For the first time in 23 years, Nottingham Forest will be a Premier League football club when the 2022-23 season gets underway in August.

With the Reds bottom of the Championship when he took over in September, Steve Cooper has masterminded a promotion success for Forest, who triumphed at Wembley on Sunday afternoon by defeating Huddersfield Town 1-0 in the play-off final.

It has been a long time coming for Forest and the City Ground will host top flight football once again, and a major man to thank for that is Evangelos Marinakis.

The Forest owner, who is also the chairman of Greek giants Olympiakos, backed Cooper in the January transfer window, with the arrivals of Keinan Davis, Steve Cook and Sam Surridge in particular bolstering Cooper's squad ahead of the final few months of the campaign.

And at the presentation of Forest's play-off winning trophy in the city centre on Monday afternoon, Marinakis made a promise to back Cooper with what he needs to make sure the Tricky Trees don't spend just one solitary season in the upper echelons of English football.

"This team belongs in the Premier League," Marinakis said, per BBC Nottingham

"From the very beginning this was not an investment. It was a passion.

"We will give all the ammunition to Steve for the new season to be able to be very competitive and to try, not only to maintain the position in the Premier League, but also to perform well.

"The sky is the limit."

The Verdict

There are very exciting times ahead for Nottingham Forest - both on and off the pitch.

Premier League football is now secured and there could be a domino effect following that, with the likes of Joe Worrall and Brennan Johnson being able to be kept around.

Promotion though also means a lot of television money rolling into the bank account at the City Ground, and that is going to give Steve Cooper a chance to sign the likes of Djed Spence permanently.

Marinakis already backed Cooper midway through the 2021-22 season and it looks like the Welshman is going to be backed in an even bigger and better way this summer.