Neale Cooper was most recently the assistant manager of Ross County.
Cooper began his managerial career at Ross County in July 1996 and led the club to successive promotions from the Scottish Third Division to Division One.
He has also had two spells at Hartlepool, where Cooper guided the club to the play-offs in his first season in charge. He was manager from June 2003 until May 2005.
In addition to Hartlepool, Cooper has also managed Gillingham in the Football League. He was appointed manager of Gillingham in May 2005, where he would remain in the role until November 2005 before joining Scottish Football League side Peterhead initally as coach in October 2006. Cooper was then appointed manager after Steve Paterson's departure in early 2008.
In his first season back at Hartlepool in 2012, he guided the club to a mid-table finish in npower League One. He later returned to Scottish football during the 2012/13 season.
He has an impressive haul of medals from his days as a player when he turned out for Aberdeen, Aston Villa (as pictured), Rangers, Reading and Dunfermline.
He helped Aberdeen win the 1983 European Cup Winners' Cup under Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson.
In his 20-year playing career Cooper won no fewer than three Scottish League titles, four Scottish Cups, two League Cups, a European Cup Winner's Cup and a Super Cup. He has also played under managers such as Graham Taylor, Graeme Souness, Walter Smith and of course Fergie.
The Scotsman started his career at King Street back in 1978 as a trainee, after moving back to Scotland from his birthplace Darjeeling, India. Following a year at King Street he moved to Aberdeen for his first of two spells at the club. He enjoyed seven good years at the club and built his reputation as hard-man, a quality his then manager Ferguson values.
After much success at Pittodrie he decided it was time for a change and moved across the boarder to join Taylor's Aston Villa. His time at Villa Park was a good experience but he opted to move back north of the border after a couple of years, joining the Glasgow giants, Rangers.
He spent two years at Ibrox and then agreed to a second spell at Aberdeen, where he spent just one season.
He then had a brief spell at Reading before moving to Dunfermline where he made over 100 appearances. Cooper decided to hang his boots up in 1998 after making one appearance as a substitute for Ross County, who he went on to manage.
