Picking out the next big prospect in management is as precarious a task as the art of managing itself. Last weekend, with the top two divisions on holiday, I was reporting from the Kassam Stadium where Aidy Boothroyd's Northampton were unfortunate to lose to Oxford.
Style
But it's more than just a style of play. Cook makes everyone feel involved, from the players on the very fringes of the team to the backroom staff at every level; his assistant Leam Richardson through to Kay Adkins in the Community Trust Department who has helped oversee the instalment of a hydrotherapy pool at the Proact Stadium that would have been unimaginable in the old days of the crumbling Saltergate.
Cook persuaded his chairman to push the boat out for one signing in particular, winger Gary Roberts from Swindon and formerly of Accrington, who has already proved his worth. The manager was a central midfielder in his playing days, with a left foot that cliché requires we call cultured. His game wasn't always suited to the English way. Paul Jewell, who played alongside Cook for a time at Wigan Athletic in the 1980s, made a really good observation about him as a player. "He was brave," said Jewell, on Saturday. "In as much as wherever he was on the park he always wanted the ball."
I remember one game vividly during Cook's time as a player at Wolves. It was a blood and guts Midlands affair against Leicester at Filbert Street back in November 1993 when both teams were vying for promotion to the Premier League. Amidst the frenetic, ankle-snapping tackling in midfield, Cook picked up possession well inside his own half and in a flash sent a perfectly weighted outside of the foot curling pass behind the Leicester defence for Steve Bull to run onto and score without breaking stride. It may not have been the greatest stage in the world but it was the best pass I've ever seen. He moved on to Coventry for a brief spell in the Premier League soon after, but played far less top flight games than his talents merited.
As a manager, Cook encourages bravery in his own players. He wants them looking to get on the ball, wherever they are on the field. It doesn't always work and there have been times when they've been undone this season, but Cook is insistent they remain true to these values. As he was keen to point out last week during our filming, no-one is promoted or relegated in October and he doesn't want anybody getting carried away with the start they have had. But it's been refreshing to see Chesterfield begin the season in this manner.
Cook comes from the school of coaching where playing football is the priority. He hates seeing youngsters that have lost sight of why they are in this profession - those more interested in the lifestyle than the game. He's made a point of getting characters in his squad who just want to play football. Roberts is one of those and so too is Ritchie Humphries, the 35 year old PFA committee member whose love of the game now as a left-back is as strong as it was as a young striker at Sheffield Wednesday.
Management is such a fickle business, but Cook's progress is worth keeping an eye on. If Chesterfield do win promotion next May, it will be the best achievement yet in a coaching career that is heading in the right direction.
