Goalfood hq is in a state of shock at the news that everyone’s favourite soccerball executive, Man City’s Garry Cook, is set to have his position reviewed at the end of the coming season. Perhaps, as with Sparky before him, the Sheikh’s view is that "the trajectory of recent results (is) below (the targeted) requirement. “
Can we remind City’s power brokers that this is the man whose 83 page document promising City-branded energy drinks and scooters whilst scrapping relegation from a 10 club Premier League shaped the all-conquering global brand we all know and love today? The man who discovered Michael “Republicans wear sneakers too” Jordan and mentored him to worldwide fame. And the man who is, undoubtedly the Oscar Wilde of the 21st century...
On his ambition for City
"This football club is, without doubt, going to be the biggest and best football club in the world,"
On the Carling Cup semi final 2nd leg
"…when, not if, we are at Wembley, having beaten Man United yet again…"
On Thaksin Shinawatra
“Is he a nice guy? Yes. Is he a great guy to play golf with? Yes. Has he got the finances to run a club? Yes. I really care about those three things. I need a left-back who can win tackles, get the crosses in and Jo can bang them in. Whether he’s guilty of something over there, I can’t worry too much about. I worked at a company – Nike – where we were accused of child labour rights issues. I managed to have a career there for 15 years and I believed we were innocent of most of the issues. Morally, I felt confident in that environment. Morally, I feel comfortable in this environment.”
On the Premier League’s “fit and proper person” test
“It is very loose, it’s almost a tongue-in-cheek term that you would use for Premier League football over the last 10 years. There are plenty of unfit and improper individuals.”
On ambition
“We’ll be as big as Manchester United. If I didn’t have that goal, I wouldn’t be here. Can we win the Premier League? Yes. Will we? It might take a bit longer. Can we win the Champions League? Growing up at Nike, you don’t sit around saying, 'Can we?’ You say, 'We will’.”
On changing the culture at City
“I’ve got to change the culture here. I talk to my employees about it. You get 'This is England, not America, you know’. And then 'This is Manchester, not London’. And then 'This is City, not United’. So do you roll over, play dead and go home? No. Today you can grow faster than it took United. We just need a superstar. China and India are gagging for football content to watch and we’re going to tell them that City is their content. We need a superstar to get through that door. Richard Dunne doesn’t roll off the tongue in Beijing..”
On educating Sparky in modern marketing
“... we are a global franchise entity, Mark and I talk about this a lot and he sort of understands...”
On ‘the central entity’
“The market is worldwide. There’s something not right about sitting in a bar in Bangkok, Beijing or Tokyo and seeing 'Fred Smith’s Plumbing. Call 0161...’ I talk to [Premier League chief executive] Richard Scudamore about this all the time: 'Are we maximising the central entity of the Premier League?’ He rolls his eyes and says, 'If only we would.’ The club chairmen tend to think globalisation is about selling more shirts. It’s about strategic partners in other countries – Red Bull, Thai Airways.”
...and...
“If you could central-entity the top 10 teams to create a global empire called the Premier League, I would sacrifice my own club [Birmingham City] into another division for that. Do Saudi Arabians want to buy Stoke City? Or do they want to buy Newcastle, Villa, United, City? There are 10 clubs. I’d like not to have promotion and relegation. There’s an emotion around those battles but the dynamics by which fans can get their kicks can change.”
On Uwe Rosler
“I’d like to welcome Uwe Rosler into the Manchester United Hall of Fame.”
On the results trajectory
"... following the accelerated acquisition strategy and the activity of the club in the summer transfer window, the new target, agreed with the staff was 70 points. The trajectory of recent results was below this requirement. The Board felt there was no evidence this situation would fundamentally change.”
On Take That
“...what we're building is an infrastructure that will make success attainable and sustainable. It's about building a club that is a successful business whose core competency is football. That means not having Take That or whoever there in the summer.”
On the aborted Kaka deal
"If you want my personal opinion they bottled it, he clearly was for sale but we never got to meet with the player, the behaviour of AC Milan got in the way."
On City’s history
“comedy has always been at the heart of what City is all about”.
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