Steve Cooper enjoying Nottingham Forest spending spree

Nottingham Forest boss Steve Cooper insists an “exciting challenge” lies ahead after a complete revamp of his promoted squad.

Forest ended their 23-year Premier League exile last season and have responded by making wholesale changes in a bid to stave off an immediate return to the second-tier Championship.

Morgan Gibbs-White is poised to become their 16th summer signing after they agreed a £25 million fee, which could rise to over £40m, with Wolves for the midfielder.

Cooper said of his City Ground overhaul: “Well we’re enjoying it that’s for sure and we’re certainly facing up to it because it’s a reality.

“We’re not seeing it as a negative and not seeing it as a disadvantage because if you see it like that then you’re already on a downer with it. So we’re enjoying it.”

The former England Under-17s and Swansea boss added: “I’ve worked in international football when you get two or three days to try and put a team together to play in a European qualifier or tournament, with a group of players from different clubs in different parts of the country.

“So that’s an exciting challenge and for me it’s a great experience, a new experience at club level, to be able to do this.”

Gibbs-White, 22, is set to be reunited with Cooper after spending the first half of the 2020/21 season on loan at Swansea when the latter was in charge.

Forest completed their 15th summer signing last weekend following the arrivals of Emmanuel Dennis, Cheikhou Kouyate and Remo Freuler, who could all be in contention for Saturday’s Premier League game at Everton.

Jesse Lingard, Dean Henderson and Taiwo Awoniyi had been among the club’s new arrivals earlier this summer.

Cooper added: “Quite rightly I get asked every week by people about the amount of players coming in and I completely understand that. It’s the right question to ask.

“But we had no alternative. It was inevitable. We were getting prepared for it for a long while and we’re still in that process.

“All we can do is keep trying to build layers day by day, in the way that we work and behave.”

150 summer transfers - in pictures

Forest were bottom of the Championship when they appointed Cooper as Chris Hughton’s permanent successor in September 2021.

The following May they beat Huddersfield in the play-off final to trigger a summer spending spree that will not end with the pending arrival of Gibbs-White.

Cooper added: “I definitely think there will be some more ins and outs. I don’t know who, or how many, which is obviously the next question.

“But there’s still the best part of a couple of weeks to go (before the transfer window closes) and a lot can still happen.”

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Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.

Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.

“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.

Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.

“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.

Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.

From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.

Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.

BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.

Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.

Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.

“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.

Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.

“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.

“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”

The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”

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Engine 60kwh FWD

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Steve Smith (capt), David Warner, Cameron Bancroft, Jackson Bird, Pat Cummins, Peter Handscomb, Josh Hazlewood, Usman Khawaja, Nathan Lyon, Shaun Marsh, Tim Paine, Chadd Sayers, Mitchell Starc.

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UAE: Thunder Snow/Saeed bin Suroor (trainer), North America/Satish Seemar, Drafted/Doug Watson, New Trails/Ahmad bin Harmash, Capezzano, Gronkowski, Axelrod, all trained by Salem bin Ghadayer

USA: Seeking The Soul/Dallas Stewart, Imperial Hunt/Luis Carvajal Jr, Audible/Todd Pletcher, Roy H/Peter Miller, Yoshida/William Mott, Promises Fulfilled/Dale Romans, Gunnevera/Antonio Sano, XY Jet/Jorge Navarro, Pavel/Doug O’Neill, Switzerland/Steve Asmussen.

Japan: Matera Sky/Hideyuki Mori, KT Brace/Haruki Sugiyama. Bahrain: Nine Below Zero/Fawzi Nass. Ireland: Tato Key/David Marnane. Hong Kong: Fight Hero/Me Tsui. South Korea: Dolkong/Simon Foster.

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The insured employee may still file an ILOE claim even if a labour dispute is ongoing post termination, but the insurer may suspend or reject payment, until the courts resolve the dispute, especially if the reason for termination is contested. The outcome of the labour court proceedings can directly affect eligibility.

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Fixtures:

Wed Aug 29 – Malaysia v Hong Kong, Nepal v Oman, UAE v Singapore
Thu Aug 30 - UAE v Nepal, Hong Kong v Singapore, Malaysia v Oman
Sat Sep 1 - UAE v Hong Kong, Oman v Singapore, Malaysia v Nepal
Sun Sep 2 – Hong Kong v Oman, Malaysia v UAE, Nepal v Singapore
Tue Sep 4 - Malaysia v Singapore, UAE v Oman, Nepal v Hong Kong
Thu Sep 6 – Final

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Most wins by a horse: Godolphin’s Thunder Snow(2)

Steve Cooper enjoying Nottingham Forest spending spree

Morgan Gibbs-White is poised to become their 16th summer signing after they agreed a £25 million fee

150 summer transfers - in pictures

On Women's Day

Infiniti QX80 specs

About Proto21

UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets

The specs

Latest on coronavirus

AUSTRALIA SQUAD

The Gandhi Murder

The specs

The specs: 2019 Lincoln MKC

Dubai World Cup nominations

Labour dispute

Fixtures:

Dubai&nbsp;World&nbsp;Cup&nbsp;factbox

Dubai World Cup factbox