Cooper signs for Crawley

Former AFC Bournemouth captain Shaun Cooper has signed for fellow League One side Crawley Town.

Cooper played almost 250 games for the Cherries after joining the club in August 2005, he was offered a new contract at Dean Court, but when his contract expired at the end of June, Cooper informed manager Paul Groves that he would not be signing the proposed offer and subsequently did not join up with the squad for pre season training.

It had previously been reported that Cooper was contracted to the Cherries until the summer of 2013, when the Daily Echo reported in February 2011 that he had signed a new two and a half year contract, shortly after former manager Lee Bradbury had taken over as boss following Eddie Howe's departure to Burnley.

But part of that original contract was a 12 month option, if triggered by 31st March.

Neither the Cherries nor Cooper triggered the option, so Cooper and the club opened fresh contract talks.

Cooper was offered a reduced one year deal, while the versatile midfielder wanted to agree a longer term contract.

He went on to join up with former Cherries boss Sean O'Driscoll at Crawley Town and impressed during a pre season game against Woking, however O'Driscoll later left Crawley after less than two months in the role to take over at Nottingham Forest.

That appeared to put the move in doubt, but on Wednesday he completed a medical and signed for the newly promoted club.

Cooper told crawleytownfc.com...

'Everyone in football knows about the rise of Crawley Town over the last couple of years. The club has done fantastically well and you can see why from the quality of the lads that are here.

'I'm delighted to be a Crawley player. I enjoyed the friendly last week and I'm looking forward to getting stuck into the rest of pre-season and then tackling the challenge of League 1.'

RednBlack Shack

Don't forget to keep checking the RednBlack Shack for great online deals and help to raise money for the AFC Bournemouth Youth Team.

It's easy to join AFCB Vital

With Vital Bournemouth you can win prizes just by having your say on the articles, polls and forums, click the link to register.

Click here to join in the debate on the club forum.