ClaphamFox

A very risky strategy. They stuck with Rodgers in the hope of scraping survival, which left us too far behind by the time the penny dropped that he was was going to get us relegated and they belatedly pulled the trigger. I am placing my faith in the fact that getting relegated this season may have far more serious consequences than the last relegation, and they won't be so indecisive this time.

This would not be surprising and I can even see the logic in giving him a bit more time. We’re three places above the relegation zone and have just lost a game that we were expected to lose. Yes, the performance was shocking, but there are going to be one or two of those over the course of the season and it’s better they come in games we were never likely to win rather than in games we should be picking up points from. So I can understand why the club hasn’t pulled the trigger yet. But for me it’s just delaying the inevitable. When I look at how lacking in coherence we still are after 11 games, how disorganised we are defensively (despite playing defensive line-ups), how heavily reliant we are individual moments of brilliance, and when I look back at how Forest were under Cooper and realise that this is just what his teams do, and I ask myself: “Is this man going to be with us at the end of the season?”, the answer is a resounding ‘no’. And when you’ve sadly concluded that a certain situation is never going to work, you just want that situation over with as soon as possible so that it can be replaced with something else. It just feels like we’re in that weird interim period at the end of a manager’s reign when most of us know it’s not going to work out but it hasn’t yet got quite bad enough for the club to do the necessary. The only thing to do is wait around growing increasingly apathetic until one day the news will come that he’s gone and we’ll be jolted back into life with the adrenaline shot that the appointment of a new manager always brings.

Don't be so cynical! It'll probably be with 15 games to go

It's almost certain he will at some point. It's just a matter of when.

If he was sacked already we'd know about it. Everybody at the club would know he wasn't taking training and somebody would leak the news. There's no way they'd be able to keep a lid on it for a couple a days. That doesn't mean he won't be sacked, but trust me we'd have heard already if it had already happened.

If you asked every one of those 3k whether they'd trade Nuno to get Cooper back, hardly any of them would say yes. They regard him fondly for getting them promoted when they were floundering in the Championship, but most of them recognise that he was tactically very limited and that Nuno is on a completely different level.

Our club is run by a very small group of people, none of whom ever speak to the media. Even if there were moves to get rid of him, most journalists wouldn't know about it until it's actually happened. It comes down to whether the owners genuinely believe Cooper will keep us up. As long as they believe he will, he won't be sacked. But as soon as they lose faith him him, he'll be gone. Personally I don't think he'll be sacked during this international break, but a couple more losses might well do for him.

You've just repeated what I said. The odds reflect betting patterns, and as far as the betting public is concerned there are other managers at much more risk than Cooper. My point was that Leicester fans may see it differently considering how abject we were yesterday, but most punters wouldn't pay any attention to that given we were expected to lose anyway.

They absolutely will not see him like that. The EFL is already sharpening the knives in anticipation of our return there. They will be seeking a points deduction for the 2020-23 period since we escaped one from the PL because we successfully argued we were a Championship club. Relegation could be a disaster for us and I guarantee you nobody at the club wants to risk that happening.

Those odds reflect the fact that to most punters who aren't Leicester fans, Cooper appears safe because we're 15th in the table. Losing away at Man Utd was never going to make the average better conclude that Cooper is in serious trouble. Leicester fans who watched the game might see things differently, but clearly not enough of us are betting on Cooper to be sacked to shift the odds much.

We'll go through the interview process with Potter again and the contract will be ready to sign, then at the very last minute he'll say, "Just joking - I'm not going to join you! I got you again! Ha ha - your faces!!"

Mark Robins has never managed in a top division and has just been sacked by a Championship club. What makes you think he would be an acceptable replacement for Cooper?

I think we would be several points better off and comfortably in mid-table. Enzo is no Russell Martin - he'd have adapted his tactics if it was clear they weren't working.

Forest fans warned us that Cooper is tactically clueless and wholly reliant on individual moments of brilliance to get results, and that’s exactly what we’re seeing. He’s a ‘moments’ manager with no ability to organise a team (especially in defence) but is sufficiently likeable to inspire them to play well for short periods of games. It’s not enough, and we need better.

Ferguson had authority in abundance, though. His players never had any doubt about who was the boss. I’m not convinced Cooper has any authority at all. He might be likeable, but that’s not enough if you want to lead.

His management style seems to emphasise collaboration and giving other people responsibility. That might work well in many work environments but I’m not sure it does it football management. Enzo was more of a dictator and the players apparently loved the clarity he provided.

I suspect the vagueness might be due to legal considerations rather than fishing for clicks - ie, they can't be too precise or they risk unmasking somebody who hasn't yet been proven to have done anything wrong.

This has cropped up again... https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/ckglex0701xo

Given that it was a free transfer, we only shot ourselves in the foot with one of those plastic darts with a sucker at the end.

Hanif Kureishi's brutal account of the aftermath of a horrific fall on Boxing Day 2022 that left him paralysed. It's a grim read at times but very compelling and moving.

That will only be the case if there are already moves to get rid of him. If there aren't, it's hard to see how an expected loss at Old Trafford will change much.

I didn't say that everyone on the left thinks that, but it's still pretty commonplace. There was a lot of it about after the Brexit vote, and also after Corbyn was trounced by Johnson. There has also been plenty of it over the past few days. Of course, the people expressing this kind of view may not be particularly representative, but owing to social media they tend to get a lot of exposure. In general, I think it's a fair observation to say that left-wing candidates tend to do better when they mix their ideals with a pragmatic sense of how most people think and feel. Blair and Obama knew that. Starmer's victory was built upon a thorough purge of the remaining Corbynites. There are lots of examples. Persuading people that short-term sacrifices are necessary to long-term survival (eg, with regards to reducing carbon emissions) is very difficult and a massive challenge. But it's more important than ever.

I think in general, liberal/left-wing candidates always have to work a bit harder than conservative candidates to win votes. Conservatives tend to appeal to people's economic insecurities and fears over the future, which is psychologically very powerful. Liberal/left candidates tend to be more idealistic, which is a tougher gig as even most decent human beings tend to prioritise their own families' needs over their ideals. To counteract this, the liberal/left-wing need to balance their ideals with pragmatism. They need to understand the people whose votes they covet in order to appeal to them. Unfortunately this does not come naturally to them. As witnessed by the histrionic meltdown over the past few days, many liberals seem to believe that anybody who doesn't share their views on every single issue must automatically be considered a bigot/fascist/nazi, etc. So they're trying to appeal to people they basically regard with contempt, which is difficult. To win the election, the Democrats needed somebody with enough gravitas/intellect/charisma to appeal to those middle ground voters without descending to Trump's level. Harris was always too flaky and insubstantial to accomplish that task, so it was always going to be a long shot with her as the candidate.

Yep. His claim that other NATO members have been freeloading off the US is one of his very few reasoned and fact-based opinions.

At Forest Cooper had a reputation among their fans for occasionally conjuring up surprise results in games against big clubs when they were expected to get thrashed. I've got a weird feeling he might just do the same for us on Sunday. Of course they'll expect to wipe the floor with as at home in RVN's last game before the glorious arrival of Amorim, especially having thrashed our reserves in the league cup last week, but I just get the sense it won't work out quite as they expect.