Roo a test of Cook’s recipe
CAST your mind back to Thaksin Shinawatra, the one-time owner of Manchester City who is finally serving a prison sentence after being convicted of corruption by a Thai court in 2008. After Garry Cook was appointed as City’s chief executive, here’s what he had to say about 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.” Thaksin sold the club a year later and was later stripped of an ‘honorary presidency’. Good judge, Garry. This is the same Garry who, as chief executive of Birmingham City (above), has been explaining how a ‘misalignment’ with the club’s hierarchy meant the admirable John Eustace was replaced by Wayne Rooney. According to
Cook, Rooney brings a “winning mentality”. As a player, most certainly. But as a manager, Rooney’s “winning mentality” in Washington produced 14 victories from 53 matches. It produced 24 victories from 85 matches in his time as manager of Derby County. During his time as CEO at the Etihad, Cook also had this to say about one, very distinguished club captain. “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 does not roll off the tongue in Beijing.” Nice. So, let’s not dress it up as ‘misalignment’. Birmingham got rid of Eustace because his name is not big enough and Rooney’s is. Whether his managerial talent is big enough remains to be seen.