By Paul Jones
Steve Cooper has admitted he was always a keen student at the Pep Guardiola open university but is ambitious to topple the Manchester City professor on Wednesday night.
Cooper’s Swansea City host Guardiola’s Premier League leaders in the FA Cup fifth round as the master and his enthusiastic apprentice meet for the first time.
The Swans head coach has always been an admirer of Guardiola and has revealed he studied the Spaniard carefully when he was working for the FA as England U17 coach.
“I am one of many coaches who will have that feeling of admiration for what he’s done in the game for how his teams played,” said Cooper of his opposite number,” said Cooper.
“His Barcelona team I studied a lot and then following on to Bayern Munich and City.
“In my old job with England, I managed to watch City live a lot because it wasn’t too far from home. When I covered games I would always to try to jump on the Manchester City games.
“You can’t be anything but show admiration for what Pep has done as a coach and the way his teams have played.
“I am one of so many younger coaches who have sat up and taken notice of the work he has done.”
Swansea may be laying third in the Championship and have clear ambitions for automatic promotion back to the Premier League, but Cooper is not viewing this tie as unrelated to the main aim of the season.
In fact, the age group World Cup winning boss – who is looking forward to catching up with his former England U17 star Phil Foden – insists the match is all about maintaining standards and momentum against the toughest opposition.
To the suggestion that his team have nothing to lose, he counters: “There’s always something to lose. Football is a competition. You have to compete.
“I think cup football is something you should go for anyway because it’s winner takes all on the night.
“That’s been our approach. This is our third FA Cup game and our approach has always been to go and win. They are very different ties of course but the objective hasn’t changed.
“The mentality we are trying to instil here is a competitive one and a winning one. I don’t think you can have a day off from that if you really believe in setting that standard. Wednesday will be no different.
“It’s a tough challenge but I am not going to every day stand in front of the players and talk about raising standards and belief and then come to a game and down tools and see it as a free hit. I think that would be wrong.
“We are very aware of the challenge but our objectives won’t change.”
FT: Swansea 2-0 Norwich.
Swans now looking such a solid, effective outfit. 15 goals conceded in 27 league games tells a story. Slick going forward. Hourihane adding an extra dimension.
Cooper’s next conundrum is how strong he goes against Man City. Worse problems to have.
— Fraser Watson (@FraserMercsport) February 5, 2021
Even so, as the Swans prepare to face a team that have surged away from their title rivals during a run of 14 straight victories in all competitions, Cooper acknowledges an FA Cup shock will only happen of the home side are faultless.
“We have to be perfect in our game and hope that they are not. Let’s be true about that.
“But the term I have used to the team this morning is to play with ambition and when we can, play our way.
“I know there are going to be times in the game when we wont see as much of the ball as we would like and probably the team’s going to be lower on the pitch than we would like.
“But when we do get opportunities to play or to impose our game, we have to commit to it, otherwise there’s no point having a way of playing.
“We won’t be doing anything too different. Our intention of playing doesn’t change.”
As Cooper get ready for his reunion with Foden, he has recalled how the midfielder was tied to a football even in hotel corridors when the player was with the England Under-17 World Cup winners.
Cooper coached the young Three Lions side which triumphed in India in 2017, with England beating Spain 5-2 in the Kolkata final.
Foden was the star of the show, scoring twice as England fought back from 2-0 down and won the Golden Ball as the tournament’s best player.
Over three years on and Cooper and Foden – who was in electric form as Manchester City beat Liverpool 4-1 on Sunday to open up a five-point Premier League lead – are now in rival camps.
“It’s brilliant to see him doing so well, he has been for a while now and he’s a fantastic talent,” added Cooper.
“He’s a brilliant lad and it’s lovely to see him showcasing it at the highest level.
“He loves football, and he’s always got a ball at his feet. It was the same in India for 32 or 33 days, whether he was in his hotel room, the corridor or on the training pitch.
“You’d very rarely see him without a ball or something he could play football with.”
Foden, now 20, has already made over 100 appearances for City and won his first senior England cap against Iceland last September.
Two other members of that U17 World Cup-winning squad, Callum Hudson-Odoi and Jadon Sancho, have also been capped at senior level, while others like Conor Gallagher, Emile Smith-Rowe, Morgan Gibbs-White and Rhian Brewster have played in the Premier League.
“When you work with a young player and spend time with them it’s brilliant to see them do well,” Cooper said.
“As well as that, when they’re not doing so well you are there to support them.
“You’re often exchanging messages to players whether they’re going through good moments or difficult moments and reflecting on stuff.
“Phil’s in a good moment and when you see that talent and work with them at a young age you hope they can progress.
“It about taking the opportunities that come and flourishing. It seems to me from the outside looking in that Phil is doing that.”
Cooper has signed five of his U17 World Cup winners at some point during his 20 months at the Liberty Stadium, former City defender Joel Latibeaudiere permanently and Brewster, Gallagher, Gibbs-White and Marc Guehi on loan.
But did he ever consider putting a call in to Guardiola a year or so back to see if Foden was available?
“If there was (a chance) I would have dived in, don’t worry about that,” Cooper said.
“But I don’t think Phil was ever too far away from the City team. If we did ask the question, I think we would have got a swift reply.”