Senior Nottingham Forest trio feature in friendly defeat, Cooper wants to get rid of all three

Nottingham Forest made three senior professionals play for a B-Team this afternoon against Stevenage. The Reds have several players that they’re looking to ship and some aren’t even training with Steve Cooper’s squad.

This afternoon, Jonjo Shelvey, Steve Cook and Harry Arter were all involved as a Reds XI were beaten 2-0 by the League One outfit. All three players are unfancied by Cooper and are available for transfer.

Shelvey’s omission is the most intriguing. He only signed for the Reds in January but was banished from the senior ranks after just eight games in the Garibaldi.

The 31-year-old had a disagreement with Cooper ahead of a game with Liverpool. He was poor against Aston Villa in the previous outing and wasn’t happy after being told he’d only made the bench at Anfield.

Cook has served Forest well since arriving in January 2022. He proved integral as the Reds won promotion to the Premier League and he was a regular in the team for the first half of last season.

He went from one end of the scale to the other, however, and wasn’t even registered for the second half. Felipe’s arrival meant he was deemed surplus to requirements as far as the 25-man squad was concerned.

Arter has been robbing the club of a wage for some years. He was added ahead of the 2020/21 campaign but after just 14 games, he found himself out of the reckoning and now does some coaching behind the scenes.

Three senior Forest players play during B-Team defeat

This doesn’t come as a major surprise but highlights just how much work Forest have to do this summer. All three players aren’t part of Cooper’s squad and the alarming aspect is that there are plenty more!

Shelvey was a bizarre signing anyway. His arrival meant that Lewis O’Brien was farmed out on loan and it’s fair to say that Forest should have persisted with the man who has just returned from D.C. United.

Cook has simply fallen foul to circumstances ultimately. Forest now have a number of central defenders at the club and sadly for him, his days as a Premier League player are probably past him.

He will leave the club with the utmost respect, however. He played his part in the club’s promotion but the sooner the club offloads Arter and Shelvey the better it will be for everyone involved.