Trent, Sancho, Foden - How Forest boss Cooper helped develop England's golden generation

Nottingham Forest head coach Steve Cooper already has an incredibly long list of achievements. 

He can boast of having won the Under-17s World Cup with England, playing a crucial role in the development of future internationals like Phil Foden, Jadon Sancho, Callum Hudson-Odoi, Conor Gallagher and Marc Guehi.

While working at the Football Association (FA), he was charged with scouting Colombia and presenting his findings to Gareth Southgate ahead of England's World Cup clash with the South American side in Moscow.

Before that, he become the most prominent coaching figure within Liverpool's academy, which produced world-class full-back Trent Alexander-Arnold, who will play in a third Champions League final on Saturday. 

Now, Cooper has led Nottingham Forest to Wembley for the first time in 30 years, putting them one win away from the Premier League.

It would arguably be his greatest achievement yet. Indeed, as Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp made a point of saying after picking up his award for the LMA's manager of the year award, "What Steve Cooper did at Nottingham is crazy."

He's not wrong. Forest, after all, were bottom of the Championship when Cooper took over in late-September. On Sunday, they will face Huddersfield in the promotion play-off final.

After Brighton's Graham Potter, Cooper is arguably the most exciting British coach working in the game today.

Like Potter, Cooper wasn't an exceptional footballer. He made it to the professional level but quickly retired to become a coach in Wrexham's academy. 

It was while working in his native Wales that he was spotted by Liverpool just over the border in England and joined their academy as an Under-15s coach.

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At Melwood, he would meet Pep Segura, who had been plucked out of Barcelona's La Masia by Rafael Benitez to overhaul the coaching philosophy at Melwood.

Cooper remains in regular contact with his old mentor. Indeed, it was Segura who recommended him to Forest sporting director Kyriakos Dourekas.

"When I came to Liverpool, Steve quickly became my right-hand man," Segura told GOAL.

"My English isn’t perfect, but from the first day, he understood my idea and translated it for both the coaches and players.

"I spoke with them all myself but Steve was important because he really sought to understand me and took the time to learn it every day. 

"He just wanted to learn and understand everything. During our time together, our conversations about the game went deeper and deeper.

"He could then explain my own idea better than I could to my coaches. After I left, he developed even more and worked with players like Trent Alexander-Arnold.

"What makes him a great coach is that he didn't play at a high level. He has learned to understand players through coaching.

"He developed his ideas and philosophy and then put in place a coaching methodology that has great detail.

"He has worked with progressively older players and brings the British mentality with his jokes, personality and managing upwards within his institutions. He is a European-style coach with the British mentality."

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The instant impact Cooper made at Forest came as no surprise to Dave Reddin either.

"Steve was already an exceptional individual when he joined us," the FA's former head of team strategy and performance told GOAL.

"He came with a clear idea of how he wanted to play the game. He had exceptional detail on how he saw the game. I think his detail on his game model, which evolved into the FA model, is second to none. That was the starting point. 

"Where Steve stands out is he showed incredible drive, curiosity and thirst for learning. Of all the coaches I was fortunate enough to spend time with over my six years, Steve was the one who would come to me most and talk, ask and challenge what I say. He would regularly sit with me and have a cup of tea to talk.

"He is very approachable. He takes time to get to know players, understand them and know them as people rather than just players. That’s the key that opens the lock for player development.

"I went to see him at Forest recently and he still has that connection with his players, his office door is open and the training ground is set up so players walk past his door.

"He makes sure he has time in the morning just to talk with his players, not just on the training field, he likes to sit and talk with them. 

"There might be other coaches with a similar knowledge of the game but the differentiation might be how you relate to them, make them tick and get the best out of them."

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Given he's held in such high esteem, it's remarkable to think now that Cooper was greeted with scepticism after leaving youth football to work in the senior game.

Indeed, after leaving his role at the FA take over at Swansea, whom he subsequently led to back-to-back appearances in the Championship play-offs, his appointment was viewed as a risk.

"There are coaches who were hugely undervalued in the system and Coops would be one of them," Reddin adds.

"Swansea might have thought at the time that they were taking a chance on him but the people who knew him knew that they weren’t. 

"It was the perception from the outside that he was a gamble as he came from youth football, the media and social media were not kind to him.

"But with his quality, you see what’s possible. There are other Steve Coopers out there who are not being given a chance."

Cooper has since revived Forest, one of the English game's sleeping giants, in a matter of months and now the City Ground is one of the most vibrant stadiums in the country.

The former European champions can boast of a team full of talented youngsters like Brennan Johnson, James Garner and Djed Spence.

Huddersfield finished one place, and two points, above Forest in the regular-season standings. So, winning at Wembley, and securing the £135 million ($170m) in extra revenue that comes with Premier League promotion will not be easy. 

With Cooper in the dugout, though, they have every chance of pulling off.