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Profile: Mark Cooper - It must be in his genes
Darragh MacAnthony clearly believes one of the secrets to managerial expertise lies in the genes.
Darragh MacAnthony clearly believes one of the secrets to managerial expertise lies in the genes.The Posh chairman's first appointment to the London Road hotseat was the son of the most successful manager in English football history. His second is the son of an England international and Division One champion player who went on to win two promotions as a manager.
It's fair to say Terry Cooper was a better left-back than boss. He won two top-flight titles with Leeds United as well as an FA Cup and League Cup winners medal while accumulating 20 international caps,
Cooper also won promotions with Exeter and Birmingham City as a manager before his career tailed off. One of his players at The Grecians and The Blues was his son Mark, a man who has now well and truly emerged from his father's shadow by becoming the new Posh manager.
It's a shock appointment as Cooper junior has never managed at Football League level and he takes over a club rooted to the bottom of the Championship. A man who oversaw back-to-back promotions found the Championship tough so Cooper, a man with just a promotion from the Blue Square Premier North on his CV, will have to buck conventional wisdom as well as a dreadful run of results to turn this Posh season around.
But he could be a gamble worth taking. More logical, and more populist, choices like Alan Curbishly and Steve Coppell were never realistic appointments for more than just reasons of finance, so why not gamble on a man who has never experienced failure?
Obviously he impressed MacAnthony, whose record of appointing managers who succeed is faultless. Darren Ferguson's arrival was a disappointment to many of us, yet he departed as one of the most successful managers in the club's history.
And Cooper's players and the Kettering local media have nothing but praise for his methods and his manner. There is a long-ball, long-throw stigma to a Kettering Town side with a few big lumps in their squad, but then you can only work with the materials at hand.
What do you think of Mark Cooper's appointment?
Email your comment: alan.swann@ peterboroughtoday.co.uk or use our Posh Your Say form now.
See also:
Cooper: Posh too easy to defeat.
Mark Cooper: I will prove my doubters wrong.
Cooper: I'll find a way to win.
Darren Ferguson at Peterborough United
Timeline of his time as Posh manager.
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At Posh he will inherit a shell-shocked squad, but it remains a playing staff full of youth, pace, skill and exuberance. If he can sort out the defensive ills - and Kettering's record for goals conceded is the joint second best in the Blue Square Premier League - he is certain to prompt a stark improvement in results.
Cooper cut his managerial teeth at Tamworth and earned a spell in the spotlight by taking Championship side Stoke City to an FA Cup replay. He moved onto Kettering before the start of the 2007-08 season and made an immediate impact.
The Poppies won their first seven matches under Cooper and they eventually won promotion to the Blue Square Premier Division with five matches to spare. On the way they created a club and Blue Square Premier North Division record of 97 points and to seal a perfect season Cooper came on as a late substitute in the final match of the season and scored the winning goal four minutes into his debut.
And the results kept coming in the Premier Division. Kettering won six matches in a row to go top in October before fading late in the season to finish eighth. Improvement continued this season and he leaves Kettering in third spot, handily positioned for a run at a place in the Football League for the first time.
Cooper the player was a hard-working midfielder with an eye for goal for 13 clubs. He was more Dean Keates than George Boyd in style, but never transferred for more than 40,000.
He started at Bristol City, where his dad was boss, but never played for the first team. He had most success in two spells at Exeter, but Birmingham was by far the biggest team he joined.
Accusations of nepotism were never far away, but Cooper reckoned it worked in reverse whenever he played for his dad.
"I can remember playing for dad at Birmingham," Cooper recalled. "And he would make a point of caning me in front of the rest of the team to make sure he couldn't be accused of favouritism. I don't think he ever said 'well done'.
"I also grew up with the pressure of people saying 'you'll never be as good as your dad', but I learnt not to let it bother me. I just decided to be as good a player as I could, whatever level I reached.
"My dad never shoved his success under my nose, but everyone knew who he was when I was growing up. Now I want to be a success in my own right and I'm young enough and keen enough to do it."
At 40 he is three years older than his predecessor, but still a baby in management terms.
If he gets Posh out their current mess he will become an instant hero and MacAnthony's own genius will be confirmed.
FATHERS AND SONS IN FOOTBALL
Alex Ferguson and Darren Ferguson
Ian Wright and Shaun Wright-Phillips/Bradley Wright-Phillips
Kenny Dalglish and Paul Dalglish
Ian Mellor and Neil Mellor
Brian Clough and Nigel Clough
Frank Lampard snr and Frank Lampard jnr
Harry Redknapp and Jamie Redknapp
Terry Owen and Michael Owen
Cesare Maldini and Paolo Maldini
Johan Cruyff and Jordi Cruyff
Barry Fry and Adam Fry.
Only Hagan had a better points per game record than Ferguson among Posh bosses
Mark Cooper is the 23rd full-time Posh manager since the club joined the Football League, but he will have his work cut out to match the record of the 22nd.
Darren Ferguson left London Road having accumulated 219 points from 126 league matches.
That's just shy of 58 per cent of the total points available.
Ferguson won exactly half of his 126 league matches in charge and lost just under a quarter.
Only Jimmy Hagan, the manager who steered Posh into the Football League in 1960, has a better points per match percentage.
Chris Turner had a slightly better record than Ferguson in his first glorious spell in charge at London Road, but his statistics were adversely affected by a second stint when Posh were heading out of the old First Division in 1994.
Turner was eventually succeeded by John Still who was the last man before Cooper to be plucked straight from non-league.
Still managed in what would be now called League One, but won just 17 of his 59 matches in charge.
The club's current director of football Barry Fry managed Posh in the most league matches. The worst record is held by Billy Hails, but he was only boss for a short time between the successful reigns of John Barnwell and Peter Morris
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