With the start to the season Andy Cook has had, it is almost impossible to find superlatives that are fitting enough to describe it. In the new era of King Charles III, at Valley Parade we have a new king of our own. His start to this season is only bettered in terms of minutes per goal by probably the worlds best striker Erling Braut Haaland, and as things stand Cook has records to break if he carries on with his mission that seems to be to put anything that comes his way into the back of the net.
First, Social Media Hypocrisy
One of the questions people have recently asked on social media is what is the right number of games to judge a team on. Some say it should be ten, but when Bradford City seemed to be struggling, some fans were quick to extend that number by claiming “ten games is too soon to judge”. So with that in mind, is passing his ten game mark too soon to judge Andy Cook? Or, as I suspect, those same people will have a different opinion about judging him because he is doing so well. In reality what those people who were saying in fact was “you can’t say anything negative” because it’s too early, but you can say positive things as early as you want”. A little hypocritical and renders the whole “too soon” point moot when you really think about it. So, since I’m going to be saying nice things about our free scoring striker Andy Cook, I suspect those people won’t mind.
In fact it wasn’t too soon for people on social media to start mocking those people who believed the time had come for Andy Cook to move on to pastures new during pre-season. After just his first two goalscoring games, they had a lot to say. But for some reason they didn’t consider taking the advice that many of them would willingly give out when Bradford City’s season hadn’t got off to the start they expected.
During pre-season, the most recent evidence we had was based on Andy Cook’s previous season. In the opinion of a number of fans he wasn’t putting in the required effort and as a result was not as fit as he should be, his goals had dried up and because he is reported to be one of our highest earners, the sensible thing to do was use that money to bring in a few new faces instead. We now know that Mark Hughes wanted to move him on, and had tried to, but as I’ve previously stated, on a reported £3,500 a-week wage, finding a League Two club prepared to outlay that wage on a striker who had struggled last season was easier said than done. The fact is that Mark Hughes himself clearly shared some of the opinions that the “doubters”, as they’ve been labelled had about the value of Andy Cook remaining at Valley Parade.
But it wasn’t just the manager or a handful of “negative” fans making things up, even Andy Cook himself would later come out and say that he wasn’t in the best shape last season and that it was the additional new faces to compete with him that had changed his mentality.
A New Effort Paying Off For Cook
Based on last season there was little evidence to suggest that he would be the 20-goal-a-season striker that a promotion winning side need. Hindsight of course is a wonderful thing, but how many of those people now saying “I told you so” could point to any physical evidence that Cook would come back looking in better shape than last season with the new found determination that has turned him from a player that spent too much of last season throwing his hands up to complain about the service he is getting instead of chasing the lost cause? This season he is chasing the lost cause (as well as occasionally throwing his hands in the air). His anticipation has improved and he has a confidence that was previously lacking. Now, if he isn’t striking the ball at the first sign of opportunity, he’s popping up in just the right place at the right time. These things don’t happen by accident and a lot of that is down to mentality.
To mock the arguments that Andy Cook wasn’t the man to lead the line for Bradford City is not only to fail to recognise that those points have more to them than just his goal tally for last season. That wan’t even the biggest issue, in fact you could easily argue he wasn’t getting much service so it is hard for any striker to score goals in that situation, and those arguments would be valid. But the important factor is that Andy Cook this season is doing a lot of the things that he wasn’t doing last season and that has produced results and bread a confidence that he is going to score in every match. His all round game has improved dramatically, it isn’t just the goals that he is being recognised for, against Tranmere Rovers he was also one of our best defenders making crucial blocks and headers, that’s an example of his increased work rate.
The addition of competition up front has certainly given him the kick up the arse he probably needed. And all credit to Cookie, he has gone about things in exactly the right way and has made his own luck this season. Few of the people who were in favour of getting rid of him will deny that he has a goalscorer pedigree, however, just having that ability alone is not enough to score goals. And the credit for this turnaround can only be given to one person, the same person that gets all of the blame for his performances last season, so when he picks up the award for top goalscorer next season, Andy Cook can thank himself for all of the effort he has put in. With Andy Cook already voted the Bradford City Player of the Month for August he is already well on the way to picking up the same award in September as he is regularly picking up very high marks for his match performances. This is no coincidence and although his goals will play a major role in his ratings, people are starting to notice the work he is putting in.
Records to break?
And here we are with Andy Cook currently on a tally of 9 goals this season, a hat-trick away from equalling his tally for the entirety of the 2021/22 season, with greatly improved all round stats. His Minutes Per Goal ratio of 68 is only bettered by Erling Braut Haaland with 56 minutes per goal. King Cook is well on course to being crowned League Two top scorer if he carries on in the same way he has started the season and as things stand we can realistically look to him as the new Bobby Campbell with an eye on reaching the 33 mark. But why stop there? As things stand there’s a Bradford City club goalscoring record within his sights. The 36 goals by David Layne in 1961-62 is possible if he can avoid injury and carries on like this. It is a big ask of course, but this is a season where if he puts his mind to it, Andy Cook could go down in Bradford City history.
And just like any other Bradford City supporter, those that have had their doubts about him will be willing him on, wanting to be proved spectacularly wrong for having those doubts. But not even the most avid fan of Andy Cook could claim to have known he would have hit this kind of form, so now let’s enjoy the journey and hope that Cook can break a few goalscoring records that have stood for way too long.