Leeds United have Chesterfield to thank for bargain transfer that helped shape Marcelo Bielsa era | OneFootball

Leeds United have Chesterfield to thank for the development of Liam Cooper, who thrived under Marcelo Bielsa.

In the summer of 2014, Leeds United made the impressive signing of young Chesterfield centre-back Liam Cooper. It was always expected to be a strong addition, but not many would have anticipated what he would go on to become the centre of.

The then-22-year-old Hull-born defender moved from the Spireites to Elland Road for a fee believed to be in the region of just £600,000 as well as a few add-ons.

Cooper had begun his professional career with hometown club Hull City, where he was shipped out on loan to Carlisle United and Huddersfield Town before an initial loan stint with Chesterfield.

Having joined Chesterfield on loan during the 2012/13 campaign and then moving on a permanent basis the following season, Cooper established himself as a key man for the club, earning him a move to Leeds.

With the Whites, he would go on to make nearly 300 appearances across all competitions in a ten-year stint that saw him become a fulcrum of a front-foot and attacking Premier League defence.

Cooper blossomed at Chesterfield before Leeds move

Having struggled for consistent minutes with any of Hull, Huddersfield or Carlisle, Cooper flourished at the lower level of League Two in what can now be looked back upon something of a star-studded Chesterfield side coached by Paul Cook.

Cooper became a key man alongside the likes of Ian Evatt, Sam Morsy, Gary Roberts and Eoin Doyle, missing out on the play-offs on the final day of the season in his first year with the club, before then romping their way to the title in the 2013/14 season, of which Cooper formed an excellent partnership alongside captain Evatt at the back.

Able to adapt to the aggressive, rough and rugged side of the game, Cooper also displayed the first signs that he could be a ball-playing defender in a Chesterfield side that were often on the front foot and looking to be attacking.

He had struggled for any sort of EFL experience before his move to the Proact Stadium, but his time at Chesterfield saw him develop and grow into eventually one of the very best centre-backs in the Championship, and so Leeds can be very grateful to Chesterfield for that.

Cooper became a key man for Marcelo Bielsa

For what now appears to have been that bargain fee, Leeds managed to purchase a defender that would not only be good enough to become a stalwart for the side, but also someone who could be a driving force in the progression of the team.

Having been that rough and rugged defender for much of his time at Elland Road, his ability to play football and bring the ball out from the back came in handy at Leeds, following the appointment of Marcelo Bielsa in the summer of 2018. It was a real take-off point at LS11, with Leeds having had years of mid-table finishes where Cooper had played under a series of different managers or head coaches. The club lacked consistency and so did players like Cooper.

Bielsa brought in his aggressive and extreme tactical ideology to transform the way in which Leeds trained and played their football, and Cooper was tasked as the setter of standards as club captain given his now-long stint at the club.

Cooper then skippered Leeds to the Championship title in the 2019/20 campaign, earning himself a spot in the PFA Team of the Year for the division in successive seasons; it wasn't just his on-field influence, either. Cooper embodied what Bielsa was all about off-the-field, giving up his time in the community and putting just about everything and anyone before himself.

In the Premier League, Leeds continued to develop the reputation of being extremely entertaining to watch, as a result of the energy and attacking nature of the Marcelo Bielsa style of football. They finished ninth, before narrowly avoiding relegation a year later. Leeds were then relegated, with Cooper's role within the starting set-up fading under Daniel Farke.

With Chesterfield, he developed from a player searching for EFL experience into someone who would be good enough to be the symbol of a forward-thinking Premier League player and a real key cog in Leeds' successful period under Bielsa.

His time at the Proact gave him the opportunity to break into first-team professional football, and it was a bit of a bargain fee that Chesterfield eventually sanctioned the sale of him for, in hindsight, with Leeds surely grateful for that given the role he played as the Bielsa-era shaped.

Cooper may well have not necessarily been the first person to spring to mind that embodies the spirit and characteristics of a Bielsa team, but the Scotland international proved himself to not only be on the elite side of ultra-professionalism, as Bielsa demands, but capable of adapting his game to become the fulcrum of a pressing machine that sought to manipulate and control the opposition through sophisticated tactical means, whilst also retaining is natural aggression and style that initially earned him his Leeds move.