Steve Cooper says his full focus is on securing a result with Nottingham Forest as he prepares for a trip to familiar territory.
On Saturday, the Reds boss will head back to Swansea City for the first time since he left the club in July.
Cooper played down any suggestions of it being an emotional return to the Liberty Stadium, when speaking in his pre-match press conference.
Although he says he reflects fondly on his two years with the Swans, in which he twice led them into the Championship play-offs, he insists “everyone has moved on”.
“I’m not trying to underplay anything, but I’m just giving an honest view - I’m just really focused on the game for what it’s worth, whoever we were playing on Saturday,” he said.
“I understand the questions, but I am genuinely not feeling like that.
“I’ll say again, I’m very grateful for my two years at Swansea and what it gave me, and how I was treated. That will never, ever change.
“But in terms of the game on Saturday, it is a game we are very much in the normal preparation mode for. That takes up my thinking. That’s my frame of mind anyway.
“I’m just focused on the game. I was very fond of the players, very fond of the staff, and had some excellent relationships.
“The supporters, okay, I didn’t see loads of them all the time because of the pandemic, but the ones who I did have interaction with or who sent letters, were excellent with me. I appreciate that.
“However, I’m here now. Everyone has moved on.
“It feels longer ago than what it actually is, because that’s just what football does to you.
“I’m just really focused on trying to get another positive result here.”
Forest head to Wales on a seven-match unbeaten run, and having only lost once since Cooper was appointed in September.
The aim is to replicate his previous top six success, with the Reds as ambitious as ever to get into the Premier League.
“We didn’t quite achieve what we ended up setting out to do. But I look back positively,” Cooper said of his stint at Swansea.
“I look back positively on all the jobs I’ve done, to be fair, even before Swansea.
“It helps you as a person, and it helps you as a professional; you try to take whatever you learnt into the next part of your journey.
“Swansea was a chapter of it, but so was the FA and stuff before that as well.
“But I try to look forward.
“I’m just focused on the game. Championship games are ones you have to prepare for in different ways. We are treating this no differently.
“It’s an away game, a tough game - like all these Championship games are. My mindset is just really on the normal process of working with the players here, and trying to be as best prepared as we can be for the next game.”
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