Cook & Marwood

[MaineRoadMemories]

Seems like the press have decided to give Shiekh Mansour and Khladoon the benefit of the doubt but are sharpening their knives for these two, especially Cook. They build up a big enough campaign then mud (deserved or not) will eventually stick.

My money is on one of these two or both to be the next people (outside of playing staff) to leave the club within the next 12 months.

[Dunne's Half-Time Pint]

I think Cook's a knob and Marwood made the wrong shout regarding Hughes. Wouldn't give a shit if they were fucked off.

[bluej]

I can see them at least one of them being fed to the wolves. Cookie has previous as well.

[Chad]

Cook said at the staff Christmas party that Hughes was as safe as houses.

[Socrates]

If Cook got the boot that would make a great start to the new year, I might even throw a party.

[Dunne's Half-Time Pint]

If Cook got the boot that would make a great start to the new year, I might even throw a party.

you, in a room, wearing a hat, does not constitute a party.

[Socrates]

If Cook got the boot that would make a great start to the new year, I might even throw a party.

you, in a room, wearing a hat, does not constitute a party.

Mancini in, Cook out, I'll be so high I won't care who comes. Just hope Mrs T doesn't drop dead at the same time or I could end up in the stratosphere...

[lets all have a disco]

If Cook got the boot that would make a great start to the new year, I might even throw a party.

Who is next on the Socs out list?

Just to clarify.

[Socrates]

If Cook got the boot that would make a great start to the new year, I might even throw a party.

Who is next on the Socs out list?

Just to clarify.

Still making up my mind about the tea lady but everyone else can stay.

[lets all have a disco]

If Cook got the boot that would make a great start to the new year, I might even throw a party.

Who is next on the Socs out list?

Just to clarify.

Still making up my mind about the tea lady but everyone else can stay.

Thats good to know.

I like to know the socs order of things.

[lythamblue]

If Cook got the boot that would make a great start to the new year, I might even throw a party.

Who is next on the Socs out list?

Just to clarify.

Still making up my mind about the tea lady but everyone else can stay.

Jesus Socs ..... have you ever fancied a job in personnel.

Good job you don't employ anyone ...... you'd sack them for putting too many sugars in your cocoa

[Socrates]

If Cook got the boot that would make a great start to the new year, I might even throw a party.

Who is next on the Socs out list?

Just to clarify.

Still making up my mind about the tea lady but everyone else can stay.

Thats good to know.

I like to know the socs order of things.

keep dancing...

[lets all have a disco]

If Cook got the boot that would make a great start to the new year, I might even throw a party.

Who is next on the Socs out list?

Just to clarify.

Still making up my mind about the tea lady but everyone else can stay.

Thats good to know.

I like to know the socs order of things.

keep dancing...

To your beat?

Always champ,always.

[Socrates]

Who is next on the Socs out list?

Just to clarify.

Still making up my mind about the tea lady but everyone else can stay.

Thats good to know.

I like to know the socs order of things.

keep dancing...

To your beat?

Always champ,always.

no, round my waffle. better for both of us...

[Socrates]

If Cook got the boot that would make a great start to the new year, I might even throw a party.

Who is next on the Socs out list?

Just to clarify.

Still making up my mind about the tea lady but everyone else can stay.

Jesus Socs ..... have you ever fancied a job in personnel.

Good job you don't employ anyone ...... you'd sack them for putting too many sugars in your cocoa

I do employ people and they don't know how to fill a mug of black coffee to the top. Hadn't thought of sacking them though. Thanks for the tip.

[irblinx]

Seems like the press have decided to give Shiekh Mansour and Khladoon the benefit of the doubt but are sharpening their knives for these two, especially Cook. They build up a big enough campaign then mud (deserved or not) will eventually stick.

My money is on one of these two or both to be the next people (outside of playing staff) to leave the club within the next 12 months.

Surely if the press see them as the scapegoats the chairman and owner would want to keep them there as a buffer?

[Colin the King]

I really dislike Cook as I've said before- to me he embodies everything that's wrong with modern football. I can imagine him lauding Hughes when in the same room as him, as I'm sure he did with Dunnie. He probably chokes laughing at us when he's in the safety of his own living room, the little sheep who shut up and wag their tongues as soon as they roll out another tacky marketing campaign.

I'm sure he's brilliant at selling shoes and licking up to potential investors- not a football man at all though.

Tin hat at the ready.

[Kiss_The_Goat]

Interesting article on Marwood. Raises some good points. Director Of Football hey?

"You bastards," Brian Kidd told his fellow Manchester United players when they heard of Wilf McGuinness's sacking as manager. "You let him down." As Kidd prepares to take over as Manchester City's No2, supporters seeking the men who let down Mark Hughes have focused on the shadowy figure of Brian Marwood, one-time winger for Arsenal and City, commentator, high-class sportswear salesman and éminence grise at Eastlands.

He is effectively Manchester City's director of football, although Hughes, a traditional football man, ensured this title was never used. Marwood was careful not to be seen to be invading Hughes's territory and his role encompassed every area of the club's operations, including the academy and player development.

He is also the unofficial adviser to the club's owners, Abu Dhabi United. Just as Roman Abramovich has relied on Frank Arnesen to ensure his money was being well invested by a succession of Chelsea managers so the Manchester City owner, Sheikh Mansour, and his chairman, Khaldoon al-Mubarak, have Marwood.

However, Arnesen had worked under Bobby Robson at PSV Eindhoven and discovered Jaap Stam and Ruud van Nistelrooy. Marwood's qualifications to do the job seem to lie in his close relationship with the City chief executive, Garry Cook. Both had worked for Nike, for whom Marwood was appointed head of their UK operations in February.

The timing of his arrival appeared significant. The deal that would have taken Kaká from Milan to Manchester had just collapsed, and it was a transfer that Cook had enthusiastically supported but which Hughes appeared cooler towards. Hughes considered that Kaká, like Robinho, was ill-suited to the step-by-step, largely British, recruitment policy that he favoured.

Part of Marwood's role was to be a continental style director of transfers, although the targets in his time at Eastlands were all nominated by Hughes and confirmed by Khaldoon. His task was very specific – to negotiate the contracts. He was at Eastlands only for Hughes's final transfer window; a summer in which more than £60m was spent on Emmanuel Adebayor, Kolo Touré and Joleon Lescott, and it has been suggested he disapproved of all three.

However, sources in the Emirates are insistent that Marwood was generally supportive of the manager. If his opinion changed as City stumbled from draw to draw against Hull, Bolton and Burnley, Khaldoon did not consider his intervention to be decisive. Whether Cook or Marwood wanted Hughes out was largely immaterial. The emirate of Abu Dhabi is not a democracy and although there are technical advisers, they are merely courtiers. Hughes may have believed that Cook and Marwood together engineered his downfall but the likeliest scenario is that they did not fight to keep him in office and happily and quietly began negotiations with a number of potential successors, including Roberto Mancini.

In the end Khaldoon and Sheikh Mansour were the only voices that mattered. Rightly or wrongly, they considered Hughes a limited manager who had made limited use of their unlimited funds. And they acted as they always had: swiftly.

[MaineRoadMemories]

Well that press conference will make the press go after him forever more. Cook has just effectively put a noose around his neck with all that table bashing at the journos!

[One cap Whitey]

Well that press conference will make the press go after him forever more. Cook has just effectively put a noose around his neck with all that table bashing at the journos!

I was half expecting him to hand his cards in there and then.