How Good Was Paul Cook?

[Axle]

I was thinking the other day about our great midfielders from the past and for me Cook has to be up there, even when we consider today’s Portuguese maestros

Paul Birch’s goal against West Ham is a case in point. If Gazza had done this casual flick into his zone of influence (look at his awareness as he brings it down) and then placed it through to the CF everyone would have been salivating like a man-eating shark:

There’s also one that l can’t find from against Vale in the early 90s where he uses his keep-up skills and then lobs it through to Bull to finish on the volley. Again, if that had been Rikjiaard/Van Basten it would have been goal of the season (if anyone has it, l would love to see it again).

I can recall the partnership that Cook and Bull had, which meant it was a very productive one. Admittedly, l never saw the greats of the golden years, but for me Paul Cook was one of the best midfielders l have seen at Wolves even if he was very different to what Mouts and Neves offer.

Even if it was seen as route one football, It was a privilege to see him play and have so much quality, especially on those pitches.

For those who did see him, how does he compare to others you have seen?

 

[moseleyite]

I have fond, fond memories of a midfield containing Cookie and the back page headlines of the time ("A Cook and Bull Story" ). He was the very definition of one-footed but, boy, what a sweet left foot it was! His right was utterly hopeless but, if (as in the clip you posted - I was stood on the South Bank that day) he could skillfully make space to deploy that left boot then he could drop the ball anywhere. He could frustrate too, twisting and turning, trying desperately to get the ball onto his left side but, when he did, it was worth the wait.

^^ You should probably take the above with a pinch of gold-tinted hindsight but I stand by my happy recollections

I can't really do a comparison with previous generations but when I think back to midfielders that followed in the 90's I can't think of one quite like him in the way that he played. No, he was probably unique in style.

Actually, something else just occurred to me... is it my faulty memory or did Cookie love a long-sleeved top??

 

[IrchyWolf]

Cookie was a fine player. His ball control was so good that at times it made him appear 'lazy' whereas it was just effortless.
I'd put him on the same level as Peter Daniel (a personal hero), though they were different kinds.
We had so much talent pass through at times yet always a couple of signings short, it seems.
Still not quite at the level of a McCalliog, Hibbitt or Bailey or the present crop.
That's not a put-down just an observation of where we were and where he was.

 

[Lawndog]

Yeah, he was 'quality'!

One particular memory is of him trying to bend a 30(?) yard pass just behind Gareth Southgate (last covering Palace player) into the run of David Kelly (?) in an FA Cup 3rd round match......it only just failed....

 

[Highlandwolf2]

Had as much natural talent as any I’ve seen (except Peter Broadbent, although was too young to actually remember seeing him) and on his day excellent. Rumours abounded in the day about his alcohol intake - absolutely no idea if true, but have heard stories about goings on in Shifnal when he, Tony Adams and Gaza we’re undergoing treatment for injuries at Lilleshall Rehabilitation. Again no idea if true.

An exceptional talent.

 

[Tezthewolvesfan]

Class player with a wand of a left foot, got him from Norwich for a song IIRC.

 

[Sheriff Woody]

Fabulous left foot but as others have said his right was just for standing on. Had his right foot been of any use he'd have been a top top player.

Bizarrely my fondest memory of him was when he scored the goal to beat 9 man Sunderland at Molineux. We were abysmal and on a long losing streak but John Byrne and Gordon Armstrong decided to help us out by insulting the linesman and getting sent off. Pretty sure it was Don Goodman's debut (or at least one of his first starts) for them that day too.

Always loved it when he tried to score from a corner too.

 

[SingYourHeartsOut]

What always amazed me was his ability to spin a pass so that he could hit a 40 yard ball over a defence for Bully to run onto but then it would stop and not just run to the keeper. Not seen anyone in a Wolves shirt who could do that until Neves arrived, not that Cookie was in that class to be fair!

 

[Tezthewolvesfan]

Fabulous left foot but as others have said his right was just for standing on. Had his right foot been of any use he'd have been a top top player.

Bizarrely my fondest memory of him was when he scored the goal to beat 9 man Sunderland at Molineux. We were abysmal and on a long losing streak but John Byrne and Gordon Armstrong decided to help us out by insulting the linesman and getting sent off. Pretty sure it was Don Goodman's debut (or at least one of his first starts) for them that day too.

