Reflections on Cookie's Departure

Even more dissapointing than Cooks departure is his replacements are absolutely shit.

Ones a headless chicken that just seems to give away fouls and the other cant head or shoot or do alot else really.

 

There was talk of a major falling out .........but that could be .
A meeting
Minor disagreement
But by the time it got to me it became " major"
Anyway good luck to Cookie

 

I agree. GA wasnt using him so Cooky said I want to leave. Cook was never told to leave - GA has gone on record. But they forced his hand....Cooks decision.

I dont blame Cook and I think GA got it wrong allowing him to leave. That said if Cook had of stayed to fight for his shirt then he would have gotten further chances down the line. He would have popped up now and again like Kelly and Lapslie.

I miss him and he is better than both Mullin and Wheatley. 100%.

 

You ought to listen to the latest podcast by WYS where the professionals rightly say this is a ridiculous debate . You can’t keep a player who wants a move who wants 90 mins an£ not benchwarming and using the excuse he scored against a struggling L2 side at the weekend is ludicrous . Move on .

 

Once he came to City from Mansfield and started his phenomenal scoring record he was always going to be one of the main men/characters, unfortunatly things change in life which at times are out of your control.
What I do find interesting several poster were saying this is a poor league the odd club Cardiff, Luton, Stockport, Huddersfield with their spending power will walk this division, which hasn't turned out to be the case, so little Bradford City have more than competed in this league whos to say as @Petrov posted wouldn't Cook given the same game minutes as the likes of Wheatley and Mullin had have a better goal return, it would be a brave man to disagree.
All conjecture as we'll never know, I just don't understand why a players who's career has been based on his goal return wouldn’t have bettered the 800+ minutes Wheatley and Mullin have had.
We'll never know what Alexander actually said to Andy with regards his future and game time, but I would have hoped it would be along the lines off I want you to build your game time up by going on later in games and if you continue to score as you've done previously it would be very difficult to be left out, Cook wasn't a regular starter at Grimsby and if took him a few games to make that jump back into being in the starting 11, as I say we don't know the details of what was said but he's certainly proving even after his ACL he can score and assist on a regular basis for a promotion chasing club.

 

Yet we have a thread on its 5th page suggests other wise .

 

I agree, the standard isnt that much of a jump from L2 but who said those teams would walk the league? Whatever was said about those teams, they are all over up there vying for promotion spots. I said in the summer I felt our momentum and recruitment would see us into the chasing pack for a play off spot. If you spend your money wisely and have a manager who knows what he is doing, then thats a leveler against the money boys.

Money doesn't guarantee anything - it just helps.

 

Not disagreeing with your above comment with regards his replacement, you'd hope Alexander being aware after a ACL at 35 Cook may not return as the Andy Cook we all loved, so the manager should have said until we find your replacement I'm sorry Andy but I can't allow you to leave.
Cook left for Grimsby on January 12th, although it was acknowledged Ethan Wheatley was already at the club (carrying an injury) that was the reason his signing was not announced until February. and Paul Mullin was not announced until the 30th of January, a massive gamble by the management, although Bobby, Sarcevic and Humphrys with the likes of Baldwin, the Wrights chipping in fans realised we didn't have a specialised sticker, I honestly thought Mullin would be that player, which instantly itself makes fans question Mullin being a very similar style of goal scorer to Andy Cook ?.

 

Read back you'll see many making those sort of comments.

 

The way he played on saturday was immense i don't care which league or who against,he knows where to be and when and more importantly he knows where the net is. a big loss for us and a mistake to let him go,in my opinion of course

 

“ Talk” on Twitter……really?

 

Yet 3 of the 4 promoted teams have struggled, with us being the exception.

It could be said that our recruitment team got it mostly right. If Cook would've been happy to stay on limited game time then it would've been a no brainer, but judging by the few appearances we did see of him this season, he was miles off. Those brought in might not have given us the goal return we wanted, but their press allowed others to pick up the shortfall. As we've seen, Alexander likes players to run and run and then run some more. Cooky doesn't fit that profile and him being in the side made us too one dimensional for the manager. If we fail to make the playoffs I can imagine this thread will gain another 50 pages or so.

 

Cook wasn't even making the match day squad in the weeks before his departure, no wonder he wanted out. It's all personal opinion because none of us know the full ins and outs of it but I firmly believe he would have been happy to stay if he was getting a place on the bench and was being given a chance to play. You say he looked miles off it with us but had he been given longer than 220 minutes over 8 games to get properly going again, it might have been a completely different story because the clips of his goals last weekend don't look like a player who is miles off it. Watch any clips of Mullin or Wheatley playing for us though.......

 

That's pretty much my view. Of course he would be an added dimension to our squad now, but back in January he was not getting the game time he needed and he was never going to get back to anywhere near his best by just getting 30 mins here and there.
Lots of talk on here about GA pushing him out and Cooky wanting out- I have no idea what actually happened but believe the truth is probably somewhere in between. Imo GA viewed a returning from injury Andy Cook as no more than an impact sub. Cooky on the other hand needed to start games week in week out. At his age he also needed to look much further ahead and as has been said, his form at Grimsby should now see him get a 2 year deal, either at Grimsby or another League 2 outfit. I do not believe that would have been the case had he remained a bit part player with us for the remainder of his contract, so in that respect it's been an excellent move for him.
Our January recruitment in forward positions leaves a lot to be desired but I think its a bit too simplistic to say he was our player so we should have kept him regardless.

 

As much as it pained me to see him leave, it was clear he wasn't part of Alexanders plans moving forward and i can understand Cooky wanting more game time at this point in his career and after being out for so long with his knee injury. Not sure if he'd have stayed around till the end of the season if he'd been used on the bench but all immaterial as he's left.

 

Well now we've got Andy Cooks version of why he left, saying he thought he had something to offer to the team but obviously Alexander didn't.
With regards the way he left he said he would not have wanted to be on the bench and given 20 minutes to say his goodbyes, personally I agree.

 

Of course he’s going to give a one sided version Dave , its natural. I DONT expect GA to give his version , he’s too professional for such . The reasons are flippin obvious why he was released, and why he himself wanted a release, I don’t need GA to tell me the obvious and create a drama fit for ITV. No need , we have seen it all too often over half a century.

 

I've not listened to either of the interviews and no offence to Cooky, love the guy, but I've no interest in doing either. I don't find footballers that interesting off the pitch so prefer podcasts like to radio Leeds ones about the team over the season rather than what a player has to say on his own career. As Kev says it'll always be bias which I presume it was, people were getting their knickers in a twist over it on social media yesterday but lets say Wrexham had put a big bid in for him when there was rumoured interest and doubled his wages he'd have been straight out of the door. It would have been nice to see him retire here, but Andy Cook doesn't decide who does or doesn't get a contract at Bradford City. We saw with Power and even Metcalfe to some degree, when it's a move that benefits them they don't go moaning that they're getting sold. I'm sure Cook's left teams who've wanted to keep him, it works both ways I'm afraid and the club have every right to say we don't see you having a future here.

 

Andy Cook was brilliant for Bradford City, his record speaks for itself.

The results and achievements of the Bradford City team from the date he got injured also speak for themselves.

 

Spot on .