In what has surely been one of the longest transfer sagas in the clubs history, Lee Cook finally returned to the club last Friday when all had seemed to accept that the hardball being played by Fulham had prevented any hope of seeing him in a hooped shirt.

Not a day went by this summer without someone on a message board mentioning that he was down the training ground, having a medical or was seen walking down South Africa Road. If every one of those posts were true he must have had more medicals than the current playing squad put together have had in their careers.

In the end though while talks of Adam Johnson, Jay Tabb and other potential wingers were linked to the club many were putting what Cook had done to the past and ready to move on.

A fair point made and it remains to be seen whether he can produce the consistency of 2006/07 that brought him his end of season accolades. But if any player of the past few years that has experienced our troubled times deserved to be around now in these exciting times, then it is Cookie.

In fact he would have never have left if we weren’t in the financial mess that we were in last summer and it’s worth remembering that for what all Briatore, Ecclestone and Mittall’s money has done since they took over, if Cook hadn’t gone to pay the bills there may not have been a club for them to take over and rescue.

One player no doubt pleased about his return will be Dexter Blackstock, whose bulk of the 14 goals he scored in his first season was down to his assists but one player may not be so happy about his return.

What this means for Hogan Ephraim time will only tell, but nothing hurts than some friendly competition amongst the squad and it may mean we see a repeat of the Cook we last saw playing for us when then he didn’t have any competition for his place. He will now know that he will have to reach that level of performance once again if he wants to keep his place and prove that his last season with us wasn’t a one off.

Welcome back Cookie!

This entry was posted on Tuesday 5 August 2008 at 05:11. You can skip to the end and leave a response.