Always loved it when he tried to score from a corner too.

I remember that game..

 

[Mark Rankines Lovechild]

I thought he was ok. Capable of precision long balls, that lit up a game,and great close control but was utterly one footed and sometimes shied away from the the nasty parts of the game.

i always felt that those long passes sometimes hid some of his deficiencies in our fans eyes. I remember one game, I forget which...maybe Blackburn, where he was dispossessed half way in our half, he never attempted to win the ball bzck, just put his hands on his head and sort of watched them run away and score.

 

[moseleyite]

I remember that game..

Me too... utterly abject

 

[Boss Hogg]

Incredible left foot, could drop the ball into an on-rushing Bully with pinpoint accuracy, must be dozens of goals like this. Scored a couple of times direct from corners too.

in his later Wolves years he ended up playing way too deep - just in front of the back four - and I think his accuracy with the ball started to diminish as a consequence.

A real hero of mine though, brings back lots of fond memories of the early 90s

 

[moseleyite]

I thought he was ok. Capable of precision long balls, that lit up a game,and great close control but was utterly one footed and sometimes shied away from the the nasty parts of the game.

i always felt that those long passes sometimes hid some of his deficiencies in our fans eyes. I remember one game, I forget which...maybe Blackburn, where he was dispossessed half way in our half, he never attempted to win the ball bzck, just put his hands on his head and sort of watched them run away and score.

As I said, I probably wear booze/gold-tinted specs looking back at that era but you're right to balance it out. I hadn't really thought about his specialty first-time-balls being a defensive measure to avoid mixing it up but I would agree that tracking back wasn't his strong suit. Not the most athletic.

 

[Lou Pine]

A red-faced, lumpy, angry man who used to sit behind me in the North Bank absolutely detested Cook. He ignored all of the good things he would do during a match and then the slightest error from our mercurial midfielder would be pounced upon. The rage had to be seen and heard to be believed. ‘You lazy ****ing scouse ****!’ was about as gentle as it got.

It really made me realise that many people singing ‘We love you Wanderers, we do’ weren’t strictly telling the truth.

As for Cook, what a left foot! He was frustrating at times, probably didn’t score enough goals given how sweetly he could strike a ball and would occasionally shirk a 50/50 challenge but good God, those long passes into the path of a rampaging Steve Bull...

Cook’s passes to Bull are etched into my memory (and others) so much so that the similarly-styled Neves to Jota passes that have resulted in goals have had me bouncing up and down with mates whilst we scream ‘just like Cook to Bull!’

I hope that somewhere in our higgledy-piggeldy stadium that other people were shouting similar and that the angry man from the North Bank, who consistently spewed such vile venom to our 90s scouse midfield maestro, heard them. I hope that the joyous reference to Cook’s lovely left foot tarnished his enjoyment of the goal.

He probably self-combusted with rage a long time ago, though.

 

[Jonzy54]

I remember standing on the South Bank and the ball came to him on the edge of our box and without checking his stride or looking up he drilled the ball right to Bully’s foot about 60 yards away.
I was right behind it and the arc of the ball was superb.
His right foot was about as good as Waggy’s and John McAlle’s -wooden

 

[SteveBullsKnee]

My favourite wolves player as a kid of the early 90's, he started my love for players who can "play" rather than those who are there to "spoil".

 

[Deleted member 4152]

Trouble was, as the oppo put tactics in place to stop the Cook to Bulls run ball, we struggled

Cooky could pass the ball 50 yards, but had trouble passing it 3

 

[Wolf79]

I liked Paul Cook, on his day a good player but for me he was too inconsistent & not sure that he set up that many goals for Bully. Often went missing in games & IMO not a patch on the likes of Kenny Hibbitt. He was an above average second division player.

 

[Minimalist]

Probably a bit of a luxury player but super talented. I always thought he was a bit of a division one Mat Le-Tisier (excuse spelling!).
He would have loved the modern day standard of pitches.

 

[paulhick]

I always remember cookie as being a superb midfielder but was slagged blind on the south bank by all and sundry week in week out for being lazy when in reality he had a superb footballing brain.

 

[Wednesbury Wolf]

He was a fine player and an eye for a perfect pass, not the fastest but like Neves that doesn't always matter.

