Cook Hands Rangers A £250,000 Lifeline

The following article was written by Wayne Veysey and appeared in the ‘Evening Standard’ as part of a feature on Fulham FC:-

New Fulham signing Lee Cook revealed today he has donated ¬£250,000 to his former Club Queen’s Park Rangers to help steer them through their financial troubles. Cook, one of eight players to join Lawrie Sanchez’s Craven Cottage revolution this summer, decided to give the sum, which equates to 10% of his ¬£2.5m transfer fee, when he left Loftus Road last month. “Rangers are struggling for money and, as everyone knows, I’m a boyhood Rangers fan,” explained Cook. “The Club were saying that not enough money had been paid for me. I said, I’ll give you 10 per cent of the sale. It was totally my decision, there was no pressure from anyone. The transfer had been agreed but I love Rangers and I don’t want to see them hard up.”

Even allowing for the leap in Cook’s wages from ¬£4,000 a week to ¬£18,000 following his move, it is a gesture that will be hugely appreciated by everyone at Loftus Road and challenges the assumption that all Premiership footballers are mercenaries. Cook admits the off-field controversies during his three years at QPR were unsettling for the players. He said, “Whenever you picked up the paper there was something bad going on at QPR, whether it was the fight against the Chinese or the financial problems. I’ve heard Gianni Paladini saying that there are new investors coming. If they are, hopefully everything will be sorted out. At times it was difficult. When you are a player, you just want to play football but it goes through your mind that the Club might go into administration and that you might not get paid next month. But to be fair to the Club, they never asked us to take a wage cut and our wages were always paid on the first day of every month.”

The 24 year old recognises he has joined a whole new world at Fulham, where Chairman Mohammed Fayed has reversed his trend of recent Seasons by allowing new Manager Sanchez to spend heavily in the transfer market. “I heard Lawrie wanted me in April or May and then it was just a matter of the Clubs agreeing a deal,” said Cook. “A couple of northern Premiership Clubs were also interested but to be honest it was an easy decision. My family are all from the local area and I didn’t want to uproot them and my fianc√©e by moving up north.”

(the remainder of the article refers completely to Fulham FC)

Steve Russell