Aleksic was a decent keeper, but not in the same league as Hodge imo. Hodge made over 200 top flight appearances for two clubs and was in the England reckoning for a time, when England had incredible keepers. He also came through Argyle's apprentice system too. If Cooper does as well as Hodge, I will be surprised. Hodge was snapped up by Everton after just one full season of first team football at Argyle from memory and made it into their first team the same season. He has to be the best keeper Argyle have ever produced thus far.
Let's compare like for like. In Hodge's day the Premier league/old division 1 had 20 English goalkeepers, well possibly 2 or 3 others from the British Isles.
Today only 3 goalkeepers in the Premier league are English so it was far easier in Hodges day to get an opportunity in the top tier. Even the second tier/the Championship has a glut of foreign keepers today.
Even back in the 80s Hodge failed to break through at Everton making just 24 appearances in 4 seasons and being loaned out to lower league clubs.
At his peak he played 4 seasons in the top tier for a moderate to half decent Sheffield Wednesday side. Would Hodge have got anywhere near a Wolves or Everton first team in this day and age? I doubt it with all the overseas competition, most of whom are full internationals.
You say he got close to the England team at a time when England had some incredible keepers. Well at that time there was Seaman, Woods, Bailey, of which only Seaman could be rated anywhere near incredible.
For Michael Cooper to break in to a top half Championship team as a goalkeeper is going to be possibly more difficult than it was for Hodge to establish himself as a mid table top tier keeper almost 40 years ago.
I go back to Dave McClaren in the mid 60s and Argyle produced some good young keepers, Aleksic, Barron, Hodge and Nichols to name but four. Nichols never fulfilled his potential sadly but there was little to choose between the other three. Would Hodge have got more game time than the former two at Spurs and Arsenal?
Not trying to diminish Hodges career here, he did very well after leaving Argyle but Cooper has a much tougher task to get anywhere near playing for one of the big boys.
At the same age as Hodge Cooper had played almost exactly the same number of first team games for third tier Argyle. I would suggest that it is much harder now to achieve that as the standard has gone up.
When someone of Neil Dewsnip's standing, a coach who knows the England youth set up inside out calls him the best 21 year old English keeper I think we should take some heed. He may be talking him up just a bit for Argyle's benefit but he has no real reason to.
