Interesting stuff. Even more so because it is in such contrast with Ian Herbert's article on similar issues in today's Independent:Manchester City's owners in Abu Dhabi are starting to give serious consideration to the position of the chief executive, Garry Cook, at the end of the season after becoming increasingly perturbed about his leadership style and the frequency with which he has attracted bad publicity...
That particular episode was not under ADUG's watch, but Cook's propensity for saying the wrong thing has started to jar with his employers and also affect the way the supporters consider him.
The club are also undertaking work to ensure that the chief executive, Garry Cook, hugely valued in the Middle East, is not exposed to any more of the embarrassments which have contributed to his gaffe-prone image. Mubarak and his team are reported to believe Cook was left exposed when a video phone was used to record his declaration, in a bar in New York two weeks back, that City would become "without doubt, the biggest and best football club in the world".
Cook had been assured beforehand that it was safe to deliver a rousing speech to fans at the City-supporting Mad Hatter pub, where he had arrived to present a blue plaque to the bar to mark its affinities. The publicity created by the speech has helped fuel the latest chatter among the enemies Cook has made in the game that he is destined to be ousted this summer, though there is no evidence that this might be the case.
Ian Herbert and Daniel Taylor tend to be on the same page on most City issues so to see them disagreeing like this is fascinating. We'll have to wait a while to see which is proved right but it's certainly an interesting light on recent events.
15 comments:
But you choose to lead with the Taylor take...hmmm....
my friend's enemy is my enemy
eh? Bit obvious Lonely.
Journalists are under pressure from editors who are under pressure from chief execs to sell more copies / get more page views. Bad news on big clubs sells best, and Taylor was supposedly asked to spice up negative City stories where possible. Remember the number of his Robinho to Chelsea stories last season - well into double figures. With Robinho gone, a new focus is required. Today it's Cook. If he goes, it will switch to someone else. Cook's done a lot of good work driving this 'project' forward on many levels, not least in selling the club to Adug in the first place.
alan, Blue Days
Ive met Daniel Taylor. He is quite a young chap (notts forrest fan) and comes across as quite arrogant (he informed me who he was and what he did about 5 mins into my first conversation with him..in the pub). He seemed quite worried about all the negative press he gets (specifically from Blue Moon) and couldnt understand why. He told me he was slightly jaundiced against city because of the stick he gets...and that he found united fans "far cooler" than city's fans. I obvviously pointed out that its a certain "type" that chooses to chase glory...but he wasnt having any of that. I thought he came across as a total prick... lives near me in West Didsbury
taylor is spinning this quite a bit (but who would be happy with cook's gaffes?), and it may have the effect of helping abu dhabi come to a conclusion about him by judging the reaction to such pieces. frankly, cook is a twat who knows nothing about big football clubs work and i'd be much happier if he wasnt here
Spot on Culla - here's Prestwich Blue on Taylor from today on Bluemoon:
Daniel Taylor - the man who "heard" City fans singing "We're all going to the golden jubilee" at West Ham in January 2008. (He got it off a forum, probably Bluewatch).
Daniel Taylor - the man who came up with "70% of City fans don't want Sven" when that bore no relation to what he had been told.
I'll bet he's been on here again and has seen all these threads so feels safe writing a story.
Sorry I meant spot on Steve,
Culla your wrong about Cook but right about Taylor
"Cook, who remains generally popular with City fans .... " writes Ian Herbert. I'm in Australia so don't know if this is true or not. Is it? I don't like the bloke at all. Just about everything about him makes my skin crawl. Nike. Marketing Executive. The Thaksin comments. That marketing manifesto he sold to ADUG with a football club attached. The Kaka comments. The Uwe gaffe. The Hughes sacking. His first comment of "this a business", in effect making it clear where his priority lies (I would have said "this is a football club" first). The Mancini obfuscation and then his attempt to squirm his way out of it. The rat-face look on his face while doing it. As I say, my skin crawls. Herbert's take on the situation seems more believable than Taylor's. I can see why the sheiks like Cook for deflecting flak from themselves. Of course a lot of it is Cook's own cloddish making but it worked (if by cloddish accident) with the Hughes sacking. No one seemed too interested in looking at ADUG's role in the sacking after Cook inserted his foot in his mouth. Likewise, according to Herbert, they still love his marketing "vision" and this seems believable too. As I see it, Taylor's just running with some wishful thinking. I expect Cook will unfortunately outlast Mancini at City whatever the outcome of next season.
I think the correct term for Garry Cook is bell end.
MEN are running the 'Cook has ADUG's Backing Story'.
The Times was broadly positive about him today.
I have to think young Daniel has spun this to get himself top billing again.
just remembered..
He also mentioned that he writes more about city as he is banned from any united press function (by Fergie himself because of the unauthorised biography he wrote about him in the past)..... as a result he is scratching around for united news so he has to focus on City.
When you read his articles they come across as though he is "in the know"... After meeting him I feel he cobbles stuff together after scratching around the forums.....no surprise really.
We'd better come up with something worth him copying then. How about some chat about what an infantile excuse for a knight is Ferguson? He derides City for having a small mentality yet what could be more petty than banning a writer from every Utd press event just because he wrote some fluff about one person in the club? It's the actions of a man so self-important as to be mentally ill.
There you are Daniel. Hope it's in time for the last edition.
Not sure why Cook's many oafish comments get described as "gaffes". He seems an utter tool to me, and his headline hogging idiocy, far from being honest mistakes, seem just to be in keeping with his personality.
As for the good work he does, can anyone point out anything good that he has done or is it just conjecture? He may be great at his job, I simply don't know, but if he is to stay then can we at least impose some sort of media embargo on him?
Quinn:
Have you heard of Carl Tilson?
Vaguely. Why?
Why do you my fellow Citizens feel the need to stick up for Garry Cook? The man is a cutthroat Marketer who has absolutely no loyalty to anything beyond money.
For an individual who is supossedly a sound business executive he seems to have absolutely no clue regarding public relations and particularly public speaking. That ADUG allow him to even remotely open his mouth near a microphone shows some incredibly poor judgement. The man is a walking PR liability.
I myself am in full agreement with both fulfalonga and Quinn re:Cook. Remember Cook is a marketing man through and through. These are people who would pitch Arsenic as a food group if you pay them enough.
Again let's not confuse loyalty with blind obedience. My loyalty is to City. Garry Cook can tender his resignation immediately as far as I'm concerned.
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