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Premier League clubs need more from their managers - Cook
By Richard Conway
BBC Sport
Former Manchester City chief executive Garry Cook says Premier League managers cannot afford to just focus on what happens on the pitch and has backed his old club's "holistic approach" to football in the 21st century.
Continue reading the main story
“
I don't like the thought of mediocrity and I don't think the owners of Manchester City do
”
Garry Cook
With football now a global industry worth billions of pounds, the former Nike executive says it is vital players and staff recognise the importance of a club's commercial interests.
"When companies sign an agreement with a club, they want access to the core proposition, which is the talent," said Cook.
"They want the manager, they want the players, so now the players and the manager have to give up time for that.
"It puts a drain on someone who doesn't necessarily understand the need to be a commercial property, doesn't necessarily understand the need to explain themselves in the media, doesn't understand the need to run the business with financial management at the heart of everything they do.
"The holistic element is understanding the way a football club runs, not just how a football team wins games."
Cook's business & football career
1985: Moves to the United States
1996: Joins sportswear firm Nike. Heads Brand Jordan, working with basketball star Michael Jordan
May 2008: Recruited by new Man City owner Thaksin Shinawatra as chief executive
June 2008: Appoints Mark Hughes as manager after Sven-Goran Eriksson is sacked
September 2008: Club taken over by Abu Dhabi United Group, with Cook heading player recruitment. Brazilian Robinho signs in record £32.5m deal
January 2009: City bring in Wayne Bridge, Craig Bellamy, Shay Given and Nigel de Jong but fail in bid for Kaka
Summer 2009: City keep spending under Cook as Carlos Tevez, Roque Santa Cruz, Gareth Barry and Emmanuel Adebayor all join
November 2009: Cook mistakenly welcomes City legend Uwe Rosler to "the Manchester United hall of fame" at a club gala
December 2009: Mark Hughes leaves City and is replaced by Roberto Mancini
July 2010: Cook jots down a list of player targets on a napkin at a meal with Oasis singer Noel Gallagher in South Africa
September 2011: Resigns as chief executive of Manchester City
September 2012: Becomes chief executive of the Ultimate Fighting Championship
The term "holistic" was used by City in the wake of Roberto Mancini's sacking last month.
Explaining their decision to part company with the Italian after three years at the helm, a City statement read: "The club has failed to achieve any of its stated targets this year, with the exception of qualification for next season's Champions League.
"This, combined with an identified need to develop a holistic approach to all aspects of football at the club, has meant that the decision has been taken to find a new manager for the 2013-14 season and beyond."
With Malaga boss Manuel Pellegrini the hot favourite to take over from Mancini, Cook believes City's Abu Dhabi owners are right to expect more from their players and staff after spending more than £1bn to buy and then develop the club.
Cook, who describes City chairman Khaldoon al-Mubarak and owner Sheikh Mansour as "colossal individuals", told BBC Sport: "I don't like the thought of mediocrity and I don't think the owners of Manchester City do.
"They want to win the Champions League. So they should. Every football club should. That's the pinnacle."
City axed Mancini after a season in which his team failed to advance past the group stage of the Champions League and lost their Premier League title to rivals Manchester United by 11 points.
"No-one will be more disappointed than Roberto because he's a passionate man," said Cook.
"Would he feel hard done by? I don't think he'll feel aggrieved. I think Roberto knows the rules. He's been in the game a long, long time."
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He added: "The rules of the game in a football club are very easy to manage.
"You need to win games, you need to win trophies, you need to be at the top of the pile. Whatever level of ambition is set, it's your job to meet that ambition."
Cook left City in September 2011 after an email was leaked to a national newspaper in which he mocked cancer sufferer Dr Antonio Onuoha, mother of then-City defender Nedum Onouha.
It is a matter the businessman has previously said he "deeply regrets". Nevertheless, he feels he had a positive impact at the club.
"I had a wonderful experience there," he said. "Personally, it was a challenge. We had to change the culture from one of mediocrity, which was acceptable, to one of future ambition. That's monumental.

I like Garry Cook.

haha top man Cookie...sounds like he's still on the sky blue payroll!

ant london wrote:haha top man Cookie...sounds like he's still on the sky blue payroll!

You know I love the Cooky monster. Class fucler. I miss him. I'm riddled with him. FACT.

One of the lads in our band of Blue Brothers met him on a pre season tour. He was invited to join the team in the hotel and Cook looked after him and a couple of other supporters. He stayed in touch and has sorted out other stuff for him. Even after he was dismissed he has always remained friends with this kid. I know that the City bug bit hard with Cookie and he still considers himself a Blue.
I liked his swagger, He reminded me of Malcolm with the way he got under the rags skins.

I had the good fortune to interview Garry on several occasions and have about 15 hours of interviews with him recorded. He made a few gaffes (which he'll openly admit to and apologise for) and misjudged football occasionally, but without him the club would not have moved forward. His plans prior to the takeover by Sheikh Mansour helped sell the club and many were later put in to practice.

