This is Liam Cooper’s 10th season at Leeds — but will it be his last? — The Athletic 16/10/23
By Phil Hay
There was a time when testimonials were a staple part of
Leeds United’s diet.
A different era meant different attitudes and for as long as
Don Revie was manager at Elland Road, back in the 1960s and ’70s, there were no
opportunities for other clubs to cherry-pick from his dressing room.
The best of Leeds’ players were devoted to him and Revie was
devoted to them, so much so that contract extensions sometimes involved them
signing blank bits of paper. Revie would fill in the details later. The squad
trusted him to see them right and pay what was agreed. For the finest of them,
a decade or more on the books was the normal run of things.
But slowly, the transfer market began to grow legs and
football morphed into the sport it is now, where fewer professionals sit tight
anywhere for very long.
Leeds, since the turn of this century, have awarded just two
testimonials: one to Gary Kelly in 2002, the other to Lucas Radebe three years
later. Those carefree events — once the equivalent of fundraisers for
footballers in the final throes of their playing careers — are out of fashion,
largely because stints of service tend to be so much shorter. But then along
came Liam Cooper to buck the trend, and now on the way to finishing his 10th
year with Leeds.
Cooper has been a survivor at Elland Road, right from the
moment he was a signing which almost did not happen.
An attempt to take the defender from Chesterfield in the
first week of August 2014 ran into trouble, taking the deal to the point of
being dead before Leeds lost their opening game of the new season in abject
fashion at Millwall. Before kick-off, they were not willing to stretch to his
price tag of £600,000, but that 2-0 defeat in London and the soft nature of it
sufficiently put the wind up Leeds owner Massimo Cellino. A better offer was
tabled within 48 hours, and Chesterfield took the bait.
So began a relationship which now sees Cooper 29 appearances
short of 300 for the Yorkshire club, most of those as captain.
That tally is notable because, at certain junctures, Cooper
has been out of favour; out of favour with certain coaches (Garry Monk started
him eight times across the 2016-17 Championship, although his availability was
curtailed by a six-game ban towards the end of it); and out of favour with
sections of the crowd.
The nickname ‘League One Liam’ followed him around and
Cooper picked up on it. He was philosophical about it, too. “I’m not being
funny, but there were times when I wasn’t great,” he told The Athletic in 2019.
“Nicknames can catch on. I’d like to think I played my way out of it, but I
took it on the chin anyway.”
In contrast to Monk, Marcelo Bielsa named Cooper in 36
starting line-ups in 2019-20 on the way to Premier League promotion and was
totally sold on him as the best option on the left side of the centre-back
pair; of all the things that can be said about Cooper, it could never be
claimed Leeds went up that season in spite of him.
But time goes by and the landscape at Elland Road is not
what it was.
Cooper turned 32 in August and is no longer an automatic
first-choice in the team. Leeds’ most recent line-up, against Bristol City,
contained just one outfield player, Pascal Struijk, who had started a league
game for Bielsa in that promotion season. And Cooper’s contract, one of several
extensions he has signed at the club, is due to be up at the end of the season,
with no new offer forthcoming yet.
This is Cooper entering the corridor of uncertainty.
The situation as it looks for him — the question of what
next and how much longer his face fits — was heavily influenced by what
happened in the fortnight leading into the first weekend of this Championship
season.
For much of the summer, there was no question of Cooper
leaving, irrespective of the fact his contract was running down. He retained
the captaincy under new manager Daniel Farke and played regularly in pre-season,
but towards the end of July, he was sounded out about a transfer to Saudi
Arabia’s Al Qadsiah amid the rush of cash-rich clubs there trying to recruit
from Europe.
Al Qadsiah, managed by former Leeds, Liverpool and England
striker Robbie Fowler, are in the division directly below the inordinately
wealthy Saudi Pro League. Despite their lower-league status, they had good
money to offer Cooper: £2million a year net on a two-year contract, the
equivalent of almost £40,000 a week, tax-free. Joel Robles, a goalkeeper at
Elland Road last season, joined Al Qadsiah on a free transfer in July after
declining an offer to link up with Leeds again for pre-season training.
Max Power, once of Wigan Athletic and Sunderland, has also
moved there, along with ex-Villarreal centre-back Alvaro Gonzalez.
Much of the transfer business done by Saudi teams was
facilitated by agents and intermediaries in the first instance and Al Qadsiah’s
interest did not get to the stage of a formal bid being made to Leeds.
In the week before the EFL season began on the first weekend
in August, Cooper effectively rejected the approach from the Middle East and
asked Leeds to look instead at a 12-month extension to his contract. The
intention was to stay but on a deal which ran to the summer of 2025, rather
than 2024. But days later, he injured a foot while scoring in the opening
Championship fixture against Cardiff City, which kept him out until the
transfer window had closed and both options evaporated: the Saudi interest gone
and discussions about his future shelved while he did his rehabilitation.
Those discussions are unlikely to start up again until the
turn of the year, at which point Leeds are likely to be able to give him a
clear answer about their intentions.
The club have decisions to make about experienced players
other than Cooper. With Luke Ayling out of contract in 2024 and Stuart Dallas’
deal expiring at the same time, their three longest-serving squad members are
on the way to becoming free agents. Ayling has been part of the furniture at
Elland Road since 2016 and fellow 32-year-old Dallas since 12 months earlier.
Combined, those three cost Leeds around £2million and have played more than 800
times.
Farke spoke after that Bristol City game just over a week
ago about the value to the dressing room of having those voices in it — albeit
Dallas has been fighting to return from a fractured femur since April 2022. “We
need this leadership,” Farke said. But there are technical considerations to be
taken into account.
Leeds have shifted from the time when Cooper, Ayling and
Dallas were guaranteed picks, part of the spine of the team. The club would
like promotion this season and know full well that the 2024-25 Premier League
would ask far more of everyone than another year in the Championship.
If all goes to plan over the next eight months, a decision
on contract offers would primarily fall to Farke; a manager with the final say
on every aspect of how his squad looks.
The Saudi beeline to Cooper was an invitation to force his
way out and take the money; to follow the exodus of players away from a
relegated club. In fending it off, he earned himself an increasingly rare badge
of honour in football — a 10th straight season in one place and a testimonial
year.
