{"id":34108,"date":"2021-05-07T15:21:10","date_gmt":"2021-05-07T14:21:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.sheffieldwire.co.uk\/?p=34108"},"modified":"2021-05-07T15:21:10","modified_gmt":"2021-05-07T14:21:10","slug":"former-doncaster-manager-hails-fantastic-servant-james-coppinger","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sheffieldwire.co.uk\/index.php\/2021\/05\/07\/former-doncaster-manager-hails-fantastic-servant-james-coppinger\/","title":{"rendered":"Former Doncaster manager hails &#8216;fantastic servant&#8217; James Coppinger"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em>(Photo credit: York Football Club).<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Former Doncaster manager, Dave Penney, says the club nearly missed out on signing James Coppinger in 2004.<\/p>\n<p>The midfielder, who bows out of professional football this weekend, was unwell in the build-up to the game in which Rovers were scouting him.<\/p>\n<p>Ultimately, he did feature in the match and the rest is history, as he moved to South Yorkshire for \u00a330,000.<\/p>\n<p>Penney, who managed Doncaster between 2001 and 2006, said: \u201cI already knew of him because he\u2019d gone to Newcastle for big money. He had ended up playing for Exeter but being from the North East, I don\u2019t think he was happy down there.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI knew the Exeter manager and had a decent relationship with his agent, so I went watching him at Kings Lynn. Apparently, he wasn\u2019t too well in the build-up, but he played and did alright, so we signed him.\u201d<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">6\ufe0f\u20e39\ufe0f\u20e34\ufe0f\u20e3 down &#8230; one to go. \u2764\ufe0f <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/DRFC?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#DRFC<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/UNHDdZJ03V\">https:\/\/t.co\/UNHDdZJ03V<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/JNotF9qEei\">pic.twitter.com\/JNotF9qEei<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Doncaster Rovers FC (@drfc_official) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/drfc_official\/status\/1390275159320236034?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">May 6, 2021<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><br \/>\nPenney states as soon as he saw Coppinger in training he was impressed, and believes he will go down as one of the club\u2019s all-time great signings.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHis first touch, awareness and ability was better than anything else we had at the club during that particular time, and 17 years later it\u2019s probably the best money Doncaster have ever spent.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe\u2019s been a fantastic servant and compared to what they pay now it\u2019s peanuts. I\u2019m sure he could\u2019ve been sold for a lot of money at some stage, but it didn\u2019t happen because either he didn\u2019t want to go, or the club didn\u2019t want to sell.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Coppinger joined Rovers at a time when football was modernising.<\/p>\n<p>Penney believes the midfielder was part of a group of players who really benefitted from the advances in the game, which looked beyond physical performance.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe had a good group of talented fit footballers who had the same work ethic and fitness levels which took the club up. We also brought in a sport scientist and some people got a lot out of it. James took to that, and it\u2019s helped him with the mentality side of thing which is massive.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Penney puts Coppinger\u2019s longevity down to his physique and the good shape he has remains in.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe\u2019s played so well because he is fit, as he doesn\u2019t carry any weight and has the right body type. It\u2019s helped him to carry on as long as he has, the 40s are the new 30s.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s difficult to compare era to era, but in the last 15 years he has to be at the top with everything he has done, including the goal he scored at Brentford to get Doncaster to the Championship.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>(Photo credit: York Football Club). Former Doncaster manager, Dave Penney, says the club nearly missed out on signing James Coppinger in 2004. The midfielder, who bows out of professional football this weekend, was unwell in the build-up to the game in which Rovers were scouting him. Ultimately, he did feature in the match and the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":29,"featured_media":34113,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-34108","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sport"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Former Doncaster manager hails &#039;fantastic servant&#039; James Coppinger - Sheffield Wire<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/sheffieldwire.co.uk\/index.php\/2021\/05\/07\/former-doncaster-manager-hails-fantastic-servant-james-coppinger\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Former Doncaster manager hails &#039;fantastic servant&#039; James Coppinger - Sheffield Wire\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"(Photo credit: York Football Club). Former Doncaster manager, Dave Penney, says the club nearly missed out on signing James Coppinger in 2004. The midfielder, who bows out of professional football this weekend, was unwell in the build-up to the game in which Rovers were scouting him. Ultimately, he did feature in the match and the [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/sheffieldwire.co.uk\/index.php\/2021\/05\/07\/former-doncaster-manager-hails-fantastic-servant-james-coppinger\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Sheffield Wire\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2021-05-07T14:21:10+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/sheffieldwire.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/Dave-Penney-new-role_0.jpeg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"740\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"422\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Amos Wynn\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Amos Wynn\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Estimated reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/sheffieldwire.co.uk\\\/index.php\\\/2021\\\/05\\\/07\\\/former-doncaster-manager-hails-fantastic-servant-james-coppinger\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/sheffieldwire.co.uk\\\/index.php\\\/2021\\\/05\\\/07\\\/former-doncaster-manager-hails-fantastic-servant-james-coppinger\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Amos Wynn\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/sheffieldwire.co.uk\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/9e96c4aa1d12dd8b346153e0868d92be\"},\"headline\":\"Former Doncaster manager hails &#8216;fantastic servant&#8217; 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