaches with the Under-17s who is now the England Under-19s head coach. “We have seen that throughout his career, from his player development at Liverpool, Wrexham and England and then how he has operated at Swansea and now at Forest. He creates pathways for players. And his history of developing talent means that more senior players will always be on board with it. Some of them become part of his leadership, so everyone is working on the same page.”
That community has a power that Cooper has understood wherever he has coached. “You just have to make time for people, particularly if they show a bit of interest in you,” he said the week after his appointment at the City Ground. “We want to be decent people, we want to represent the traditions and the values of the club to the level that they deserve.” After each victory, Cooper raises his fist three times to each stand and hears them cheer thrice in return. It has become an emblem of their Championship progress.
One of the integral elements of Cooper’s style is collaboration, a deliberate destruction of ego and the traditional manager-player relationship. At the Under-17 World Cup, he would work with the players on game approach and opposition analysis, asking them to problem solve between each other. At Forest, Grabban has worked with Davis, Steve Cook with the younger centre-backs. What’s the point in telling them what to do when they are more likely to do it if it’s their own solution?
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“The great shift that has taken place is a realisation that these young players can handle it,” says Foster. “They have the technique, the tactical awareness, the physical prowess. All they needed was regular minutes, a chance to show what they can do. Steve is prepared to provide that opportunity, but he’s also prepared to challenge them and support them to find solutions. That’s how we develop rounded players.”
There are no guarantees at Nottingham Forest; this club has repeatedly promised and not delivered, delivered but fallen short. They are emphatic second favourites against Liverpool and still outsiders for promotion after their dismal start to the season.
But, for now, none of that really matters. More important than playing in the Premier League is having a club that, finally, seems on a firm footing. If that’s not only down to one man, supporters know that one man has made a bigger difference than most. On Sunday Steve Cooper revisits his own history. He’s more interested in the relentless pursuit of his, and Nottingham Forest’s, future.
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