I saw the trailer for it and thought he was looked permanently pi$$ed.

Paul Cooke used to be one of my favourite players until he shat all over the club and its fans and i dont feel anything towards the guy other than contempt. He's not all sweetness and light despite how he may of come accross in the interview. Could of been an FC legend, instead he's an ex FC Bellend

Rubbish. No matter how badly he might have been messed about he [itook the money[/i and therefore accepted his contract. Walking out when and how he did was basically sticking two fingers up at the fans and his teammates. He deserves nothing but contempt for those actions.

It's also worth mentioning that the club stood behind and supported him legally and financially on at least a couple of occasions when others might not have. The last regime may have been bad, but Cooke has no excuses for what he did.

A tempting offer from his boyhood club certainly swung things, if you were playing for Rovers and what could be your only chance to play for FC presented itself, would you take it at the risk of upsetting your team mates/fans?

I agree, and I don't think he'll ever be forgiven for what he did, but I'm starting to understand why he did it, and how the previous board need to take a portion of the blame, and I'm quite looking forward to his book when it's released, but I'll be borrowing it from someone else, not buying myself!

I thought it was a really good interview, and Cooke came across much better than I expected.

That depends. Have I spent the last season or so taking money for a contract that I now decide to tear up?

But its not as though he took the money and didn't play for you is it? Or that he carried on taking money after he left?

Irrelevant. Both morally and legally by accepting payments specified in the unsigned contract he accepted all the terms of that contract.

By the letter of the law you are right but if you was in that position and the clubs were reversed would you probably in all honesty not try and move to your boyhood club?

I like to think I'd have more respect for myself, the fans who paid my wages, and my colleagues. In other words some basic self respect and a sense of responsibility. But then I already know that Cooke lacks either.

The thing I don't get is he never signed any contract, so was effectively playing on a pay as you play basis. He may have been penalised by the RFL, but I'm not so sure whether he could have took it further to get more success.

If I start working for a company and do not sign a contract, then if I decide to go work elsewhere tomorrow they have no hold over me.

I also think that you have to take into account he and other players showed loyalty to FC when they played but did not get paid.

In the end if he had played another year then maybe he would have got his testimonial in 2009 instead. So it does seam to have been a bit of brinkmanship by both FC and Cooke and for me as an outsider, both took the hit on this. Cooke in terms of his personal life and FC in terms of backsliding from a position of winning trophies to becoming a midtable team for a number of years, which they only seam to have started to turn around this year.

In the end not a good result for anyone really.

You were entitled to a period of notice. Though it was claimed that you (Hull FC) waived this by accepting his resignation with immediate effect.

Ah, just like old times.



It was an interesting insight. I tend to think of players almost as actors in a sporting drama and Cooke just happened to have a particularly compelling story arc, while they actually live it.

Given a decent writer, his book could be a properly good sports biography.