JOHN GILBERT COCK THE NEW CENTRE FOR EVERTON
January 27, 1923.
The Liverpool Football Echo
Everton have just startled the football world by going to Stamford Bridge and securing the transfer of one John Gilbert Cock, who, for three seasons, has been perhaps the most-talked of Chelsea player. Rightly has Cock secured this notoriety for in each of those three seasons he has been the club's top scorer with 17 goals (1919-20), 12 (1920-21), and 13 (1921-22) to his credit.
The campaign Cock had soared but one goal in eleven League games for the “Pensioners” a rate of progress which caused him to be left out of the League side, a position of affairs which made such a men as Cock discontented. That briefly is how he came to be transferred to the rich Goodison Park club for which he scored a goal last Saturday and incidentally led the attack to gets its most decisive victory of the present campaign. Jack Cock is a native of Hayte Pensence and he is the eldest of three brothers who have made their mark in football. Jack is the most distinguished of the three. As a schoolboy football always had a fascination for him and I believe I am right in saying that when he left school, though put to other work and intended for a different career, Cock had set his heart on becoming a professional player.
He got his chance much sooner than he expected, for a lynx-eyed Yorkshireman from Huddersfield saw him playing one day in a very junior football and straight away induced him to sign for Huddersfield Town. Cock my with almost instantaneous success, but the war cut short his meteoric rise to fame, for he joined the colours and found himself stationed at Aldershot. He was soon out in France, and almost as soon his name appeared in the casualty list amongst those who had given their lives for King and County. Jack Cock, however, had the satisfaction of reading his own death notice shortly afterwards returned to Aldershot once more to become a staff-sergeant-major. It was then that he assisted Brentford in the war-time London Combination games, and it was at this period that Cock was probably at his best. I may be negative in this assertion; none the less I have never seen Cock play better football than he did in those days unless it be the occasion of the never-to-be-forgotten international at Hillsborough against Scotland, when he led the English attack. That was a red-letter day for Cock just as it was for England. After the war he returned to Huddersfield club, but in the first season of the resumption of the League football he was transferred to Chelsea for something like £3,000. Cock has been twice capped by England and scored in each game.
Cock is a striking figure on the field. He is all, well-built with the figure of an athletic. Moreover he takes a pride in his appearance and his black hair is always brushed well back from his prominent forehead. Today he does not play with the same snap and vitality as of old, and were I to tell the truth, this would probably be found due to the fact that he hasn't taken his football and this training too seriously of late. He had an idea of entering upon a stage career, and then thought better of it.
A temperamental fellow, Jack can rise to dizzy heights of excellence and when at his best can hold his own with any centre forward for he is a stylist knows how to feed both wings, to dribble down the centre, and to shoot hard and straight. But he has his off days like every other player. Everton have certainly purchased a celebrated and notable figure in the football world, but whether he will ever be the John Gilbert Cock of his Brentford and early Chelsea days –a dashing go-ahead enterprising pivot with a raking shot in either foot and a real brain guiding his twinkling toes – remains to be seen. Tis said, “A change is as good as a rest.” W.L.U