Friday 25 April 2008

Cook returns to Putney

Lee Cook has followed Leroy Lita in returning to his home club. Luke Varney and Scott Wagstaff are in contention for his place on the left in tomorrow's clash at Barnsley.

Cook had expressed an interest in remaining at The Valley, but it was no dice with the Charlton supremo: 'He's a Fulham player and I didn't feel we had any chance of signing him permanently. There's no point keeping him here so I've sent him back and his position will be taken by one of the players who will be here next year and who is looking to make an impact.'

Leaving aside for a moment the question of whether we would want to keep him, why was there no chance of keeping permanently? Was he needed by Foolham for their bid to return to the Premiership? (No hope) Or couldn't we afford his wages? If that is the case, it is another worrying sign of the club's financial condition.

I thought that Cook was a good technical player who was adept at taking corners, at least sometimes. However, there were always doubts about his fitness and we don't want another player on the dread Sparrows Lane treatment table.

Pards has also admitted that the injury that Zheng Zhi picked up against QPR was partly a consequence of fatigue and that the Chinese player was tired out. Actually some of the fans spotted that some time ago.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I thought Cook was an O/K player, but as you point out, injury prone. If he were available free then yes i'd take him. But i wouldn't be willing to risk a transfer fee on him. We've made the mistake of BUYING crocks all to frequently.