Neale Cooper

On 28 May 2018 it was reported that Cooper was in a critical condition after being found collapsed in the stairwell of flats in Aberdeen. He died later that day, aged 54.

A public memorial event and celebration of Cooper's life was held at Aberdeen's ground Pittodrie Stadium on 8 June 2018. The evening was attended by Neale Cooper's family, former teammates and fans and saw over 4,000 people attend.

In November 2017, Cooper was one of four inductees into the Aberdeen Hall of Fame.

On 23 November 2012, Cooper was appointed assistant manager of SPL side Ross County alongside Derek Adams. Cooper left Ross County at the end of the 2013–14 season.

On 28 December 2011, Cooper was reappointed as manager of League 1 club Hartlepool United. In Neale's third game as manager, Hartlepool managed to end their poor run of home form with a 2–0 win against Rochdale. Cooper brought numerous talented young players into the Hartlepool first team with seven teenagers from the club's academy making their debuts. After a 3–2 defeat on the final day to league champions Charlton Athletic, he guided them to a 13th-place finish in the 2011–2012 season, their highest league finish since he was last in charge at The Vic. After a poor run of form at the start of the 2012–13 season, Cooper resigned as Hartlepool boss in late October. He is still held in high regard by Hartlepool fans.

Cooper's son, Alex, played in Liverpool youth academy, after a £100,000 move from Ross County in December 2007. Alex spent the summer of 2006 at a training camp in Switzerland with Chelsea, and Jose Mourinho had reportedly tracked his development. He was released by Liverpool in 2011 and has since played first team football for several clubs, mainly in Scotland.

In October 2006, Cooper returned to Scottish football with Second Division Peterhead, as he took on the role of first team coach under the management of Steve Paterson. When Paterson left Peterhead in early 2008, Cooper took over as manager. Peterhead narrowly missed out on the end of season playoffs for a place in the Scottish First Division in 2008 finishing 5th, however he guided the Blue Toon to fourth place the following season and a playoff against Airdrie United. Peterhead struggled in the following season, however, and Cooper left the club in March 2011 with them sitting bottom of the Second Division table.

In 1991, Cooper signed for Reading, where he linked up with his former Aberdeen teammate Mark McGhee. Cooper made seven league appearances in a brief stint with Reading, before he moved to Dunfermline Athletic. At Dunfermline he was able to play regularly, helping them win promotion in 1995/96. In 1996, he moved into management with Ross County.

In the summer of 1986, he signed for Aston Villa. Cooper made only twenty league appearances in the next two years, partly because of injuries. In the 1988–89 season, he transferred to Rangers but injuries restricted him to only seventeen league appearances. Cooper returned to Aberdeen in 1990, but he was unable to make a first team appearance due to ongoing fitness issues.

Born in Darjeeling, India, Cooper attended Airyhall Primary School and Hazlehead Academy in Aberdeen and began his senior career with Aberdeen, the team he had supported as a boy. A first-team regular from the beginning of the 1981–82 season, he starred in midfield for the Dons for five seasons in which he won two Premier Division championships, four Scottish Cups, one League Cup, the 1983 European Cup Winners' Cup and the European Super Cup under the management of Alex Ferguson. Having initially moved into a flat in Aberdeen as a young player, Cooper was 'persuaded' by Ferguson to return to his mother's home to help ensure that Cooper was shielded from the obvious temptations arising from youthful independence.

Neale James Cooper (24 November 1963 – 28 May 2018) was a Scottish football player and coach. Cooper played as a midfielder during the 1980s and 1990s, most prominently for the Aberdeen team managed by Alex Ferguson. He later played for Aston Villa, Rangers, Reading, Dunfermline Athletic and Ross County. Cooper then became a coach, and worked as a manager in England with Hartlepool United and Gillingham, and in Scotland with Ross County and Peterhead.