Bashed up and bruised ... but young Rotherham United defender Jake Cooper and boss Paul Warne wouldn't have it any other way

Jake Cooper is reflecting on his manager’s delight at seeing him “get beaten up a bit”.

The Rotherham United youngster can see the funny side. He knows Paul Warne likes him really. After all, the Millers boss has just given him a new two-year contract.

It’s been a big season — his first as a pro — for the burly teenager who started out up front before being converted to a central defender.

He made three Football League Trophy appearances for League One Rotherham before heading off on loan to Gateshead FC where Warne was keen for the 19-year-old tested by the blood-and-guts physicality of National League North combat.

“There’s nothing like playing against men when three points and win bonuses are at stake. It’s a different world to the youth team,” the manager said. 

Cooper says: “It’s been great to be involved with the Rotherham first team in the first half of the season but at the end of the day I always needed some game-time and experience.”

He duly helped Gateshead into play-off contention, showing the same relish for a challenge he had when he’d reported for pre-season Millers training last summer knowing he had a point to prove as he stepped up to the senior ranks.

“I think I’ve come in and done all right this season,” he states with no hint of arrogance. “I didn’t have the best season as a second-year scholar but luckily I already has a year’s contract as a ‘pre-sign’. I did feel I had to come in and prove my worth. Hopefully I’ve done that. 

“It’s a massive difference being with the first-team. I always knew it was going to be tough. The quality of the players is obviously completely different and, with the gaffer being as big as he is on fitness, some of the sessions are really hard. 

“The fitness demands are massively bigger. The tempo in training is so much faster and everyone is obviously a lot sharper. It’s really demanding but I think that has helped me develop. 

“It’s brought a lot out of me because you can’t hide away. You have to bring something to the table.”

We’re chatting on the phone during lockdown last month, just before the coronavirus pandemic forced the cancellation of the final stages of the 2019/20 non-league campaign.

The player would have loved to have stayed in the North East for a possible promotion push but returned early to his parent club and is now taking a full part in online training with the rest of the Millers crew.

Although he was born in Burnley, where dad Jamie is still based, he has spent most of his life in Sheffield and lives with mum Rachel in Handsworth. 

Dominant in the air

For someone so young, he’s impressively assured but there’s also an appealing air of humility about him while any trace of Burnley in his deep voice is long gone. 

He starts several sentences with ‘At the end of the day’ and the phrase, along with everything else he says, is delivered in reyt proper Yorkshire accent.

Captain Richard Wood, who takes a paternal interest in the progress of a fellow centre-half, describes him as “a really good kid”.

As a kid, he was a really good centre-forward, but had found his true calling in the backline by the time he joined Rotherham before his 15th birthday.

“I was at Sheffield United up to under-14s as a striker,” he reveals. “Did I get many goals? Not enough obviously! 

“I’d played for Sheffield Boys as a centre-half, just filling in, and it seemed like I was a bit of a natural in that position. Every time I played for Sheffield Boys I played at centre-back, but it wasn’t something I really wanted to do. 

“I got released by Sheffield United and went trialing at a few clubs. I trained at Rotherham once and Hammy (Matt Hamshaw, part of the youth set-up then but now a first-team coach) rang my mum up saying that they wanted to sign me. 

“I actually played my first game for Rotherham as a striker and scored twice. I’ve never played up front since then! Rotherham have always seen me as a centre-half.”