Johnny Phillips: Ex-Wolves midfielder Paul Cook has right ingredients as manager

Antonio Conte was the obvious winner of the main award but looking through the leagues at the divisional winners it was fantastic to see Paul Cook pick up the League Two Manager of The Year.

The award is nothing compared to his achievement of taking Portsmouth up as champions in one of the most fiercely-contested promotion chases that division has ever witnessed, but it is deserved recognition for one of the best managers operating outside the Premier League.

The former Wolves midfielder has already been down a long road in management and has shown he can succeed at a number of levels.

Part of John Coleman’s coaching staff at Accrington Stanley when they won promotion to the Football League in 2006, Cook soon made his way into management and the first success came at Sligo Rovers.

Despite operating on a shoestring budget and being forced to sell promising players like Seamus Coleman, Cook won two FAI Cups and a League Cup during his stay on the west coast of Ireland.

He returned to England with Accrington before taking the Chesterfield job, where he made great strides, taking the Spireites out of League Two as champions in 2013/14 and then reaching the League One play-offs the following season. They have never come close to those heights since his departure.

In the summer of 2015 he began his toughest assignment yet.

Portsmouth’s freefall from 2008 FA Cup winners and established Premier League members to bankruptcy and the basement division had left the south coast club in turmoil.

The Pompey Supporters’ Trust eventually took the club out of administration and turned to Cook following an unsuccessful 2014/15 campaign.

Cook oversaw a huge turnover of players and built a side that reached the play-offs last season, where they lost out to Plymouth Argyle.

Despite the years of turmoil, there was huge pressure on Cook to get promoted at the second time of asking this season.

Visiting Fratton Park for an early season game against Crawley, it was striking to witness the expectations of the crowd.

Anything less than promotion and the knives would have been out. There was a vocal local media presence to deal with too. It had the feel of a Premier League setting.

Chatting before the game in his office, Cook explained what a privilege it was to be managing such a club and how those expectations were something you had to live with.

He took me out on to the middle of the pitch about half an hour before kick-off and said: “Have a look around, great isn’t it?” He was inspired by the potential and never once put the burden of expectation on to his players.

They won 3-0 that day. Afterwards, the manager’s office was buzzing as directors popped in to offer congratulations and the backroom staff enjoyed their win.

It wasn’t all plain sailing through the season but Cook has a fantastic right-hand man in Leam Richardson, his former player at Accrington, and the other members of his coaching staff all have their feet on the ground.

The phenomenal way they secured the title on the last day of the campaign, thrashing Cheltenham 6-1 and pipping Doncaster and Plymouth to go top for the first time this season was a fitting way to end the promotion party.

It goes without saying that Portsmouth are easy on the eye. Anyone who saw Cook playing at Wolves would know that such an elegant midfielder with his range of passing was always going to produce good football sides as a manager.

There were times during the season when fans would become impatient if they weren’t leading games early on, but Cook always stuck to his beliefs and was vindicated as Portsmouth came out top of the pile.

This is just the beginning for Portsmouth and if I was a board member at Fratton Park my first priority would be to tie Cook down to a long-term deal.

It amazes me that the 50-year-old still hasn’t managed at a higher level than League One.

There are many clubs who would benefit from having Cook at the helm and maybe one day he will walk through the doors of Molineux again.

As a player, his time at Wolves came to a premature end. He was 27 and at the peak of his game but his five-year stay was brought to a close under Graham Taylor, who was looking to change the style of play at Wolves.

That Cook immediately went and had a successful season in the Premier League with Coventry suggests he had more to offer at Molineux.

As a manager, he has proven himself more than capable of dealing with big challenges.

He has an eye for a player and has always been a shrewd judge in the transfer market.

But he earned his spurs as a coach before moving into management and he has a trust in his players that is evident in the way they perform on the pitch. Cook could easily fit into a modern day management structure as a head coach.

In fact, Cook has already been back at Molineux this season to lend his support to his old team-mate Steve Bull, as one of the guests of Bully’s 30th anniversary celebration dinner, but I hope one day he can return to Molineux as Wolves manager.