Cook sacked | Page 2 | Vital Football

Cook sacked

Tree and Crown said:
He was one of the rats that left the sinking ship, no sympathy from me.

Richardson stayed loyal!
Click to expand...

You've got to remember he was supposedly our top earner on 18k or something mad like that and we were in admin and struggling to scrape together 1.5k a week to sign freebies to have 11 players on the pitch.

If he didn't quit when he did, admin would've had to negotiate a pay off for him to go as his wages were no longer affordable.

But he quit and walked away with nothing which saved us a lot of money and that saving was crucial to keeping us going at the time.

He was entitled to probably hundreds of thousands in a pay off, he would've almost certainly got something if he didn't jump and waited for the inevitable push but he effectively left that money in the club.

He's not a rat deserting a sinking ship - he did the honourable thing and it cost him a lot of money personally.
 
NorthernSoul said:
Not the best squad for me. Signed about 6 quality number 10s to fight for 1 spot, completely neglected the defence and keepers and the squad is lopsided. They have a great centre midfield selection and good strikers but too many weaknesses in that team.

Much prefer ours balanced throughout with 2 good players in each position.

Must say having stuck with him after their awful start the last 2 months league wise has been much better.

I remember when Paul Jewell joined, we got a brand new squad which looked great but we were nearer the relegation zone by Christmas and got knocked out the FA Cup at home to Canvey Island but the decision not to sack was proven to be inspirational by what happened next 3 seasons.

Unless they have a top manager lined up the timing looks strange and when you have a player coming out criticising another staff member in interfering with playing duties going against Cook, then somethings not right at the club.

Also can see a few of their players being mightily pissed off being really close to Cook and not wanting to stick around next month. Morsy for one shouldn't be at this level and Evans made a big decision relocate having just had baby all because of Cook.
Click to expand...

They've got a pretty decent defence and goal keeping department too so I wouldn't say the those are weaknesses but I would agree that their recruitment was lob sided.

I think the thing that killed Cook was after they gave him the benefit of the doubt over his diabolical start they thought they'd turned the corner but they played 5 of the promotion pack in the last month, lost 3 drew 1 and only won 1 - I think that run needed to show there was light at the end of the tunnel and it showed they were still miles off. I imagine since then it was just waiting for the next bad result to be the final straw.

What is this about the player and staff member? I'd not heard of that.
 
Tree and Crown said:
Ipswich didnt tolerate his incompetence so i was proved right.
Stop the smart arse replies pal it doesnt suit you!
Click to expand...

You are trying to take credit for a prediction that was stating the obvious.

Ipswichs goal last season was play offs and he failed, their goal this season was top 2 and they backed him to the hilt outspending everyone - of course being 11th isn't tolerated and resulted in a sacking.
 
king_dezeeuw06 said:
You are trying to take credit for a prediction that was stating the obvious.

Ipswichs goal last season was play offs and he failed, their goal this season was top 2 and they backed him to the hilt outspending everyone - of course being 11th isn't tolerated and resulted in a sacking.
Click to expand...

So Ipswich didnt tolerate his incompetence as long as we did, isnt that what i said?
 
In football management some managers are the complete package and have a coaching staff that is somewhat interchangeable, while others are limited in various aspects of the game but are good leaders who assemble a strong team around them that collectively cover all the bases.

I think it's become quite apparent that Cook was the later and his success was a coaching team effort with Richardson, Barry, Meace, Proctor and Colgan being integral rather than just supporting parts to him.

There is absolutely no shame in that as I imagine that is what most managers do - you can't always be great at everything so it's just a case of making sure you recruit the expertise you need across your staff. The issue that did Cook in was his complete inability to replace the expertise lost and without them his limitations where exposed badly.

He had Gary Roberts who had no coaching experience, our former kit man and Francis Jeffers who had no coaching experience above Everton u23s. I'm not sure if Cook over estimated his own ability or if he prioritised friends over experience or something else but it was asking for trouble.

You compare that to who Richardson went out and got in for us and it's night and day. Richardson brought in people with much better experience than him to make his pool of knowledge deeper - If he was weak at something you knew one of his staff would've had it covered. While if Cook had an area of weakness he would be turning to people with far less experience or know how than himself.

Cook was often accused of nepotism by always hiring his friends and looking at his coaching staff it seems to suggest that could've been his downfall at Ipswich. As surely no one open to brining in the best people for the job would've gone in to Ipswich with that coaching team based on ability and experience.

I think if Cook hired our staff and Richardson hired Cooks we'd probably be the one's sitting in mid table after a stinking start and Ipswich would be at the top. I think Cook set himself up to succeed on the pitch with his signings but set himself up to fail with his recruitment for his staff.
 
Tree and Crown said:
So Ipswich didnt tolerate his incompetence as long as we did, isnt that what i said?
Click to expand...

When we were in Ipswich's position in L1 - aiming to win the league, outspending everyone, etc - he won us the league. There was no incompetence.

In the Championship we were playing at a higher level and weren't the big spenders so completely different scenario.
 
king_dezeeuw06 said:
In football management some managers are the complete package and have a coaching staff that is somewhat interchangeable, while others are limited in various aspects of the game but are good leaders who assemble a strong team around them that collectively cover all the bases.

