From issue 46 of Follow Fanizne fanzine - published shortly after Coop's death.
There is something about the death of a legend that unites thousands
of us, because for us Bears who were fortunate enough to see Davie
play, he is part of us. The great players NEVER die, because for as
long as we remember them, and talk about them, then their greatness
lives on in our hearts.
Davie Cooper was such a great player, perhaps he was also an unsung
hero, because he plied his trade in Scotland and was never tempted to
‘prove’ himself in England or elsewhere. Dalglish, quite rightly, is
acknowledged as a world great, but would that have been the case had
he remained in Scotland? Cooper was at least Dalglish’s equal, albeit
that Cooper was pigeonholed as a winger.
Calling Cooper a winger is like calling Pavarotti a chanter. Cooper
was the footballer as artist. We hear loads of stuff about players
‘expressing themselves’, but Cooper was one of the very few who had
something worth expressing. Indeed I think that had Cooper had a right
foot of equivalent quality to his left, then the whole of world
football would have beaten a path to his door. Not that his
one-footedness was any kind of hindrance, for if Coop couldn’t turn a
defender outside-in with his left foot, then he contented himself with
giving the poor blighter twisted blood with the same left foot, the
magical, enchanting, devastating left foot.
On the day that Davie Cooper died the main news on the BBC and ITN
concerned another player who had misbehaved, and was up in court. The
real sadness is that British football should not have been concerned
with Cantona on that day, rather Cooper-s untimely demise should have
been marked properly nationwide. The Nine O’clock news on the Beeb was
typical.
The news of Cooper’s death was tacked on to the end of the bulletin,
with a clip of the man destroying the Hearts defence in his inimitable
manner, but the newsreader rushed to finish the news and the clip
faded before the ball hit the net. Imagine a player such as Gascoigne
in the same circumstances, would be tacked on item at the end of the
news be deemed sufficient?
And there is the rub. Cooper was as good as the very best, but his
talent was largely unrecognised outside Scotland. Ruud Gullit is
reported to have said that Cooper was the best he had seen, and I
suppose he should know. Otherwise the football world outside Scotland
knows that we have lost a fine player, but not that he was a class
apart, a legend, a hero, an entertainer. It has been said before, but
wouldn’t Davie have been a sensation in Serie A?
We all have special memories of Coop, but for me it is the noise of
the ball hitting the back of the Aberdeen net in the Skol Cup Final
1987. From the back of the main stand I swear I heard that ball hit
the net above the roar of the crowd, such was the power and accuracy
of the shot. In a final which was jam-packed with great goals and
moments of palpitating excitement, Cooper’s contribution still stands
out, possibly because we are not renowned for dead ball kickers.
Dribblers, wingers, wee barras who could beat a man well, Scotland
produces them from time to time. But Cooper was a fine winger, a great
player in the middle of the field, a sublime passer of the ball.
But added to all that he couldn’t half hit a dead ball. Would that he
had been able to pass that skill on to his colleagues at Ibrox, for
there is no way he could pass on his dribbling skills, for they were
his peculiar if not unique talent, a once in a generation occurrence.
Thousands will mourn the passing of Davie Cooper, and rightly so, for
he was special and remains special here in our thoughts, but once I’ve
got over the shock of his death I like to think that the best we can
do is to keep the memory of Coop alive. The videos are OK, but it is
the memories of those of us who saw him play which will breathe life
into the celluloid recollections - for as long as we wish it to be so,
Davie Cooper will be a Rangers legend, up there with the very best.
ROBERT BURNS