1970s
Leeds chased three trophies in 1970 but lost the championship by nine points to Everton, and went out of the European Cup to Celtic in the semi-finals. Cooper played a full role in these near-misses, and also featured in the FA Cup final against Chelsea which Leeds lost 2-1 after a replay. That summer, however, Cooper gained personal redemption with a superb series of performances as England's first choice left back at the World Cup in Mexico, which ended with defeat in the quarter-finals to West Germany.
Leeds won the Fairs Cup again in 1971 but missed out on the League on the last day again and went out of the FA Cup in one of the competition's greatest giant-killing acts. Lowly Colchester United beat Leeds 3-2 in the fifth round. One consolation for Cooper on a personal level was that this was his best season for appearances, missing just one League game all season.
He seemed set to follow suit the next season as Leeds again chased League and FA Cup honours, but then suffered an horrific broken leg in April 1972 during a League game at Stoke City. Aside from missing that season's FA Cup final victory over Arsenal, Cooper missed a whole 20 months of football, such were the complications of the injury. Even when he did return to action, he played only one more international game, against Portugal in 1974, after Don Revie had become England manager.
Revie, unable to use Madeley who was already deputising as a central defender due to Charlton's retirement, bought Trevor Cherry in the summer of 1972 as a replacement. Cooper also missed the 1973 FA Cup final defeat to Sunderland and the European Cup Winners Cup final loss to A.C. Milan. When he did come back, it was with just one appearance in the 1974 season, thereby missing out on a League championship medal - Leeds won it at a canter with a 29-match unbeaten start - due to a lack of games.
Cooper's Leeds career was pretty much over by the time he regained his fitness. The departure of Revie for the England job in 1974 and the emergence over the next season of Frank Gray, younger brother of Eddie, as well as the presence of Cherry, rendered Cooper surplus to requirements. He left the club before the ageing Revie team played out its last hurrah - the 1975 European Cup final, which they lost to Bayern Munich - and joined Middlesbrough who were managed by former Leeds team-mate Charlton and had not long won promotion to the First Division.
Read more about this topic: Terry Cooper (footballer Born 1944)