The Mark Cooper era at Yeovil Town is over after the club confirmed he had been “relieved of his duties“ on Tuesday morning.
A relegation and a promotion to his name, but there’s always more to it than just the statistics. Here are our five conclusions on Mark Cooper’s pages in the Yeovil Town history books.
Let’s remember there were good times
Nobody at Gloverscast HQ is jumping for joy that someone lost their job, that’s just not how we work.
From the moment we saw Cooper at Oldham during some of the darkest days of the bitter end of Chris Hargreaves’ reign, we thought there was a manager with a strong track record at National League and EFL level ready and waiting to take over.
Of course, the chaos going on off-the-pitch – the on-off sale by <NAME REDACTED> and the stewardship of Matt Uggla’s time -meant that first six months of his tenure never really stood a chance, more on that later.
Mark Cooper is one of only two managers to be promoted from all three National League divisions. During his time at Huish Park he added the National League South, he was the first title-winning manager of the men’s senior team since 2005 and the first to achieve promotion since 2013. That was stopping the rot, that was also giving an entire generation of Yeovil fans some joy. There will have been young Glovers at Truro (aka Gloucester) and at the trophy lift in the following game who have NEVER seen anything like tangible success in their lifetime.
Yes, the football was functional over stylish, but you can’t take that away the fact that Mark Cooper will forever be a title winner in the Yeovil Town history books and nor would we want to.
📸 Gary Brown
The stuff we didn’t see.
The Yeovil Town chapter of the Mark Cooper memoirs will be a chunky portion of a chunky book.
The stories he could tell of the owner who we do not name, the ‘stewards’ who tried to bring in their own players over his head, the recovery under the ownership of Martin Hellier and then the latest takeover by Prabhu Srinivasan. There’s enough in there to spin the heads of a less experienced manager.
There are probably only a few people who know the truth of everything that happened and undoubtedly he could (should?) have walked away at probably more than one point, but he believed he could wipe clean the only relegation on his CV and he did.
But the time was right.
You knew there was a ‘but’ coming.
For some, there was a thought that Cooper deserved every possible chance to give the Yeovil supporters and his employers what they needed, wanted, deserved at this level. It didn’t happen and the catastrophic collapse against Gateshead on August Bank Holiday Monday was the final nail in the coffin.
The match was a complete juxtaposition. Utterly sensational in the first half, utterly calamitous in the second. The way we crumbled from the minute Gateshead pulled a goal back in the first minute said everything you needed to know. There was no way he could have walked into training and instilled any real confidence in the group after that.
It’s not hard to wonder what leaders, characters and fans’ favourites like Josh Staunton, Matt Worthington and Frank Nouble are thinking today. You could see it in Frank’s reaction to all Gateshead’s goals and when player after player is taking to social media to like negative posts about the manager, you know there are issues.
The tactics were always substance over style but, even taken taking that in to consideration, they were baffling. The back four we played to such good effect on Monday replaced by a back three which never really worked. We got through the best part of 100 players in his time in charge, leaders left and loanees came in like a revolving door.
If there were excuses last season, there were none this season. We recruited quality players, the club took on a backlash by giving the manager what he wanted by moving training north of Bristol, and even the Huish Park pitch shrunk. But, apart from those first 45 minutes against Gateshead, we lacked so much in so many areas.
It hasn’t been good enough, particularly at home for maybe a calendar year. You cannot look beyond that and that is why the time was right to make a change.
For many of us, he never seemed to enjoy it
It’s often been said that Mark Cooper away from the microphone is a different person. Both Ben and Ian saw it at times over the past two-and-a-half years and fans who even partied with him after the National League South title win.
But the majority of Glovers’ fans saw a scowl, a dig at supporters and very rarely someone who looked like they enjoyed the job they were doing.
In today’s world, perception isn’t just people’s reality – it’s the loudest reality in the room.
The perception many fans had of Mark Cooper was not of a knowledgeable and passionate manager and that meant he could never rely on his relationship with supporters.
This steely-eyed approach led many fans feeling they never got a manager they believed in. Exiting the FA Cup at Chesham United, the indignity of the FA Trophy exit to W*ymouth and an 18th place league finish last season left no credit in the bank as the distance grew.
It could have been different, but it wasn’t.
So, where next?
Well, the new ownership team has chosen action over words. What happens next and where we go as a football club in the short and hopefully medium-long term future is down to them.
It’s a big responsibility and one they should not rush in to.
We hope to learn from those around us. Forest Green Rovers changed manager in the search of style AND substance, and differing budgets aside, we should be thinking the same.
We have to find a manager with a balance of charisma, character, nous, form, availability, knowledge and so much more.
Yeovil is a special club and takes a special kind of person to be successful here.
All kinds of names will come and go through the minds of those at the club; you will already have heard plenty.
But having some knowledge of what it takes to be successful at Yeovil is important, maybe not as the front man, but in that group somewhere, that knowledge has to be embedded.
It’s a big moment – and we’ve had quite a few of those in the last 12 years – and one we cannot afford to get wrong.
