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Forest ready to axe recruitment staff

Team who oversaw £150m spree to pay price for bad start Cooper still at risk of joining exodus with Benitez in frame

By John Percy

Evangelos Marinakis, the Nottingham Forest owner, is set to take drastic action after the poor start to the season by axing some of the key men behind their spending in the summer transfer window.

Steve Cooper is fighting for his job as manager after losing five sucgrass-roots cessive Premier League matches, and a decision is likely to be made on his future in the next 48 hours.

Marinakis is also scrutinising the recruitment team, and chief executive Dane Murphy, with wholesale changes expected before Forest’s next game against Aston Villa.

A remarkable 23 players, costing in total about £150million, were signed following Forest’s promotion from the Championship, but many of them have failed to impress.

It is understood that George Syrianos, the head of recruitment, and head of scouting Andy Scott are both facing uncertain futures and could leave the club this week. Syrianos joined Forest from Vfb Stuttgart before the start of last season while Scott, who has worked at Watford, Brentford and Swansea, was appointed in January this year.

Murphy was hired from Barnsley last year and could be replaced by former Newcastle managing direcLee Charnley, who holds an advisory role at the City Ground. Marinakis provided huge investment to strengthen Cooper’s squad, but has been deeply frustrated by the lack of impact made by the new arrivals. His son, Miltiadis, has taken on a more significant role and was heavily involved in the signing of Jesse Lingard.

Yet Syrianos and Scott were primarily in charge of recruitment and are now in the firing line as Marinakis conducts a review of why the season has started so badly.

The most expensive signing was the £25million capture from Wolves of Morgan Gibbs-white, who was a Cooper target and has been one of the better players in a difficult season. Other big buys were Taiwo Awoniyi (£17.5million from Union Berlin), Neco Williams (£17million from Liverpool) and Emmanuel Dennis (£15million from Watford).

Cooper, meanwhile, is under intense pressure as the club sit bottom of the table. Rafael Benitez, the former Liverpool and Newcastle United manager, has emerged as a potential replacement if Cooper is dismissed by Marinakis.

Forest’s next game is against Villa on Monday.

Sport | Football

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2022-10-05T07:00:00.0000000Z

2022-10-05T07:00:00.0000000Z

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