Middlesbrough have appointed Colin Cooper as their new Under 18’s Coach after he left Bradford City to take up the role.
Cooper, who had two spells at Boro during his playing career and was a coach at the club until May 2010, is set to be reunited with a former team-mate in Teessiders boss Tony Mowbray although he will report to Academy director Dave Parnaby on a day to day basis .
“We’ve had discussions with Colin about coming back and helping Dave,” Mowbray told the club’s website.
“Since Mark Proctor moved up to help myself and Mark Venus with the first team, Dave’s been doing that job on his own and also overseeing everything from the under-nines up.”
Cooper left the Riverside in May last year when Gordon Strachan opted to re-shuffle his coaching staff. He has since occupied the position of Assistant Manager at Bradford under both Peter Jackson and Phil Parkinson.
“It will be great to have a face that we all know, someone who holds this club very close to his heart,” said the current Boro boss.
“It will be good to see him back. His coaching experience has grown over the years and at Bradford he was unbeaten in three games as caretaker, had some good results and turned their fortunes around.”
“It will be good for our football club that he’ll be back both as a man and a coach.”
“For him I’m sure it will be like putting on an old pair of slippers, he’ll slot straight back into the building and hit the ground running”.