The club needed a shake up in many ways (again some perhaps were wrong but overall it was needed) and Cook was the man who, almost on his own at first, tried to kill off the mediocrity and negativity that lived within the club. He once told me that when he did his first tour of the offices at City he was shocked at how poor it all was. He said it was like the Wizard of Oz in that the Premier League and the match day glamour was all a facade and that behind the curtain when you looked at the way the club was run and the facilities staff had to work with it was all poor. How staff could work in some of the conditions stunned him - and made him realise that the club could not move forward until some basic areas were improved behind the scenes (as well as on the pitch of course). He also talked about how fans weren't really listened to and how awful areas such as ticketing were.

Cook's role in City's history should never be underestimated and when he left there were many of City's opponents who were delighted he'd moved on. The club has now moved on and City need to push to the next level, but those 3 years or so he was directly involved with the Club were absolutely vital.

When I last met him (during 2012-13 season) he talked of City as his club. He wasn't born a Manc Blue but it got into his blood. Of course he made mistakes at City but it's worth remembering that the media laughed at him when he said City would win the Premier League within 10 years - it took a lot less than that! - and that City could be bigger than United. They don't laugh now when City make these statements which shows how far the club came during those years.

gary james wrote:I had the good fortune to interview Garry on several occasions and have about 15 hours of interviews with him recorded. He made a few gaffes (which he'll openly admit to and apologise for) and misjudged football occasionally, but without him the club would not have moved forward. His plans prior to the takeover by Sheikh Mansour helped sell the club and many were later put in to practice.

The club needed a shake up in many ways (again some perhaps were wrong but overall it was needed) and Cook was the man who, almost on his own at first, tried to kill off the mediocrity and negativity that lived within the club. He once told me that when he did his first tour of the offices at City he was shocked at how poor it all was. He said it was like the Wizard of Oz in that the Premier League and the match day glamour was all a facade and that behind the curtain when you looked at the way the club was run and the facilities staff had to work with it was all poor. How staff could work in some of the conditions stunned him - and made him realise that the club could not move forward until some basic areas were improved behind the scenes (as well as on the pitch of course). He also talked about how fans weren't really listened to and how awful areas such as ticketing were.

Cook's role in City's history should never be underestimated and when he left there were many of City's opponents who were delighted he'd moved on. The club has now moved on and City need to push to the next level, but those 3 years or so he was directly involved with the Club were absolutely vital.

When I last met him (during 2012-13 season) he talked of City as his club. He wasn't born a Manc Blue but it got into his blood. Of course he made mistakes at City but it's worth remembering that the media laughed at him when he said City would win the Premier League within 10 years - it took a lot less than that! - and that City could be bigger than United. They don't laugh now when City make these statements which shows how far the club came during those years.

Sounds like you have a lot of admiration for the guy. It's a shame one of his gaffes cost him his job, especially at a time when all his work was beginning to piece together.

If he had stayed (minus the gaffe), do you think the two new guys would still have been appointed? Or would he have stepped aside after bringing the club so far - a bit like what they have done with Mancini, he's brought us so far, but we needed something new to take us to the next level.

He used to get on my tits quite often but from the personal stories above & Gary's post about his effect on the club, you can tell that he really was a big part of our transformation & also treated the fans with respect.

I didn't like his public persona at all, but he tamed it & until his final cock up with Mrs O, he was going along quite nicely.

Unusual that a bloke who was basically a suit, is so popular amongst the ordinary City fans, to this day, & that suggests he was doing something right.

Risby wrote:Sounds like you have a lot of admiration for the guy. It's a shame one of his gaffes cost him his job, especially at a time when all his work was beginning to piece together.

If he had stayed (minus the gaffe), do you think the two new guys would still have been appointed? Or would he have stepped aside after bringing the club so far - a bit like what they have done with Mancini, he's brought us so far, but we needed something new to take us to the next level.

He would have chosen to move aside at some point because he did talk in the interviews about possible replacements and looking to create a club that any individual could change but the club would go on (like a normal business, but so often doesn't work in football). However, it feels like some people outside of City had decided they wanted him out no matter what and if he'd have survived the email gaffe (which actually occurred about 11 months earlier) then there would possibly have been other stories.

Would be good to see him back at a match at some point...he'd get a good reception

Risby wrote:
Sounds like you have a lot of admiration for the guy. It's a shame one of his gaffes cost him his job, especially at a time when all his work was beginning to piece together.

If he had stayed (minus the gaffe), do you think the two new guys would still have been appointed? Or would he have stepped aside after bringing the club so far - a bit like what they have done with Mancini, he's brought us so far, but we needed something new to take us to the next level.

It wasn't the gaffe that cost him his job, it was lying about it afterwards to try and save his skin. We needed someone calculating and businesslike in that position though, so it's not really surprising. Having said that, I'm still a big Cook fan and his role in City's progress sometimes gets overlooked or marginalised. I am still hoping he will become involved in some way with the New York team.

From reading this thread GC seems like the kind of bloke you like if you meet. I haven't met him and I doubt I ever will.

I don't think you will either Tokyo.

dazby wrote:I don't think you will either Tokyo.

No reason to gloat, you probably won't meet him either.