Great post. Lots of talk on Facebook etc about Lee Johnson as coach and possibly Gary as DOF.This would be a mistake however unlikely it may seem. We need a completely new broom, no ex managers or players.There is no need to rush, this season was always about steadying the ship and I think we have enough quality to get us through the short term without worrying too much. A new coach will obviously have his own ideas and I sincerely hope he gets the right backing and
assurances from the new regime! We are a real name in football and I’m certain there’ll be no lack of applications for the job-or do they know already?
It’s interesting to read this as much of your analysis about Cooper is exactly what was said of him when he was sacked at FGR. He was fantastic when things went well, but when they didn’t he became dead behind the eyes, adopted a siege mentality and became a very cold, confrontational individual. I know that attitude extended into the changing room when players who had their own views became persona non grata. That approach always ends up alienating the rest of the squad over a period of time and damages morale if the naughty-stepped players are popular or seen as justified in their views. I imagine, as at FGR, that the only squad member who felt safe was his son.
Excellent post – really well written and fair in its assessment. Thanks.
For me, his endless grumping is what I always found hardest – such a dour person in interviews.
I have no doubt that a less experienced manager might have been an absolute catastrophe for the club, given the disastrous off-the-pitch mess whose impact we often seem to forget in our analysis of the on-the-pitch action. Some stability would be lovely now, on and off the pitch!
A very well written and fair assessment. I could learn to accept boring football providing we’re winning, as often was the case in NLS, however I could never learn to accept the relationship he had with the fans, and the way he came across in the media. I know several people have said how different he was off camera and off record, but that was meaningless to the vast majority of us who never got to see that.
Ultimately it was this, his resistance to change and seemingly totalitarian approach to players that was his undoing. He had his most successful spell at FGR, and we all heard what their fans thought of him, Frank Nouble won the league under him, and I can only imagine what he shouted towards the bench when he scored. I have zero doubt that being a manager at this level is very stressful, but at the end of the day, you’re playing football for a job, at-least try and make it look like you’re enjoying it.
A decision that for me, had been a very long time coming, but none the less, as a new owner, to sack your manager (sorry, ‘relieve them of their duties’, not sure why you can’t say sacked anymore), 5 games into your first season is a ballsy decision, one that I think has gained a lot of respect from the most wary of fans. Big couple of weeks coming up, I should think they had already drawn up a shortlist in the summer, and were giving cooper the benefit of doubt.
No Gary Johnson or Darren Way please, for the love of god.
All of you Yeovil supporters should be careful what you wish for. You cannot make a silk purse from a sows ear. Quality players ? Where are they ? Quality players dont lose a game they were winning 3-0 at half time, but bad players do. Mark worked under 5-6 owners during his time there, and some were awful owners. I believe far worse is to come. You were lucky to have Mark Cooper through those dark times.
Wake up, and grow up Yeovil.
A contradiction in itself… if these players are indeed not good enough, well, it was Cooper who brought them in. Throwing away a lead like that is all about mentality in my view. Yes the players have to take some of that, but if a manager isn’t there to instill a strong mental resilience – what are they there for!?
3 owners.
5 or 6 owners.? BS
Thr problem is that most fans do not know what has been going on behind the scenes and how we were lucky he did not drop us in it by walking away. Always has credit in the bank with me for sticking by the club.
Yes, I agree with others that this was a really intelligent assessment and, with the exception of Maurice Ford (who he?) going off on one, some equally intelligent responses below. What a refreshing change from some of the output on Facebook. Looking forward to better times ahead and quietly confident…
Its the main reason why I left social media and pretty much use GC for all my YTFC news, views etc. Hopefully the club take their time with this decision.
Very balanced and respectful analysis chaps. Monday’s defeat should be taken as a somewhat collective blame, both by the players and the manager. But MC’s saying that he will take it on the chin, where he walks down the tunnel instead of going to his players, by not saying “if I was a fan today I’d be calling for the manager to be out” by not saying “we’re going back to the training this week, focus on the positives of the 1st half etc” these are all examples of him finding himself being “relieved of his duties”- he just spoke about what he told them to do in the 2nd half. Our owner has seen & heard enough from him, along with the fans and rightly or wrongly made his decision. But did MC think that perhaps if I gave the right soundbites after this humiliation it might just save me, it might just buy me time, time to work hard this week on the training field and bounce back at Halifax, galvanise the squad, get the unity back etc etc – But that has always been the problem , he’s very “my way or the highway” unable to put a media show on, PR & spin skills non- existent and whilst some don’t agree with this, it’s part of the game these days as social media whips things up so rapidly,. Maybe he wanted to go….but if he didn’t he’s given all the wrong soundbites and body language to re-assure a new ambitious owner he was the right Gaffer for the job.
Onwards and upwards! Up the Glovers!!
The “Achieve by Unity” needs to put back under the new club badge. That’s another conclusion we can make. A banner like on the Everton badge.
Mr Prabhu… pls organise another online fan vote… give them 3 designs to choose from… get it updated.