Footballer and one of Aberdeen's 'Gothenburg Giants'
Born: November 2, 1963
Died: May 28, 2018
NEALE James Cooper, who has died aged 54, was a footballer best known as one of Aberdeen's “Gothenburg Giants”, the team which won the European Cup Winners Cup in 1983.
It is perhaps ironic that Cooper, the “baby” of that great team, should be the first to die, but he was also, arguably the least lucky of the side.
Born in Darjeeling, India, while his father was managing a tea plantation, he was raised in Aberdeen when his parents returned to the city, attending Airyhill Primary and Hazlehead Academy, where his precocious talent brought him to the attention of Aberdeen, for whom he signed straight from school. He made his debut, as a 16-year-old, against Kilmarnock, and was a first-team regular from the start of season 1981-82.
He had been a central defender, but, with Alex McLeish and Willie Miller cemented into those two places in the team, Alex Ferguson converted him into a holding midfielder, the slot he mainly filled during his Aberdeen career. These were glory years under “Furious Fergie” as the Dons won two Premier Division titles, four Scottish Cups, one League Cup, plus, we must never forget the Cup Winners Cup and the European Super Cup. Some Dons fans rank Cooper's memorable goal, smashed into an empty Rangers net in a 4-1, extra-time Scottish Cup victory, as the moment “The Dandy Dons” under Ferguson began to believe.
He was allegedly – an accolade later to be passed onto Darren Fletcher at Manchester United - “Teacher's Pet”, and mercilessly ribbed by his fellow players, because, since he passed the bus stop where Cooper would be waiting in the mornings, Ferguson would often give the youngster a lift to training.
Mind you, the player/manager relationship was not always good; Ferguson “persuaded” Cooper to move back home to his mother, when reports reached him that the young talent was perhaps enjoying the freedom of his own flat in Aberdeen a bit too much. Later, Cooper would reflect that Fergie over-played him and the other young players in the Aberdeen side.
Amazingly, for such a precocious talent – he was “capped” 13 times by Andy Roxburgh in the Scotland Under-21 side – Cooper never won a full Scotland cap. He is, however, in every football anorak's squad of The Best Uncapped Scottish Players.
After nearly 200 games for the Dons, in the summer of 1986, Cooper left Aberdeen for the riches of England, and Aston Villa. This was not a happy move. Injuries were now starting to conflict on his talent and he played only 20 league games during two years at Villa Park.
It was here he met and married his wife Sally, who survives him with their three children – one of whom, son Alex, has followed his father into professional football. Sadly, the marriage later failed. In 1988, Graeme Souness recruited him to Rangers, but his injury woes continued and he made only 17 league appearances in two seasons at Ibrox.
His Rangers' debut was in the notorious “Durrant/Simpson match” and Cooper himself always felt it was the fact he, a Gothenburg legend, would be turning out against the Dons which contributed to the “poisonous atmosphere” inside Pittodrie that afternoon.
He failed to rediscover his fitness and form in a short-lived return to Aberdeen, in which he failed to make a single first-team appearance, and it was only after another short-lived spell in England, that his fitness returned and, in the calmer waters of the Scottish First Division, with Dunfermline Athletic, he enjoyed five relatively good years, including promotion to the Premier Division in his final campaign at East End Park, in 1996.
He then began his coaching and managerial career, at Ross County. He did well in two seasons at Victoria Park, although it was during this period that his marriage problems surfaced. He then went to Hartlepool United, reaching the Division Two promotion play-offs in his first season, and taking the club to the verge of the play-offs again in his second, before “personal and family issues” caused his sudden resignation.
He quickly returned to football at Gillingham, to little success and he was out of the game for nearly a year, before returning to Scotland as assistant to Steve Paterson, at Peterhead, before replacing “the Highland Pele” and taking the Blue Toon to the promotion play-offs.
A dip in form saw him leave, and return to Hartlepool, who were struggling somewhat, where he initiated a successful youth policy, which brought forth some excellent young players, and turned things around, before a dip in form saw him depart. He remains, however, highly thought of in the town, with the Hartlepool Mail, in reporting his death saying: “With a 44 per cent winning average as boss, he is arguably 'Pool's greatest manager.” Remember, this is the club where Brian Clough started off his managerial career.
He then returned to Ross County, to assist Derek Adams, before leaving football again in 2014. Since then he had been working for Saltire Energy in Aberdeen and forging a considerable reputation on the after-dinner speaking circuit.
The always gregarious Cooper certainly had some good stories to tell. When he first emerged as a player, Franz Beckenbauer said: “Cooper is the closest thing to myself I have seen as a young player,” a compliment Cooper would dismiss as: “Proof even the very best can talk s****.”
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