Steve Cook

Teams like Man C, Man U are in a similar position to us, albeit at a higher level, in having two good players for every position. We don’t hear them complaining much as they have a good chance of winning things. Much like us with the Championship title this year hopefully. With this squad it is unlikely that we will have many plausible excuses if we don’t go up. (Of finish top 3)
Good comparison, I would imagine supporters of those clubs value the success and winning as much as anyone, but there just something unexplainably better when you can also achieve success with a young that's come through the club to make it.

Nonetheless they have their fair share of disruption regarding players not happy to not be playing. The difference for them is normally more cup and European games to make use of that depth. Last time I checked we were dumped out of one cup no where near Europe.
 
... and so we go full circle, back to the arguments for having a better academy status to keep players like Zeno playing against better opposition...

I guess everyone needs to buy into the squad thing though, as tough is it is for players not involved to be 'pumped' when we win still.

Having tasted first team football for several weeks, Ibsen-Rossi, Kilkenny, Anthony and Zemura will all need to be kept happy or we'll lose them... Which some would argue, well, if they're not good enough then they're not good enough... But these are home grown players... players that cost us next to nothing, if not nothing and our current time, when we are seemingly not spending money, we can't afford for these players to walk away for next to nothing...

We are spending though, if not large on fews, certainly on wages. I imagine we have one of tge highest wage bills in the division.

We have to trust the management, if a players not playing, it's probably because he's not good enough at this moment in time, or close to being good enough. We don't owe anyone a chance. It's up for them to take it, or move on, as we've seen happen many times over the years... last time I checked, none have exceeded where we are now?
 
Parker confirms in an interview today that Steve Cook is well down the pecking order now.
Find that very odd if true tbh.
Cook has been injured since Parker’s arrival, so he hasn’t had a proper look at him when fit (I’m sure he has watched a lot of games mind)
We all know Cook has some clangers and lapses of concentration in him, and imo isn’t a premier league CB, but he is still potentially a very good Championship CB. Add to that his competition has shown even worse composure and concentration (Mepham and Kelly), and it all seems quite strange the new manager is already seemingly writing him off…
 
Find that very odd if true tbh.
Cook has been injured since Parker’s arrival, so he hasn’t had a proper look at him when fit (I’m sure he has watched a lot of games mind)
We all know Cook has some clangers and lapses of concentration in him, and imo isn’t a premier league CB, but he is still potentially a very good Championship CB. Add to that his competition has shown even worse composure and concentration (Mepham and Kelly), and it all seems quite strange the new manager is already seemingly writing him off…
I'm not so sure that Parker has written him off. It just seemed to coincide with Parkers arrival that there were stories of Cookie moving on. If Parkers true to his word and will only play people who want to be at the club then maybe there is something in this. From the management point of view it could be seen as Cookie didn't want to play for the club and didn't want to play for the new management.
 
Looks like they want him to move on so they can get some money rather than him leaving as a free agent. Their personalities may not fit either. Who knows what's gone on? They should still treat Cookie right, though.
 
Looks like they want him to move on so they can get some money rather than him leaving as a free agent. Their personalities may not fit either. Who knows what's gone on? They should still treat Cookie right, though.

Which we may be doing, but seeing as he's been earmarked to leave (wages, doesn;t fit in with Parkers new style or combination of both), it's not a complete surprise if he finds himself near bottom of pecking order and good chance he'll only see limited game time between now and January.
 
It's up to him how he reacts to this. In these situations I always think of the Beckham at Real Madrid situation where he took being sidelined without any public complaint, got his head down, worked like crazy in training and was eventually called upon by Capello. He then really impressed on the pitch and Capello wanted to keep him but it was too late as he'd already signed a deal to join LA Galaxy.

Hopefully Cook responds in a similar fashion.
 
Couldn’t see him sitting up with the other players in the main stand, could see Stanislas, L.cook, Davis, Dennis, Rossi and Kilkenny. My eyesight isn’t what it used to be though.
 

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