Cotterill rules himself out of Forest job running

Steve Cotterill has ended speculation linking him with a dramatic return to Nottingham Forest.

Cotterill, 47, was sacked last week by the club’s new Kuwaiti owners, but since then every other manager in England has turned down the role, leaving the former-Portsmouth boss as bookies’ favourite to take over from himself.

However, Cotterill has today declared that he is not interested in the job.

He said: “I would have considered it, but since Luke Chambers, Joel Lynch and Chris Gunter left the club, they are seriously short of defenders.

“I spent most of last season teaching these lads how to lump the ball forward with as little accuracy as possible and I don’t think it would be possible to achieve the same standard with new players in the time available.”

It is thought that Cotterill met the Al-Hasawi brothers for preliminary talks, but was not happy with their vision for how they wanted the club run.

Cotterill commented: “I’m a traditional kind of manager. They were using all kinds of modern jargon like ‘passing’ and I’m simply not comfortable with that.

“I don’t think I could do my job with those kinds of conditions in place.”

The Al-Hasawis are now expected to ask Jamaal Lascelles to become player-manager as they view this as the only way to stop him signing for Arsenal.