Doughty, who recently stepped down as chairman at the City Ground, used his programme notes ahead of Cotterill's first game in charge against Middlesbrough to reveal he is preparing to sell up.
But Cotterill, who got his reign off to a winning start with a 2-0 victory, is not giving up on the prospect of the lifelong Forest fan performing a U-turn. He said: "I've had that many owners in the last 12 to 18 months that another one doesn't bother me."
He added: "What you have to do is try to put all that to bed and be professional. But if it happens that Nigel Doughty sells the club then I am powerless to stop it.
"It looks as if I have got two years or so to woo him and I want to make him fall in love with the game all over again. I want to give him, as a Forest fan, everything he has craved.
"If I cannot do that, then I know he is a good man. He has been chairman at the club for 10 years and there are a lot of clubs out there that would give their right arm to have a chairman like him.
"If he does decide to sell, I am sure he will make sure he lets it go to people who have the best interests of the club at heart. There is no way he will let it go into the wrong hands."
Doughty has spent the last decade investing in excess of £80million in the club, but impending financial fair play regulations for the npower Championship have convinced him it is time end his association with Forest and instruct City bankers Seymour Pierce to look for new investment and owners.
He has vowed to honour the contracts agreed under his tenure for the next two years.
Source: PA
Source: PA