Leeds United centre-half Liam Cooper will go into the history books this Saturday if he features (as expected) as skipper in the Championship match against Bristol City.
Our second longest serving player, following his arrival from Chesterfield back in 2014, has already broken the 100 appearance milestone at Elland Road but Saturday should see him become only the 12th player in our history to make 100 appearances, or over, whilst wearing the armband.
The 27-year-old has proven to be a snip for a reported fee of only £600,000 and this season in particular under manager Marcelo Bielsa he’s proven his worth and proven quite a few of his knockers wrong with his performances. He now has 140 starting appearances to his name, with a further ten from the substitutes bench, but the 100 skipper’s club is an incredibly special honour at any club, let alone Leeds.
It does mean he can soon count himself amongst the likes of Billy Bremner, Trevor Cherry, Gordon Strachan, Gary McAllister, John Charles and Lucas Radebe.
Yorkshire Evening Post journalist Phil Hay has a good read on the topic.
Courtesy of numbers from @lufcstats, Liam Cooper about to join the captain's 100 club at Leeds United. But who else is in it?https://t.co/JdwJ0VGYFn
— Phil Hay (@PhilHay_) March 6, 2019
Fans on social media certainly appreciated the significance.
Agree there Barney. Proved us all wrong. He’s been a Credit to the club this season. Turned into a very good captain.
— Diddlysquat (@markrikko) March 6, 2019
Points per game (PPG) with @LiamCooper__ this season = 2.04. PPG without Cooper = 1.33. Win % with = 60%. Win % without = 41%. @NothingButLUFC
— //Andrew Rodgers ☘ (@AndyNRodgers) March 6, 2019
He's grown as the club has grown. He was there in the dark years and I hope he can celebrate come the end of the season.
— Rob Wilkinson (@Robbydeux) March 6, 2019
A true captain. Great skipper.
— EdmondDantes (@LeComtedeMonteC) March 6, 2019
Cooper next season when starting his 6th season at Leeds as captain in the Premier League pic.twitter.com/EW3GVeFFMt
— Kurtis Steele???????? (@FaxBrony) March 6, 2019