Ex Player Joel Cooper

Great news from the club, addressing one of the area's that needed attention ie wingers.
I'm sure our business across the water was a factor in signing for the Yellows. ??
 
Wouldn't mind a preseason tour in Northern Ireland; play as many teams as we can, take our scouts with us + sort our signings for the next few seasons
 
Welcome to OUFC Joel! Very pleased to see him sign; the opportunities are there for the taking in that position too.
 
We need a pre season in Poland. Loads of good beer, and loads of nice ladies. What’s not to like...
um, travelling there in the middle of global pandemic.

welcome to the mighty yellows Joel
 
I do like the way we seem to be hoovering up a lot of talent from Across the Irish Sea. Shame we couldn’t get the whinge bag Curtis. He’d be our ideal number 11.
 
The standard of the NI League is poor. The NI Premiership is probably about Conference South. The top 2-3 sides (Crusaders, Lingfield) might just about survive in L2. All the better players are known to all the scouts. A lot of NI boys will move to England aged 16-17, and then move back to play in NI. They are generally reluctant to try England again. Gavin Whyte was a late developer,, and was not really rated there until his early 20's. Sykes was always known about and many in NI football were puzzled when we bought Whyte ahead of Sykes. It's a small pool of semi pro/pro players, and they will all talk to each other. They will know that Whyte and Sykes have done well with us and enjoy Oxford. Jimmy Magilton has held various positions with the NI FA since 2013, and he has always spoken well of us. I know that Joel Cooper was one of 3-4 in NI that we were looking at. He's at a good age (24) and he knows both Sykes and Whyte from the NI League. Fitness can be an issue when moving from the NI League to pro football in England, one of the reasons Sykes and Whyte made slow ish starts with us.

I don't overly follow youth football in Northern Ireland so maybe youre speaking from a different perspective than myself.

But with regards to Gavin Whyte, very few Irish league fans were surprised to see him get the move ahead of Sykes. Whyte had a good 3+ seasons under his belt at Crusaders were he was winning titles, cups, performing in early European rounds and getting plenty of goals and assists.

While Sykes was a good player in the irish league. Gavin Whyte could single handedly carry games and be the difference. Sykes never had that same impact and Glenavon while still a decent side; where never realistically competing for trophies on a regular basis.

Been a few good talented players come out of the irish league over the last number of years. As a bias crusaders fan, Stuart Dallas and gavin whyte are the best two in my opinion.

Joe Gormley who joined Peterborough a few seasons ago could of been a huge player. He had an excellent pre season and alot of Peterbrough fans even put bets on him to be the top goalscorer in league one. Unfortunately he did his acl and just never properly recovered. I think the step up in part time to full-time is big enough nevermind having to deal with an ACL injury a few months in. Always feel Joe the Goal could of went a bit further.

As for Joel Cooper, I've not watched him enough to give a proper fair opinion. Based on your recent successes with Irish league players though, I don't think it's a particularly big risk. Hopefully it works out for the lad.
 
I don't overly follow youth football in Northern Ireland so maybe youre speaking from a different perspective than myself.

But with regards to Gavin Whyte, very few Irish league fans were surprised to see him get the move ahead of Sykes. Whyte had a good 3+ seasons under his belt at Crusaders were he was winning titles, cups, performing in early European rounds and getting plenty of goals and assists.

While Sykes was a good player in the irish league. Gavin Whyte could single handedly carry games and be the difference. Sykes never had that same impact and Glenavon while still a decent side; where never realistically competing for trophies on a regular basis.

Been a few good talented players come out of the irish league over the last number of years. As a bias crusaders fan, Stuart Dallas and gavin whyte are the best two in my opinion.

Joe Gormley who joined Peterborough a few seasons ago could of been a huge player. He had an excellent pre season and alot of Peterbrough fans even put bets on him to be the top goalscorer in league one. Unfortunately he did his acl and just never properly recovered. I think the step up in part time to full-time is big enough nevermind having to deal with an ACL injury a few months in. Always feel Joe the Goal could of went a bit further.

As for Joel Cooper, I've not watched him enough to give a proper fair opinion. Based on your recent successes with Irish league players though, I don't think it's a particularly big risk. Hopefully it works out for the lad.
Hi- no, I was more talking about when he was coming through the age groups in NI. Sykes was always considered the better prospect, apparently. But anyway. I haven't seen much of Joel Cooper, but fingers crossed!
 
Hi- no, I was more talking about when he was coming through the age groups in NI. Sykes was always considered the better prospect, apparently. But anyway. I haven't seen much of Joel Cooper, but fingers crossed!

I thought that was likely the case and you're probably right. I don't follow alot of youth football myself though.

In terms of Irish league though, Gavin was always the better talent.
 
Cooper called up to the NI squad for the upcoming international break.

Misses fixtures against Bristol Rovers and Gillingham.

Has been called up before but has yet to make an appearance for the side, so here's hoping that if he's going to be absent from the squad for what could be a big fixture against Gills he at least gets some minutes this time around.
 
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