Bashed up and bruised ... but young Rotherham United defender Jake Cooper and boss Paul Warne wouldn't have it any other way

Jake Cooper is reflecting on his manager’s delight at seeing him “get beaten up a bit”.

The Rotherham United youngster can see the funny side. He knows Paul Warne likes him really. After all, the Millers boss has just given him a new two-year contract.

It’s been a big season — his first as a pro — for the burly teenager who started out up front before being converted to a central defender.

He made three Football League Trophy appearances for League One Rotherham before heading off on loan to Gateshead FC where Warne was keen for the 19-year-old tested by the blood-and-guts physicality of National League North combat.

“There’s nothing like playing against men when three points and win bonuses are at stake. It’s a different world to the youth team,” the manager said. 

Cooper says: “It’s been great to be involved with the Rotherham first team in the first half of the season but at the end of the day I always needed some game-time and experience.”

He duly helped Gateshead into play-off contention, showing the same relish for a challenge he had when he’d reported for pre-season Millers training last summer knowing he had a point to prove as he stepped up to the senior ranks.

“I think I’ve come in and done all right this season,” he states with no hint of arrogance. “I didn’t have the best season as a second-year scholar but luckily I already has a year’s contract as a ‘pre-sign’. I did feel I had to come in and prove my worth. Hopefully I’ve done that. 

“It’s a massive difference being with the first-team. I always knew it was going to be tough. The quality of the players is obviously completely different and, with the gaffer being as big as he is on fitness, some of the sessions are really hard. 

“The fitness demands are massively bigger. The tempo in training is so much faster and everyone is obviously a lot sharper. It’s really demanding but I think that has helped me develop. 

“It’s brought a lot out of me because you can’t hide away. You have to bring something to the table.”

We’re chatting on the phone during lockdown last month, just before the coronavirus pandemic forced the cancellation of the final stages of the 2019/20 non-league campaign.

The player would have loved to have stayed in the North East for a possible promotion push but returned early to his parent club and is now taking a full part in online training with the rest of the Millers crew.

Although he was born in Burnley, where dad Jamie is still based, he has spent most of his life in Sheffield and lives with mum Rachel in Handsworth. 

Dominant in the air

For someone so young, he’s impressively assured but there’s also an appealing air of humility about him while any trace of Burnley in his deep voice is long gone. 

He starts several sentences with ‘At the end of the day’ and the phrase, along with everything else he says, is delivered in reyt proper Yorkshire accent.

Captain Richard Wood, who takes a paternal interest in the progress of a fellow centre-half, describes him as “a really good kid”.

As a kid, he was a really good centre-forward, but had found his true calling in the backline by the time he joined Rotherham before his 15th birthday.

“I was at Sheffield United up to under-14s as a striker,” he reveals. “Did I get many goals? Not enough obviously! 

“I’d played for Sheffield Boys as a centre-half, just filling in, and it seemed like I was a bit of a natural in that position. Every time I played for Sheffield Boys I played at centre-back, but it wasn’t something I really wanted to do. 

“I got released by Sheffield United and went trialing at a few clubs. I trained at Rotherham once and Hammy (Matt Hamshaw, part of the youth set-up then but now a first-team coach) rang my mum up saying that they wanted to sign me. 

“I actually played my first game for Rotherham as a striker and scored twice. I’ve never played up front since then! Rotherham have always seen me as a centre-half.”

Cooper made Warne’s league bench several times early this season and played against Manchester United U-21s, Doncaster Rovers and Lincoln City, where he learned plenty against the power of John Akinde, in cup competition.

Then he headed for Gateshead to get kicked and get his kicks from a run of eight wins and four draws in his 14 outings.

The non-leaguers, managed by former Newcastle United centre-back Mike Williamson, are a full-time operation and put up Cooper in a hotel several nights a week.

“It’s just like Rotherham — games on Saturday and sometimes Tuesday with Wednesdays off,” he says. “Going out and getting game-time has been the best thing for me. 

“Getting bashed is all part of it and there’s nothing better than playing in a game where you get a win and all the lads are buzzing because it means something. You feel part of something good, like you’ve contributed. It’s class.”

Signing his new contract

After a short initial loan, the defender travelled back up the A1 for a second stint, but not before Warne had rewarded him with a new two-year deal, allowing him to put a previous dark spell completely behind him.

“My second year as a scholar, I wasn’t slacking — I’d never slack — but things just didn’t quite happen for me as I wanted them to,” he says.

“I’m really happy now. When I was extending my loan, Hammy just gave me a call and said we’re extending it because we feel it will be good for your development — which obviously it has been — and we’re also discussing a new contract for you.”

Cooper won several Man-of-the-Match awards at Gateshead and also used his old striker’s instincts to score twice, including a sumptuous effort in a 4-2 home win against Leamington in February.

“We got a corner,” he recalls. “Not that I’m lazy, but if a corner breaks down and there’s a chance we can win it back I try to stay up all the time. 

