AFC news: AFC Wimbledon makes transfer switch and hopes of leaving a legacy….READ MORE….

Craig Cope, the head of football operations at AFC Wimbledon, is the youngest transfer manager in the top four divisions, but after leaving Nottingham Forest, he almost took a different turn.

As a university student, Cope began working for Birmingham as an analyst and went on to have similar positions at Cheltenham, Notts County, and Forest.

After Mark Warburton was fired in 2018, he was let go from the City Ground and thought about giving up football to pursue a management career that would have involved managing a large corporation.

However, the day Cope was about to begin his new endeavour outside of the game, he stumbled onto a chance at Solihull Moors in the National League, where he handled the

make the switch to a full-time schedule and reorganise the analyst and hiring departments.

With the ages of 32 and 33, respectively, Exeter City’s technical director Marcus Flitcroft and Bradford’s head of football operations David Sharpe, Cope is the youngest of his contemporaries in this position.

“It was the best thing I ever did,” Cope remarked in his first in-person interview with the South London Press.

“I realised at a young age that playing football was not my calling. When our team wasn’t playing, my dad would take me to a nearby non-league or League Two stadium.