Playing Career
Born in Darjeeling, India, Cooper attended Airyhall Primary School and Hazlehead Academy in Aberdeen and began his senior career with Aberdeen, the team he'd supported as a boy. A first-team regular from the beginning of the 1981–82 season, he starred in midfield for the Dons for five seasons in which he won two Premier Division Championships, four Scottish Cups, one League Cup, the 1983 European Cup Winners' Cup and the European Super Cup under the management of Alex Ferguson. Having initially moved into a flat in Aberdeen as a young player, Cooper was 'persuaded' by Ferguson to return to his mother's home to help ensure that Cooper was shielded from the obvious temptations arising from youthful independence. In the summer of 1986, he signed for Aston Villa but made only twenty league appearances in the next two years, partly because of injuries. In the 1988–89 season, he transferred to Rangers but injuries restricted him to only seventeen league appearances. In the summer of 1990, he re-joined Aberdeen but was never fit to play. Next season he signed for Reading but after only seven appearances moved to Dunfermline Athletic where he at last was able to play regularly. After three seasons in the First Division, he moved into management with Ross County
Read more about this topic: Neale Cooper
Famous quotes containing the words playing and/or career:
“Guilt is the most destructive of all emotions. It mourns what has been while playing no part in what may be, now or in the future. Whatever you are doing, however, you are coping, if you listen to your child and to your own feelings, there will be something you can actually do to make things right.”
—Penelope Leach (20th century)
“Work-family conflicts—the trade-offs of your money or your life, your job or your child—would not be forced upon women with such sanguine disregard if men experienced the same career stalls caused by the-buck-stops-here responsibility for children.”
—Letty Cottin Pogrebin (20th century)