Saturday, 23 May 2009

Cook speaks

There's an interesting Garry Cook interview in Saturday's Times, done by Oliver Kay. He covers a host of topics - implying that we're moving for Carlos Tévez, saying that the Kaká saga didn't put him off trying similar moves in the future, and underlining the key theme that the new owners want to build long-term sustainable success.

But there's two other things I want to pick up on. Cook, while defending Hughes, attacked the Eriksson regime and the legacy it left at the club. I've written about this before but it's been a central part of both Hughes' approach to managing City, and Hughes' public pronouncements on City. And now Hughes is sure in his position, Cook takes up two of the core criticisms of the Eriksson regime:

"People talk about the previous season under Sven-Göran Eriksson, but for the second half of it we were close to relegation form. Since then it's a clear upward trend and that will continue."

And then:

“Mark admits he made an assumption that players wanted to come in, train hard and go through their dietary requirements. He made the assumption that gym and medical facilities were Premier League quality. Then he got here and realised they weren't."

There are two strategic benefits to this approach. One is that it creates a mandate for all of the changes Hughes made when he gets here - from intense fitness sessions to dropping Elano. The more he paints 2007/08 as a dismal failure, the more room for manouevre he has. It's a standard tactic - how many times has Harry Redknapp mentioned two points from eight games this season? But the second way is more important: by building up the importance of the necessary changes, he has his excuses in early for any 'teething problems' that may occur. In the relegation zone in December? Don't worry - they're still ironing out problems they inherited. I don't mean this as criticism - it's perfectly understandable. What is interesting though is that Garry Cook has totally adopted the Hughes discourse, just days after Hughes' future at the club was assured.

It's nice to hear how enthusiastic Cook is about the team, too. He says:
"It has been a rollercoaster. I cried when we equalised at Blackburn. I had to ask for a cigarette after the penalty shoot-out in Aalborg in the Uefa Cup."
I know there's a hint of the management speak expert about Cook, but when you hear him talk about City he does seem genuine; and so I'm inclined not to be cynical and take him on his word about this. The downside of the management speak aspect of Cook, though, is that he can come up with sentences which really struggle to mean anything. And he uses one of the strangest analogies I've ever heard:
We called it the bowling-ball syndrome. Every time you opened a cupboard, another one landed on your head.
I have quite literally no idea what that means. If you can extract any meaning from it, please leave it in the comments.

9 comments:

Ambient said...

"We called it the bowling-ball syndrome. Every time you opened a cupboard, another one landed on your head"

I am struggling to understand why you don't understand this. Given his American connections, try imagining ten pin bowling balls in a cupboard,lined up alongside each other.They are clearly not secure, in this analogy and represent a significant problem.Every time the cupboard is opened, one falls on their heads. "A can of worms", is the closest I can get to, with another analogy. Try thinking,one problem, after another.

Unknown said...

I think the analogy refers to problems lying beneath the surface at City when Hughes took over (fitness, medical, etc). At first glance, everything appeared to be in order. However, once they 'opened up the cupboards', they began to encounter problems they could not have anticipated. Essentially, he's saying that City's cupboards had not been stocked with 'cups' by previous regimes, as one would properly expect they would have. Instead, City's cupboards were lined with 'bowling balls'. Thus, when the new regime would go to grab a cup from the cupboards, a bowling ball would roll out and hit them on the head.

It's a bit of a clumsy analogy, but I think I get what he's saying.

Wigan Blue said...

Hard to draw a comparison to last season. Can't think of a single area where we did better this time around. But the saddest thing is -even if England had been one of the 'Fair-Play' countries this year, City wouldn't have come within a million miles of qualifying under this guy...

clevblue said...

Cookie should invest in one of those new Iphones that have a spirit level app. I quite like him, old Cookie, we'll make a citizen of him yet!

pjdemers said...

Cook is spot on about the second half of the Eriksson's reign. While Eriksson may indeed been dead man walking by January 2008, the manner in which City tanked was a disgrace to both himself and the club. If he and the players were that incensed they should have gone public. Disclosure agreement or not.

Again I strongly disagree with the assertion we've gone backward or stagnated under Hughes. Only the rags have won more games at home then City. We are much better in possession, we have far surpassed our goal output of last year and as Wigan Blue has pointed out elsewhere we have one the better midfields in in the EPL. There is a lot of work to be done and then some but Hughes is still a young manager and like City itself, a work in progress who with the right encouragement has the potential to come good and them some. I'm going to take a lot of shit for this but I'll take the unappreciated Hughes over the overrated Sven any day of the week.

JPB - re: the bowling ball analogy, as a yank, I have sneaking suspicion Cook may be referring to the old Warner Bros cartoons where a character would open up a cupboard expecting to find food and a bowling ball would land on his head instead. Just a guess though.

newsoftheblues said...

Cook is a marketing man, i would expect nothing less than this. It's all a bit contrived.

I suspect Cook could bore you all day with american business jargon.

Cook has got him self a nice celeb role

menino azul said...

did he really say he cried when we equalised vs blackburn?

if it's marketing speak then he's laying it on a bit thick. maybe it's an attempt to convince us he means it man!

i believe he used to work for nike...
think that's our new kit makers sorted for next season, or is it umbro? with the return of our better days club emblem?

newsoftheblues said...

nike own umbro

Anonymous said...

IT IS UMBRO!

I like the bowling ball analogy because if there's bowling balls in a cupboard then you're gonna have a job catching it and getting the next one's impossible... Definitely a cartoon/farce aspect to it and for the record, I'd take MH over SGE any day, especially these days!