He has completed a boyhood dream at Leeds United – and Scotland star Liam Cooper says he’s happy to silence the critics in doing so.
The centre-back captained Marcelo Bielsa’s side back to the Premier League and they are set for safety with ease in their first top-flight season since the early 2000s. People questioned whether Cooper could make the step up, having dropped as low as League Two earlier in his career after time with Hull City, but he certainly has.
Cooper has been a worthy captain at . (Photo by Paul Greenwood – CameraSport via Getty Images)
He says it’s been a dream come true so far: “I have to pinch myself, not just for me, for my family as well. It’s unbelievable. Obviously I grew up being a Leeds United fan and those dreams are distant when you are a young boy and you are coming through.
“You never think you will get to captain your club and go back to the Premier League and do what we have done is unbelievable. It’s a dream come true and one I am enjoying so much. I wasn’t wanted at Hull. It’s a bitter pill to swallow when someone doesn’t want you.
“But you can let it get you down or you can go and prove people wrong, and I’d like to think I have done that over the years. When you are in League Two and you have to drop down the leagues, those dreams are so far away, the Premier League is so far away.
Once at Chesterfield. (Photo by Michael Regan/Getty Images)
“We are an elite club now and we are starting to create an elite mentality and that’s the way it has got to be.”
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