Cotterill Confirms Forest Move

Last updated : 14 October 2011 By Jim Bonner

Steve Cotterill has confirmed that he will be leaving Portsmouth to join Nottingham Forest after the clubs agreed a reported £250,000 for his services.

The 47-year-old is poised to sign a three-and-a-half year contract with the Reds who currently lie in 21st position in the Championship. He described the exit as "emotional" and he said "I have a fantastic relationship with the people at this football club and I will miss it."

I will be honest and say that I never expected this to happen at the start of the week. When I spoke to Steve at the fans' forum last month he came across as someone who wanted to stay with Pompey in the long term and oversee a transformation of our club.

However, after bumping into him at a service station after the dire defeat at Hull, he looked like a broken man who was feeling the pressure. With more poor results following that one it could be said that despite the owners' backing, a bad performance against Barnsley would have seen him get sacked.

With Forest coming in with an offer to take him back to a place where he already has a house, it makes sense both for the guys at CSI and Cotterill himself for this move to happen. It's as if Steve jumped (albeit into a high profile job) before he was pushed.

I personally believe it was time for Cotterill to go. As a Pompey fan I was frustrated with having to endure turgid "Cotterball" in predictable games where our team would perform terribly in the first half and then improve in the second half only for that to be too little, too late.

Watching Pompey play had become a chore and whilst I don't expect the team to play like Barcelona, there is enough ability in the team to play some attractive football that can win games. Now that Cotterill is gone, perhaps we will now see Pompey play some good football.

If there are any Forest fans reading this, then your club has appointed a manager who is good (but not great) in the transfer market when working with a tight budget and he can get the players motivated to a degree.

However, his football philosophy make no sense (kiss goodbye to 4-4-2), his tactical decisions are baffling, his media management is questionable and you will get stiff necks watching his style of football. A good majority of Pompey fans are glad to see the back of him.

However, whilst many of us are happy to see him leave after such a poor run of results which stretches back to March last season, we shouldn't forget that he did a great job in reviving Pompey's fortunes and leading the club to a respectable finish despite all the previous turmoil under Chainrai's ownership.

But now it is time to look forward and David Lampitt has confirmed that Stuart Gray and Guy Whittingham will take charge of the team for tomorrow's match with Barnsley.

As for a long-term replacement, Sean O'Driscoll, Dave Jones and Avram Grant are the bookies' early favourites to replace Cotterill. The speculation will no doubt go on into the next week and that is for another article!

For now, I would like to thank Steve Cotterill for his early work at Portsmouth and wish him well at Nottingham Forest where expectations will undoubtedly be higher.