I subscribe to the good enough, older enough school of thought. Personally I think the shirt should be his until he deserves to lose it, I think we should be playing players based on form not on reputation so would much rather have Mike rather than some third choice Championship keeper who rarely plays anyway.
Fletcher and Cooper have only got chances when management have been absolutely desperate, with very little other option but to play them. What they both have in common is they have taken those chances and proven themselves. People now need to ask what are others such as: Alex Battle, Callum Rose, Jordan Bentley, Dan Rooney, Aaron Taylor, Sam Ryan and Ryan Law are capable of. My opinion is at the very least three (if not six,) of those are being held back by first team management and their development hampered. A lot of them are in positions where "senior" players have really struggled week in week out. I can see no reason they wouldn't take their chances any less then Fletcher and Cooper and would inject a bit of oomph and blob into things. We cant wrap them all up in cotton wool, football is a shorter career than ever in these lower leagues if you don't make an instant impact and get continued opportunities off the back of it, just ask: Louis Rooney, Callum Hall, and River Allen. Only one way they can get experience and that is to play and if they don't play they will all be released by May! Fletcher and Cooper, like Tyler Harvey and Louis Rooney before them have not struggled with the mental side of things. The academy is clearly doing a good job in preparation for a career in football, all seem grounded and have good expectation management, all know the tough reality and how cut throat it is. I would wager, to a man they would all rather go out, have a crack and fail then to never get chance to sink or swim and get released!
It would be inevitable Mike would make a mistake to validate him losing the shirt if he was given a run sooner or later but then once he has had a taste for it, he will be hungry to win it back, know what he is working for, what not to do again, learn from any mistakes, come back, show improvement etc.
Not sure he slipped through Exeter's net either back then if you had an choice I imagine ours would look preferable. Just like now if I had a son who had the choice I would think Exeter's looked better. Although in the current climate he is probably the only one who is better off here than Exeter as they have already been developing Christy Pym for a number of seasons now so he probably would be coming through at the wrong time there. I said on a thread here after the Exeter game at home last season how I thought Mike Cooper is a better goalkeeper than Pym (that's not a sly dig at Christy Pym either because I was on actually on the thread defending him.) But there is a good model to follow, he has had his ups and downs but keeps plugging away little runs in and out of the team and I don't think he is a nervous wreck and a man of shattered, career ending, confidence is he? Of course he isn't, he grew in strength and stature, learned from his mistakes and is now first choice keeper at a club near the top of their league by the age of 22. I can only go by the Indy star ratings and he seems to get a lot of 4/5*s.