Feb 12
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Former Sligo Rovers manager Paul Cook, left, with his Airtricity SWAI Personailty of the Year Award for 2010. Cook left Sligo earlier this week to join Accrington Stanley as manager. Picture credit: David Maher / SPORTSFILE
Former Sligo Rovers boss Paul Cook says he had to come to Ireland if he had any chance of fulfilling his managerial dream and now his five year spell at Sluigo has made him better equipped as a manager.
Meanwhile the hunt for his successor at the Showgrounds continues with names like colourful Monaghan boss, Roddy Collins in the mix.
Cook, quoted in the Lancashire Telegraph regrets leaving Accrington Stanley as a coach in 2006 and taking up a managerial role with Sourthport, where he lasted just seven months before getting the boot.
“Southport wasn’t difficult, it was just a disaster!” he told the paper.
“It was mission im-possible. Southport is a good football club and I wish them every success but it was a bad move for me, I should never have taken the job. I was young, I was inexperienced and I thought I could change the world.
“When you’ve been sacked at a club after a few months, the chances of you getting another job in England are nil, it’s that simple.
“Basically you’ve been tarnished by that club that you don’t know what you’re doing and you’re not good enough to manage, so no-one is going to give you another job.
“So I didn’t really have another choice other than to go to Ireland and try to prove that I could manage. I like to think with what I’ve done for Sligo Rovers over five years has been testament that I can manage, I do know what I’m doing and with the right backing we can have success.
“Four-and-a-half or five years later I’m a little bit more experienced, I’ve got a better knowledge of management and I’d like to think I’m a better manager.
“For Accrington to come after me after so many quality applicants is a great pat on the back for me. But that’s gone, what you’ve done at previous clubs doesn’t really count because that period of your life is over.”