“I sorted of peeled off to the back post and my mate, Jordan Preston — who I travel up with — found me. I took a touch and just sent a nice side-foot into the far top corner!”

“Better than any goal I could ever score,” said mentor Wood forlornly after watching it on YouTube.

Cooper knows he’s in good hands with the veteran skipper.

“I’m really keen to learn,” the prospect says. “I listen to advice, especially from someone like Woody with the experience he’s got after all the games he’s played. At the end of the day, you’d be stupid not to listen to someone like that. 

“What he tells you is only going to help you improve. I’ve got a lot of time for Woody and any other player who gives me advice to help me in my career.”

Despite having yet to make his league debut, he is already a popular and respected member of the Millers camp. His size and demeanour help him to fit in and whenever I’ve observed him at the Roundwood training complex he looks like he belongs.

Rotherham didn’t offer him a new deal out of kindness. They run a small squad and every place in it has to be earned.

“I think I read the game quite well and I feel comfortable on the ball,” he says. “Surprisingly, I was never really good at heading growing up. 

“I feel I’ve come out of my loan at Gateshead with my heading a lot better. That’s an area I’ve really improved. I would have put it down as a weakness before.”

Suddenly, he’s laughing again, this time about being a reluctant stopper.

“I tried to put it off for as long as possible,” he grins. “Nobody wants to be a centre-half when they’re a kid, do they? I really enjoyed being a striker.”

He returns from the North East a better player than when he went there, a tougher, harder-edged competitor. There were seven clean sheets in his last ten Gateshead matches.

At the end of the day, the Millers might just have a real defender on their hands.​

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JAKE Cooper is looking for his first taste of EFL action next season ... but the young prospect accepts it might not be with Rotherham United.

The League One Millers could be playing Championship football in 2020/21 and the teenager who has excelled in a non-league loan spell at Gateshead during this campaign isn’t expecting a second-tier call-up just yet.

“If the lads were to go up to the Championship that would be a massive climb for me so I think a loan to a lower-league Football League club would suit me,” he says.

“That would be more realistic. At the end of the day, if I could get into the Rotherham team or really push for a place that’s what I’d want, but I’m only 19 so to drop down a level but still get experience in the Football League would be great.”

The centre-half is keen to follow in the footsteps of fellow academy graduate striker Josh Kayode who also had a temporary spell at Gateshead before making his Football League bow during a loan move to League Two Carlisle United.

“That’s the pathway I’d like to go through,” Cooper says.

Meanwhile, he knows his development is in good hands under manager Paul Warne who had led the Millers to second place in the league before the coronavirus pandemic brought football to a halt in March.

Clubs will soon vote on whether to end the league programme now and promote Rotherham and leaders Coventry City.

“The Gaffer has been class,” he says. “He’s always demanding the best out of me and all the other lads. All the players have so much respect for him that they’ll do whatever he asks of them. 

“You’ll do it for him regardless and that’s been shown by how the lads have performed for him this season. 

“Richie (assistant boss Barker) and Hammy (coach Matt Hamshaw) are quality as well. It’s a great coaching set-up and that’s been proved by where we are in the league.”

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WARNE'S VIEW:

Jake has done really well in his first year as a pro and deserved the two-year deal he signed a few months ago, just like another of our teenagers, Josh Kayode, deserved his new contract as well.

We don’t have an under-23s set-up here and the step up from the youth team to the professional ranks is massive. 

We try to get the best people, the fittest people, the best students of the game. If you get through our youth system and get a pro deal ... well done, that is some achievement. To then get your pro deal extended is something else. 

Jake and JJ — everyone calls Josh ‘JJ’ — have done really well on their loans this season. Jake was outstanding at Gateshead. Did you see that goal he scored? Jesus wept.

Some loans work, some don’t. The first loan is always a tough loan, I think. Our coach, Matt Hamshaw does brilliantly overseeing things. 

Very often the first loan doesn’t work and then the player matures a little bit and the second one is better. Suddenly, winning on a Saturday becomes a big thing. If you don’t win on a Saturday in the youth team ... I’m not saying they enjoy losing but it’s not as big a thing as not winning in a real competitive men’s game. Your wages depend on the result then. Players want to win. 

In the old days, if a young player went on loan and didn’t look too bothered, the experienced pros in that side would have him by the throat themselves. It’s not like that now but it’s still a tough learning curve and Jake has excelled. 

He’s won Man-of-the-Match awards up there, like JJ did. Our scouts watched him and said he did really well. He came back for some training with us and didn’t look out of place at all. 

He more than deserves his new contract. He’s one for the future. In a year’s time, I could have got it completely wrong, but I don’t think I have. 

You have to reward success. He’s succeeding and he’s got a longer contract because we think enough about him to give him one. 

We’ll look at him again before next season. It may be that his next loan is to a Football League club, again like JJ. He might go to Grimsby or Crewe or somewhere like that to aid his development. Equally, he might be in my plans. 

We’ll see how good he is when we all come back for the next pre-season.