LEE POWER points at his manager Mark Cooper and Jose Mourinho on the programme cover. “He was working as a waiter in a cocktail bar when I met him… and now look,” laughs the Swindon Town director of football operations.
We’re in the gaffer’s office and Power, the ex-Norwich City striker who now runs the Robins with chairman Jed McCrory, is being kind to 44-year-old Cooper’s recent employment history with his joke.
The former Tamworth, Kettering, Peterborough and Darlington boss had been out of work over a year before a month on expenses only at AFC Telford led to his arrival at the County Ground last March as part of the post-Paolo Di Canio regime, initially as assistant.
Sofa
The man whose record in Non-League boasted a title, an FA Trophy win and numerous Cup runs, but couldn’t even warrant an interview at Hereford and Stockport, was handed the top job after Kevin MacDonald quit in pre-season.
A few weeks on it’s The Special One v The Unwanted One. Chelsea versus Swindon Town. Premier League leaders against 11th in League One. A £200m set of stiffs against a side costing roughly what Roman Abramovich pulls from the back of his yacht’s sofa.
It’s the kind of rags to riches story football conjures up, although there’s not much of the latter in Wiltshire. “We’ve cut the budget from five-and-a-half million to £2.3m since we took over,” says Power, welcoming a near 15,000 sell-out crowd – Town’s biggest in 16 years.
Cooper is a salt-of-the earth type who knows that tight finances are why he got the gig, but this is also the kind of cup occasion the English love – and Swindon have previous.
They won this League Cup competition in 1969, and it’s almost 50 years to the night that Swindon turned the King’s Road aristocrats over 3-0 on a County Ground surface that wasn’t a patch on the carpet awaiting them this time.
“We could have let the grass grow and thrown sand in the corners, but that wouldn’t suit our own game,” says Cooper, who has a group of young Tottenham loanees and Premier League cast-offs playing tiki-taka Tesco Value-style.
After meeting the mascots, writing out the team and the set-piece instructions with assistant Luke Williams, Cooper heads to the home dressing room.
“Where’s Range?” he asks, as everyone waits for the former Newcastle striker Nile Ranger to come out of the toilet. Williams eases any tension. “Their teamsheet boys… Frank Leboeuf, Peter Osgood… what do you mean ‘Frank Le-who?’ You boys are too young!”
Cooper takes over. “I’ve just been asked by Sky what’s the one piece of advice I’ll be giving my players,” he says. “To f****** enjoy it, that’s what I told them. We can’t play any other way.
“The whole world is watching you tonight. Don’t waste it. Go and play. Get on the ball. Respect them, because we’re playing against one of the best teams in the world. But don’t be frightened of them. Show that you can play at that level every week.”
The excitement is palpable. Goalkeeping coach Fraser Digby spent 12 years as a Swindon keeper, including 1993-94 in the Premier League, but he ferries the flip chart from office to changing room.
“You finish as a player and don’t think you’ll be involved in games like this again,” the 46-year-old tells me. “I played under Glenn Hoddle here and Mark has got the boys playing the kind of football we played back then. I just hope they show it tonight.”
Club secretary Louise Fletcher gets a photo with Mourinho, then injured midfielder Ryan Harley asks her for a pen. “My dad wants the manager’s autograph,” he explains. “Theirs, not ours!” he adds with a grin.
Within minutes Mourinho is outside the visitors’ dressing room door obliging Harley with a smile and friendly words, as he does Cooper when the teamsheets are exchanged.
“He said thanks for my kind words in the programme,” said Cooper, who had written of his “respect” for Mourinho and how he is “always examining what he’s doing and why he’s doing it”.
There are three generations of Coopers here, with 16-year-old son Charlie, a first-year scholar at Birmingham City, and father Terry – the former Leeds and England left-back – supporting Mark. It’s not the first time they’ve come up against the Mourinhos, it seems.
“I’m sure I played against his dad at Vitoria Setubal when we won the European Fairs Cup in 1970-71,” says Yorkshireman Terry, now 69. “I’ve got a Rothman’s annual back home in Tenerife and meant to check it before I flew over. I know we beat them 3-2 though.”
“Go and ask him, dad: ‘Does tha remember when I put three past tha father?’ ” says Mark, whose hopes of a similar outcome diminishes with Juan Mata, David Luiz, Fernando Torres, Michael Essien and £32m man Willian starting for the visitors.
Swindon’s youngsters start by knocking the ball about confidently, but a Blues blitz effectively kills the tie. At half-time, Cooper and Williams discuss how to replace the injured Ranger and wait to see the goals before going into the dressing room.
The hospitality suite upstairs switches channels to Sky Sports News, changing the feed on the office TV, so they are forced to use the broadcaster’s tiny monitor to see Torres’ tap-in and Ramires’ brilliant chip over the otherwise immaculate Wes Foderingham.
“We’ve done all right, but we’ve not hurt them,” Cooper tells his attentive troops. “We might as well get beat ten now. We’ve got more than we’ve shown. Let’s have a real go. Don’t be frightened on the ball and remember this is a bonus game for us. Get a goal and it makes it interesting, doesn’t it? Keep the ball. Keep playing.”
Flag
They certainly do that. The impressive Alex Pritchard and Yaser Kasim continue to match Mata and Essien in midfield, and despite ex-England captain John Terry’s introduction, a 51st minute free-kick from Jay McEveley finds Dany N’Guessan’s head.
The ball nestles in the net, but an offside flag flutters. Soon after another header by the French forward is saved easily by Mark Schwarzer, and Swindon’s chance of setting up a grandstand finale is gone. “Kasim wouldn’t look out of place in their team,” says Power afterwards. “Can you believe he couldn’t get a game on loan at Luton and Macclesfield last year?”
Cooper shakes all his players’ hands as they file past him, then tells them: “It’s the bread and butter again on Saturday – Preston North End away. If we have that much of the ball in League One, we’ll do well.
“I’m pleased with the possession, but we’ve got to be able to produce in the final third if you’re going to get the better of world class players like Terry and Luiz. Stay upbeat and get ready for Saturday.”
Mourinho had already made his way onto the Chelsea coach, with Cooper sending a member of staff out with the bottle of red wine he’d had ready to be uncorked.
If he was disappointed he didn’t get chance to pick the counterpart’s brain as part of a coaching education that has taken him from facing Hyde to avoiding a hiding from Chelsea inside seven months, Cooper didn’t make it an issue when asked by the Press if he’d had chance to share his Blossom Hill.
“No, but from the moment he’s got here he’s been pestered left, right and centre, so we know what it’s like when you’re at that level,” Cooper said. “He and Chelsea have shown us respect. They do things properly.”
Perhaps Mourinho had heard Power’s gag about Cooper’s waiting past and didn’t want a spillage.
Whatever, the Special One’s no-show certainly didn’t spoil a night for The (Previously) Unwanted One and his rapidly maturing Reds to be proud.