I think it's become quite apparent that Cook was the later and his success was a coaching team effort with Richardson, Barry, Meace, Proctor and Colgan being integral rather than just supporting parts to him.

There is absolutely no shame in that as I imagine that is what most managers do - you can't always be great at everything so it's just a case of making sure you recruit the expertise you need across your staff. The issue that did Cook in was his complete inability to replace the expertise lost and without them his limitations where exposed badly.

He had Gary Roberts who had no coaching experience, our former kit man and Francis Jeffers who had no coaching experience above Everton u23s. I'm not sure if Cook over estimated his own ability or if he prioritised friends over experience or something else but it was asking for trouble.

You compare that to who Richardson went out and got in for us and it's night and day. Richardson brought in people with much better experience than him to make his pool of knowledge deeper - If he was weak at something you knew one of his staff would've had it covered. While if Cook had an area of weakness he would be turning to people with far less experience or know how than himself.

Cook was often accused of nepotism by always hiring his friends and looking at his coaching staff it seems to suggest that could've been his downfall at Ipswich. As surely no one open to brining in the best people for the job would've gone in to Ipswich with that coaching team based on ability and experience.

I think if Cook hired our staff and Richardson hired Cooks we'd probably be the one's sitting in mid table after a stinking start and Ipswich would be at the top. I think Cook set himself up to succeed on the pitch with his signings but set himself up to fail with his recruitment for his staff.
Click to expand...
Cook will get a huge payoff so good luck but won't cry for him.
Just (if possible)elevates Leam to the next level - we massively lucked in here !
 
Tree and Crown said:
He was one of the rats that left the sinking ship, no sympathy from me.

Richardson stayed loyal!
Click to expand...
Had Cook got the Ipswich job or any other job about two months earlier, Richardson would have gone. We got very lucky with the timing. Don’t make Leam out like some hero that never would have left otherwise.
 
Hampton said:
Wouldn't be surprised (and delighted) if he's back to get us over the line come Jan
Click to expand...
As brilliant (and fitting) as that would be, we couldn't afford his wages. I believe he's getting well over 15k a week at Ipswich, more than what he was on at Middlesbrough. That and Cook personally begging him to join were the two reasons he went there. So I think any new manager will be forced to use him and rightly so, because he's far too good for this league.
 
C_Latic said:
Had Cook got the Ipswich job or any other job about two months earlier, Richardson would have gone. We got very lucky with the timing. Don’t make Leam out like some hero that never would have left otherwise.
Click to expand...

Sometimes all you need in life is that little bit of luck - & given what had happened 12 months earlier, maybe everything was meant to happen this way.
 
king_dezeeuw06 said:
You've got to remember he was supposedly our top earner on 18k or something mad like that and we were in admin and struggling to scrape together 1.5k a week to sign freebies to have 11 players on the pitch.

If he didn't quit when he did, admin would've had to negotiate a pay off for him to go as his wages were no longer affordable.

But he quit and walked away with nothing which saved us a lot of money and that saving was crucial to keeping us going at the time.

He was entitled to probably hundreds of thousands in a pay off, he would've almost certainly got something if he didn't jump and waited for the inevitable push but he effectively left that money in the club.

He's not a rat deserting a sinking ship - he did the honourable thing and it cost him a lot of money personally.
Click to expand...

He could have taken a pay cut and stayed. If he had, he might have had a stand named after him now.
 
He'll be sat there moaning about it being an unforgiving league and brushing him self off ready to go again whilst supping a few pints of Lager surrounded by his boys and realising he is now part of the sacked manager club.
Remainder of the contract paid off and banked making him an overnight millionaire with the pressure turned off. Merry Christmas Mr Cook . A few months of absoloute luxury then knocking on the door of his next league one club.
 
pie eater said:
He could have taken a pay cut and stayed. If he had, he might have had a stand named after him now.
Click to expand...

A 90% pay cut to see your team ripped apart and working with both hands tied behind your back is not very appealing. Cooks stock at the time was high and there were multiple championship jobs he could realistically be a contender for so he made the sensible choice 99% of people in his position would do - try and get a new job. But it didn't work out for him.

After his disappointing spell at Accrington Richardson had no real prospect of getting a another managers job in L1 - he had nothing to lose by stepping in as a manager and potentially a lot to gain if he did well enough - he has reaped the benefits. But if he had an offer of management at a L1 or Championship like Cook believed he had Richardson would've almost certainly gone.

That's not a critasism of Richardson that's just what anyone in that position would do - football is a hard game and you've got to do what's best for your career and family. Richardson saw an opportunity to get a second chance at management at this level he wasn't going to get any other way and it worked out for him.

Richardson and Cook both did what they believed was in their best interests in regards to having the best possible opportunity to manage at the highest level they could. If the roles were reversed I suspect Richardson would've gone and Cook stayed. So while Cook had plenty of things we could critasise over the years I don't think it's reasonable to have expected him to stay under the circumstances or be ungrateful he walked away without hundreds of thousands he was possibly due.
 
Last edited:
The writing was on the wall for Cooky when Leam took the Latics job. I'm convinced we wouldn't be up near the top had Leam followed Cook and Ipswich would be above us. In LR we have a great coach who probably was the reason Cooky was a success.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.