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This article appeared in The Sunday Express on Sunday 3rd January 1999 and was written by Graham Clark for the series The Big Interview.
You might think that when your team is top of the league and already strong favourites for promotion, and you have a new two-and-a half year contract with the ink not yet dry tucked into your pocket, you would be content with your lot.
Not so Neale Cooper.
The Ross County manager is simply not the type to rest on his laurels and, if he will not allow himself that satisfaction, he certainly will not tolerate it from his players.
That is why there will be no change of attitude in Dingwall, now we are into 1999, to the drive and determination that so characterised 1998.
Cooper has experienced so many peaks, and his fair share of troughs, that any other approach would be tantamount to soccer suicide.
"We're going along the right lines" is the nearest he gets to euphoria although he is quick to add: "But we have achieved nothing yet."
That is basically manager-speak, yet it is grossly unfair to paint "Tattie" as your average boss. Nothing could be further from the truth.
This, after all, is the guy who recently did a fair impersonation of Manchester United manager Alex Ferguson on national television, although he was in a cold sweat when his telephone rang soon after the programme finished and a cool-sounding Old Trafford chief was on the other end threatening to sue.
"It took me quite a few moments to realise he was joking," said Cooper.
This is also the man who nearly ploughed into a lamp-post driving up the A9 when, on the back of a run of seven straight defeats after he took over at County, he answered the 'phone to hear a voice cackling: "See, it's not as easy as you thought!"
On that occasion it was Bert Paton, another of his ex-bosses, just letting him know that being a manager was not as straightforward as he expected.
Cooper knows that now.
He has had two full seasons in Dingwall and on both occasions has suffered the cruel blow of missing out on promotion from the third division by the narrowest of margins - once on goal difference and then by a single point.
Those disappointments, though, have only strengthened his determination this time round and are also a significant factor behind their current lead at the top of the table. He conceded: "You learn from your disappointments like them and this year I have a group of players I know can play at a higher level and who are proving they want to go up this time."
Cooper, indeed, would appear to have surrounded himself with a squad that is finally destined for a step up.
He has top-class experience in the shape of Nicky Walker, John McGlashan, Mark Haro and Alex Taylor and bright youngsters such as Neil Tarrant, Kenny Gilbert, Steve Ferguson and Ian Maxwell who, so far, have turned the draws that killed their chances last season into victories that have made them odds-on to go up.
The club, although geographically isolated, is impeccably run, has tremendous facilities and is clearly now ready to go places which, put together, is why Cooper was handed that new contract.
He said: "I have a very good relationship with the chairman Roy McGregor and we have been talking about this for a while but just never got round to signing it.
"I'm delighted because it gives me a bit of security and shows the club appreciates the way we're going.
"But there is a lot still to do and, although I'm hugely ambitious, and would love some time to be a manager at an even bigger club, I am very happy here." Cooper would not confirm it, but I suspect he has a gentleman's agreement with his chairman to move on if an offer materialises.
But, for now at least, he is totally committed to Ross County and, for that matter, his continuing apprenticeship in management.
Cooper readily admits that he has learned something from all his managers - Fergie, Graham Turner, Billy McNeill, Graham Taylor, Graeme Souness, Walter Smith, Jocky Scott, Mark McGhee and Bert Paton.
But it is no surprise, when you consider he won nine of his ten medals at Pittodrie, that Alex Ferguson remains the biggest influence.
Cooper said: "I remember bumping into Alex McLeish not long after I took this job and he told me that Fergie was surprised I hadn't 'phoned him.
"Yet I had always thought Alex would be too busy to bother about me. I 'phoned after that and, occasionally, still do. Mind you, I got that fright when he 'phoned me after I mimicked him on the telly.
"Then there's Bert. He's been a big help as well because I had four great years at East End Park.
"They've been the biggest influences but even Graham Taylor, who I didn't agree with when I was a player, made points I now realise were valid."
He looked back and conceded that, eventually, he realised there came a time when he had to be "No more Mr Nice Guy". He explained: "At first I found it very difficult to separate myself from the players and make decisions that weren't popular.
"I would, for instance, seek out a player and tell him he was being left out before it was announced. Inevitably, we would end up in an argument and nearly fighting. Now I tell them if they have a problem to see me the next day.
"I have had to be strong and recall a bit of advice I got that went along the lines of players were there to please me, not the other way round. It's been a learning curve ever since."
You would not think that after a playing career at Aberdeen, Aston Villa, Rangers, reading, Dunfermline and County that he had much to learn, yet Cooper has realised even winning three league titles, four Scottish Cups, two League Cups, a European Cup Winners' Cup and a Super Cup does not prepare you for management!
These were the successes but there was also a down-side to Tattie's career - injuries that left him under-achieving at Villa and a shorter reign at Ibrox than he would have liked.
But, overall, his playing career gave him an impressive CV to take into management and now, in that role, he seems destined to go even higher.
"Time will tell," he said. "For the moment I have so much to do here. My wife sally and children Amy, Alex and Ellie love it. Thing are going well.
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