I’m a Championship star but OWN a non-league club in 11th-tier… I’ve signed TWO ex-Premier League pals and built a stand
STEVE COOK has football double vision.
QPR’s captain wants to help the West Londoners compete for a return to the Premier League AND take non-league side Westfield up the pyramid.
Defender Cook, 33, owns a majority stake in the club based near his home town of Hastings that plays in the Mid-Sussex League Premier Division, the 11th TIER of English football.
He bought into the outfit two years ago and has contributed to the building of a 50-seat stand as well as making plans to install floodlights.
And his old Bournemouth team-mates Charlie Daniels, 38, and Dan Gosling, 34, have signed up for the team.
Cook said: “I try to get down there as much as I can. We had a new stand delivered the other day — it’s only 50 seats but our gates aren’t huge.
“We average around 100 but we did get 150 for a pre-season friendly this summer against Hastings.
“We have planning permission for floodlights so we can go up the leagues.
“We’re trying to grow it, it’s a nice village community club. We wanted to try to give something back to the community and see where we can take it.
“There’s three of us that run it. We bounce off each other really well. My friend Jack Stapley was the reason why I got involved.
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“I wanted to help him out and we have Graham Knight who has come back to the club too. So the three of us run it. Jack is very hands on — while I am doing it from afar.”
Cook is a massive non-league fan and routinely checks results down the pyramid.
The centre-back — who had five seasons playing in the Premier League during his ten years at the Cherries — has never forgotten his roots.
While on the books at Brighton, Cook had loan spells in non-league with Havant & Waterlooville, Eastleigh, Eastbourne Borough and Mansfield when they were in the National League.
He said: “I love non-league. There are a lot of players in those divisions that can play EFL football so I’m a big advocate of it.
“I look at the majority of the leagues results every Saturday and Tuesday. I have friends that play in the National South, Isthmian and other leagues, too — so yes, I like to stay involved.
“I’m a football lover in general, so I always want to keep up to date. You never know where you are going to find yourself.”
But, right now, Cook hopes to have a number of seasons left on a career that has seen him play in the National League South all the way to the Prem.
And he has been mightily impressed with how Spanish boss Marti Cifuentes has changed the narrative at Loftus Road from fighting relegation to daring to look towards the play-offs.
They travel to Sheffield Wednesday on Saturday still buoyed by a first Championship win of the season, 2-1 at Luton, last time out and face Crystal Palace in the Carabao Cup on Tuesday night.
Cook said: “We don’t want a relegation fight again. This is a league where you string a few results together and you can go from the bottom to the top and be challenging.
“There are not any initial targets yet. We want to put ourselves into a position midway through the season and see where it takes us.
“Hopefully we can kick on and produce a successful season.
“The difference between being a side fighting relegation and challenging for the play-offs is consistency and how you bounce back from a defeat. Leicester last season are one of the best teams to ever play in the Championship and they went a few games without winning.
“But they had done a lot of amazing work to get ahead and that is the biggest thing — going on a run of results and when there is a bit of adversity you bounce back quickly.
“This group here have faced adversity and managed to swing that in our favour this year.
“We’re using those experiences to move ourselves forward. It’s a good place to come into work every day and we’re all singing off the same hymn sheet. So I’m hoping we can now achieve some great things.”
Cook enjoyed his first season at Rangers and he was rewarded for some impressive performances by taking the club’s player-of-the-season honours. Not bad for a veteran.
He said: “Yeah, the other side of 30 in football makes you seem old. It’s a concept I’m not enjoying right now but I’m enjoying my football.
“I do love it here. I’m playing as regularly as I can, keeping fit and as long as I am doing that and contributing I’m happy and it was an extremely proud moment getting the player of the year.
“But this year I need to back it up and produce more and give more on the pitch and around the club and, hopefully, not have a season like we did last year.
“As good as it was getting player of the year, it was player of the year at a team that just stayed up. I want to be at the top of the league — and hopefully I can do it with this club.”