Lee Cook on Wanting Waddock as Manager (Ben Kosky, Wembley and Kingsbury Times)

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Waddock job convinced Cook to stay
Ben Kosky, Wembley and Kingsbury Times July 19, 2006

LEE Cook has revealed he would have thought twice about extending his QPR contract if the club had overlooked Gary Waddock for the manager's job. Cook, whose previous contract had a year left to run, signed an improved deal that will keep him at Loftus Road until 2009 last month. But the winger,....was anxious to know who he would be playing under before penning his signature. Cook's place in the side rarely seemed assured under former Rs manager Ian Holloway, who often preferred to deploy Martin Rowlands or skipper Kevin Gallen on the left of midfield....
"I wouldn't have signed unless I knew who the manager was and I wanted to know that it was Gary."Before I signed my contract I phoned Gary on holiday just to make sure everything was going to be sorted out with him first."I feel I've played decent football under him and so have the rest of the team. He's a great coach and I hope he's going to be successful as QPR manager."
I always wanted to sign - they made me the offer just before I went on holiday and I left it to my agent to sort out all the bits and bobs." Gianni [Paladini] said there would be a few new players coming in this summer - and that was good to hear, because it's going to be a difficult season, especially with the teams that have come down into this league."
Cook was an ever-present in the team under Waddock last season and is now within touching distance of his 100th appearance since joining the club from Watford two years ago.But for the knee injury he picked up at Hull in the opening game of last season, which kept him out of action for the next six weeks, he would have been even closer to that target.And Cook is confident that the arrival of sports scientist Mark Barry, recently appointed by Waddock, can help reduce Rangers' often lengthy injury list."Mark's come in and he's got his own ways of getting players fit," said Cook. "We've got the heart rate monitors every training session and he makes sure everyone's working to their full potential, which is good for the club."....."We know it's going to be harder than last year, but I feel there were certain results we should have got last season and we have to put those right this time."If we're more physically fit, that should help keep the concentration going right through the 90 minutes and hopefully we can turn some of those slight defeats into wins.
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