 

[Axle]

A red-faced, lumpy, angry man who used to sit behind me in the North Bank absolutely detested Cook. He ignored all of the good things he would do during a match and then the slightest error from our mercurial midfielder would be pounced upon. The rage had to be seen and heard to be believed. ‘You lazy ****ing scouse ****!’ was about as gentle as it got.

It really made me realise that many people singing ‘We love you Wanderers, we do’ weren’t strictly telling the truth.

As for Cook, what a left foot! He was frustrating at times, probably didn’t score enough goals given how sweetly he could strike a ball and would occasionally shirk a 50/50 challenge but good God, those long passes into the path of a rampaging Steve Bull...

Cook’s passes to Bull are etched into my memory (and others) so much so that the similarly-styled Neves to Jota passes that have resulted in goals have had me bouncing up and down with mates whilst we scream ‘just like Cook to Bull!’

I hope that somewhere in our higgledy-piggeldy stadium that other people were shouting similar and that the angry man from the North Bank, who consistently spewed such vile venom to our 90s scouse midfield maestro, heard them. I hope that the joyous reference to Cook’s lovely left foot tarnished his enjoyment of the goal.

He probably self-combusted with rage a long time ago, though.

Did he have grey hair and a beard and wore a black leather jacket?

I remember a guy identical to the one you described. He stood up all the time pointing his fingers and slating all the players.

In the Palace play-off season he climbed over the seats to the back of him and kicked off with his own fans. I had to break it up.

He must have had a stroke or heart attack eventually I’ve never seen someone so angry.

 

[Lou Pine]

Did he have grey hair and a beard and wore a black leather jacket?

I remember a guy identical to the one you described. He stood up all the time pointing his fingers and slating all the players.

In the Palace play-off season he climbed over the seats to the back of him and kicked off with his own fans. I had to break it up.

He must have had a stroke or heart attack eventually I’ve never seen someone so angry.

I don’t remember him having a beard. Dark, whispy hair and a complexion of a heavy smoker and drinker. He was probably in his 50s then but everyone seems ancient when you’re a teenager! He sat towards the John Ireland. I was only in there for a couple of seasons before moving to the South Bank...where I encountered a few younger versions of Mr Angry! There seems to have been lots of them about.

 

[reanswolf]

I always remember cookie as being a superb midfielder but was slagged blind on the south bank by all and sundry week in week out for being lazy when in reality he had a superb footballing brain.

I agree with this, I thought he was extremely talented and had a wand of a left foot,but many Wolves fans used to slate him really aggressively, which I hated.

 

[Scallywolf]

I liked Paul Cook, on his day a good player but for me he was too inconsistent & not sure that he set up that many goals for Bully. Often went missing in games & IMO not a patch on the likes of Kenny Hibbitt. He was an above average second division player.

I agree with all those comments.

Very inconsistent and you only noticed him when he had a good game. He could play 2 good passes in a game and then 4 bad ones!

Having said that he was not that expensive and we probably got value for money.

Cooky was not a patch on Knowlesy, McCalliogg, Hibbitt or our current stars.

 

[whitnash wolf ex.dewsbury]

Had as much natural talent as any I’ve seen (except Peter Broadbent, although was too young to actually remember seeing him) and on his day excellent. Rumours abounded in the day about his alcohol intake - absolutely no idea if true, but have heard stories about goings on in Shifnal when he, Tony Adams and Gaza we’re undergoing treatment for injuries at Lilleshall Rehabilitation. Again no idea if true.

An exceptional talent.

did you not see peter knowles

 

[Highlandwolf2]

did you not see peter knowles

Yes I did, many times but regarded him as a striker and therefore excluded him from my comparison. Knowles is perhaps the most exciting Wolves player I have seen, perhaps partly because you never knew what you were going to get, great skill or petulant schoolboy. Met him post football and was a very decent person.

 

[Tojo the grass]

Decent drummer

 

[Olivergoldblack]

Can he play right back for us?

 

[Houston Lobo]

I was in the infancy of my active support, but recall never being overly enamored with Cook for many of the reasons already posted.

Same too with Paul Birch; thought we got him at a stage when his career was distinctly on the down slope. This wasn't a one-off for the time though, unfortunately.

Seemed to me we went on to get a Cook clone with Darren Ferguson also.

One midfielder that I loved who thought had a bit of Cook plus more was Chris Marsden. Oh for a center midfield of a fit (and off-the-field incident free, allegedly) Marsden and Geoff Thomas at that time.

