'Love and fondess' - Paul Cook expresses happines at signing new Chesterfield contract

Paul Cook. (Photo by Alex Broadway/Getty Images)Paul Cook. (Photo by Alex Broadway/Getty Images)
Paul Cook. (Photo by Alex Broadway/Getty Images)
Paul Cook has expressed his happiness at signing a new contract at Chesterfield.

The 57-year-old has extended his stay along with his backroom staff, much to the delight of everyone at the club and the supporters.

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Cook came back to the club for a second spell in February 2022 and he has since led the Spireites back to League Two after six years in the National League.

He told the DT: "Myself and my staff are absolutely delighted to be here. It is a club very close to our hearts and we are all really pleased and happy. I think people know how happy I am at the club."

Cook had been out of management for three months after departing Ipswich Town, who were then in League One, and it is fair to say he would not have taken a job in non-league for any club other than Chesterfield.

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He continued: "Coming back here was a big decision for me to drop down from where I was managing. Plenty of people thought I was mad! But I always had a fondness and a love for the club because they gave me my first opportunity to be a manager in English football. It was my first success in English football and then you follow them forever."

Although dropping down into the fifth-tier was not an easy decision, the prospect of being the man to guide the club back up the football pyramid pulled at his heart strings.

He explained: “To see them drop into the National League was really, really tough so when the opportunity to come back arose, the thought of taking them back into the EFL was the biggest deciding factor. If I could help the club go back into the league then it would be a real sense of achievement.”

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Cook has often spoken about his dislike for the way managers lose their jobs after such a short period of time, calling it a ‘joke’, so the support he is getting from Phil and Ashley Kirk is refreshing for him.

He added: “The general way the club is being run, I can’t think of many better places to be. They have put a lot of faith and trust in me and it is a really nice feeling to have as a manager.”

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