TOM COLLOMOSSE: Nottingham Forest MUST back Steve Cooper this summer

Clear heads were scarce by the River Trent the day after Nottingham Forest secured their Premier League status against Arsenal, but they will be vital if the club is to build on this achievement.

Manager Steve Cooper will be holding talks with owner Evangelos Marinakis over the next few days to plan the way forward and it’s critical that both agree when those talks are finalized.

Because make no mistake, Forest’s future is at stake. Cooper loves this club as much as the fans love him, but the Welshman deserves a calm working environment, without the off-field chaos that has been the backdrop to the season.

As the owner of 47-time Greek champions Olympiacos, Marinakis demands success and he and his staff must be sure that Cooper is the man to turn them into an established Premier League club. Looking elsewhere would be a big mistake. Just as players develop, Cooper improves as a manager and should be trusted.

Cooper came close to firing at least twice, and other managers were polled in both October and April. If he chose to look elsewhere at the end of the season, no one could blame him.

Amid interest from Crystal Palace and other clubs, Forest cannot let him slip through their fingers as he and Marinakis deserve credit for what Forest have delivered.

Cooper showed excellent man management to create unity in a group that barely recognized each other last summer, with 30 players signed during the season.

Marinakis knew he had to spend money to keep Forest afloat and while some of the purchases were bad, the good ones made all the difference.

Morgan Gibbs-White, Taiwo Awoniyi, Danilo, Felipe and Renan Lodi cost nearly £70 million together and, along with homegrown stars Brennan Johnson and Ryan Yates, are likely to have tipped the balance between survival and relegation.

Still, a lot needs to change. Firing three senior recruiting officers and a chief executive – still not replaced – during the season is not what Forest craves for status.

“Alignment is what the best clubs and organizations have from top to bottom,” said Cooper. It is certainly necessary for a club to succeed.

“So much has changed that has happened and it must continue to happen, if only because of the uniqueness of our situation. Maybe promotion was a surprise.

“Then there was a rapid turnaround to the start of the Premier League and there were a lot of things that no one has seen behind the scenes.

“It’s about putting everything together to become what we want to be. I am very happy that we can continue that journey in the Premier League.”

It is unlikely to see the dizzying level of transfer activity that has characterized the last two windows, and Forest could decide they need to sell a key asset to fund this summer’s work.

Johnson is rightfully a hero to supporters, but he hasn’t been in the starting eleven of late and has admirers across the league. As an academy product, any transfer fee can be deposited as pure profit.

Forest would do anything to switch places with Arsenal, but there is a lot of self-examination ahead in North London.

Eight points clear in April, Mikel Arteta’s side blew it off spectacularly, facing more allegations of mental fragility in the toughest moments. “We’ve had a great season but we have to take the next step because next season will be much more difficult,” admitted Gunners midfielder Granit Xhaka.