 

[Hot Fuss]

Cooky had loads of quality, the ball through to Bully at Leicester was beautiful. He did well in the premier league for Coventry as well for a while and they loved him at Burnley.

I do think he gets looked back on through rose tinted specs a bit though, he had a lot of limitations to be fair.

****ing loved a beer.

 

[JayStringer]

Up until the Fosun era, he was the best midfielder I'd seen play for Wolves during my time following them (1986-present).

 

[JimB]

Great left foot, ran the show on New Year’s Day 1990 in Newcastle.
Also remember him fudging an open goal against the same opposition at Molineux in an important promotion game, think we lost 1-0.

 

[WalsallWolf]

Cooky was mustard

 

[Liskeard wolf]

I liked him

 

[Deleted member 4152]

Great left foot, ran the show on New Year’s Day 1990 in Newcastle.
Also remember him fudging an open goal against the same opposition at Molineux in an important promotion game, think we lost 1-0.

I seem to remember him missing an open goal against newcastle away? Did he do it twice or is one of us wrong?

 

[Sheriff Woody]

I was in the infancy of my active support, but recall never being overly enamored with Cook for many of the reasons already posted.

Same too with Paul Birch; thought we got him at a stage when his career was distinctly on the down slope. This wasn't a one-off for the time though, unfortunately.

Seemed to me we went on to get a Cook clone with Darren Ferguson also.

One midfielder that I loved who thought had a bit of Cook plus more was Chris Marsden. Oh for a center midfield of a fit (and off-the-field incident free, allegedly) Marsden and Geoff Thomas at that time.

Darren Ferguson wasn't fit to lace Paul Cook's right boot let alone his left. Genuinely don't think Ferguson would've had half the career he did if his Dad wasn't who he was.

Paul Birch was signed shortly after marking Lothar Matthaus out of the game for Villa against Inter. He was a good player but we had a habit of not quite getting the balance right in midfield. Those early 90's years were mostly spent watching us get overrun in midfield irrespective of who played for us.

Pretty certain Ferguson and Marsden both made their debuts in the same game. Ferguson was the big name but it was pretty obvious who was the better of the two straight away. It was a shame that Marsden lost the plot.

 

[Saltyjim]

Cookies home debut was against West Ham I think and in the first half he played 2 brilliant long passes to put Bully through. Was sold on him from then on.
My favourite moment was a couple of outrageous drag backs at Selhurst Park against Charlton. Wonderful skill to beat a couple of players, then in true Cooky style tried an extravagant long pass that was easily cut out.
Loved watching him play.

 

[Houston Lobo]

Darren Ferguson wasn't fit to lace Paul Cook's right boot let alone his left. Genuinely don't think Ferguson would've had half the career he did if his Dad wasn't who he was.

You're spot on with this. Stole a career.

Paul Birch was signed shortly after marking Lothar Matthaus out of the game for Villa against Inter. He was a good player but we had a habit of not quite getting the balance right in midfield. Those early 90's years were mostly spent watching us get overrun in midfield irrespective of who played for us.

I think I remember him being shoehorned into left midfield often, which was probably not his natural or best position. Still had the odd worldie in him, mind.

 

[Don Corleone]

I was thinking the other day about our great midfielders from the past and for me Cook has to be up there, even when we consider today’s Portuguese maestros

Paul Birch’s goal against West Ham is a case in point. If Gazza had done this casual flick into his zone of influence (look at his awareness as he brings it down) and then placed it through to the CF everyone would have been salivating like a man-eating shark:

There’s also one that l can’t find from against Vale in the early 90s where he uses his keep-up skills and then lobs it through to Bull to finish on the volley. Again, if that had been Rikjiaard/Van Basten it would have been goal of the season (if anyone has it, l would love to see it again).

I can recall the partnership that Cook and Bull had, which meant it was a very productive one. Admittedly, l never saw the greats of the golden years, but for me Paul Cook was one of the best midfielders l have seen at Wolves even if he was very different to what Mouts and Neves offer.

Even if it was seen as route one football, It was a privilege to see him play and have so much quality, especially on those pitches.

For those who did see him, how does he compare to others you have seen?

Loved Cookie, didn’t he score straight off a corner just after joining us? Sweetest left foot ever seen...