Position: Left winger
From: Aylesbury United - free transfer - March 2000
Career stats: Soccerbase
He is: Older and wiser than he looks (though only a bit)
Profile:
The subject of a (futile and unsuccessful) lawsuit from Aylesbury United when we 'picked
him up' from that club at the tender age of seventeen (relief that he missed his homecoming
friendly fixture this pre-season, then), young Lee Cook shone in the reserves almost from
day one before bursting late in the final GT season into the first team for a couple of
substitute cameos followed by a hurricane 180 minutes against Tranmere, Gillingham and
Burnley before being carried off having apparently caught his stud and badly twisted
his knee.
The length and complexity of that last sentence is akin to any one of the
runs Lee made up the left wing before his injury, though it's not nearly as
entertaining. Moon-faced Lee looked like the genuine if unfinished article
(looking about eleven doesn't help either) and proved beyond doubt that he has
a fabulous eye for a through-ball. He scored some terrific goals in the
reserves as well and immediately seemed to have excellent understanding
with the almost-as-young front line of Tommy Smith and Gifton Noel-Williams when
he was picked for the last three first-team games of the season, having
impressed in his debut as a sub at Crewe, in an ignominious defeat, and
then again at Grimsby. By the end of the GT era, opinions differed as to whether
he was more Wooter-with-stamina-and-awareness or Daley-with-knobs-on. If he
can stay injury-free (and he's as likely to be hacked or bundled out of a
game by a big defender as twisting and turning himself back into the
treatment-room), he could carve a substantial role in the GV era, though
his fortunes probably also depend on the success or otherwise of the flurry of
purchases Luca made to fill the positions Lee had previously played.
Martin Blanc
Last updated: July 2001