Nottingham Forest boss Steve Cooper admits Man Utd loanee Dean Henderson was NOT on transfer wishlist this summer
STEVE COOPER spent over £125million on 16 players for Forest in a frenzied summer transfer season — and missed out on many more.
Morgan Gibbs-White was the latest buy to be scanned and bundled into Cooper’s groaning shopping trolley on Friday after completing his £25million move to the City Ground – which could rise to £42.5million with add-ons.
Yet the Prem’s busiest boss admits there was one glaring omission from his huge shopping list when he started this summer’s supermarket sweep.
Dean Henderson’s name NEVER made the Welshman’s wanted list when he began compiling it with his recruitment team last season.
Now the Manchester United loanee, 25, could have Forest’s fate in his gloves this season after saving Declan Rice’s penalty to earn Forest their first win last week.
However, ahead of Saturday’s trip to Everton, Cooper confessed his No 1 would not have been in his top 50 targets when he drew up his original bumper blueprint.
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Cooper said: “It’s wishful thinking to believe you live in an ideal world.
Plan A rarely happens and sometimes you get little surprises when a player unexpectedly pops up out of nowhere.
“Dean for example. We didn’t think last year that we would lose Brice Samba.
“And we certainly didn’t think if Brice was to go that we’d replace him with Dean. But, when the opportunity arises, you deal with it.”
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Henderson goes head-to-head with England rival Jordan Pickford at Goodison Park on Saturday, with one eye firmly on the World Cup.
Cooper added: “He obviously played well last week and caught the eye and with him being a Manchester United player there are obviously more eyes on him.
“But I don’t want him to be saving penalties and having to make world class saves every week!”