The Great City Fire Sale, summer 2008

charliebigspuds said:
jma said:
Never forget, Thaksin was a complete **** who would have seen us go to the wall without blinking. His only regret would have been any personal financial losses. He gladly took this club to the edge of the cliff and wouldn't have given a fuck for the community, history and what the club represents being smashed into oblivion.

A prize bellend who tried to use this club for outrageous political and personal self aggrandisement.

There are plenty on the mental "how can he be a **** if he sold us to the current owners" bandwagon though.

By a long distance, the biggest twat ever associated with this club. And that is including Rick Holden.


although I agree with most of what you have written the biggest twat ever to be associated with our club is Alan Ball

I would say Steve Coppell runs him close in that regard.
Alan Ball was hopeless manager, who was best mates with Frannny Lee and got the job because Alan Hansen got cold feet, but atleast he did not walk out on us.
 
This was from around a week before the takeover was announced

<a class="postlink" href="http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/football/premier-league/whats-going-on-at-man-city-906385.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;">http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/foot ... 06385.html</a>

What's going on at Man City?

Thaksin Shinawatra has offered to resign as a director, new money is sought and a 'superstar' signing is needed, executive chairman Garry Cook tells Jason Burt

Saturday, 23 August 2008

Manchester City's owner, Thaksin Shinawatra, has offered to resign as a director, the club's executive chairman has said. In a wide-ranging and frank interview Garry Cook also confirmed that the former Thai Prime Minister is close to selling part of his stake to raise funds for transfer deals.

However, Cook maintained that City "is not for sale" but admitted that both he and Thaksin were "embarrassed" after his £800m assets were frozen and the owner was forced to flee corruption charges in Thailand. It has raised questions about Thaksin's suitability and whether he can still pass the League's "fit and proper persons test". "There aren't many football clubs in the world who have their owner under political jurisdiction," Cook conceded.

However, in outlining his ambitions Cook, a former president of Nike's Brand Jordan, boldly claimed that City will become bigger than Manchester United. And, despite losing out on signing Ronaldinho, he was confident that a world "superstar" would be bought. The 45-year-old, who has spent much of his career in the United States, also proposed that the Premier League should be reduced, possibly to just 10 clubs, "and I wouldn't like to have promotion and relegation".

It was the scrutiny and speculation over City's financial future that prompted Cook to speak. He talked about how "frustrated" he is at the way the club have been portrayed, suggested there may be a "vendetta" and insisted "there is no cash crisis". However, City are looking for investors. "We've talked about selling part of his [Thaksin's] stake to a partner who would take a little bit of the pressure away," Cook said, although he insisted that the owner did not want to "give up the majority stakeholding". "We are not looking at institutions," he said. "It's a friend of a friend."

That friend is likely to be from the Far East. Cook revealed that the "second richest man in China" – Forbes magazine estimates that to be Zhang Jindong, who is worth $4.5bn – had offered to buy the club at a dinner in Beijing last week while there has been interest from Dubai, Saudi Arabia and Kuwait. Cook said there are advanced talks with investors which "will be resolved in the next 10 days". He added: "We have five or six options. The reasons we want to do that is because we need three or four players."

That would suggest there are indeed financial problems? "Because the assets are frozen he cannot be deemed to be spending any of his money," said Cook, who insisted the club could go to its bankers, Standard Bank, to raise funds. And what of the claims that money was borrowed from former chairman John Wardle? "We've never borrowed money to pay the wages," Cook said. "We run our business on a cashflow basis. We get into situations which can change within 24 hours. We've got offers out on players which, if all of them jump, we have to go to resources to get the cash in. All clubs are doing it."

Cook met the Premier League chairman, Sir Dave Richards, on Tuesday to discuss Thaksin's case. "I asked Sir Dave to give me a list of the things that would create us meeting the fit and proper jurisdiction and he said, 'Great, I will send that to you'," Cook said. "I think it is a very loose term. It is almost a tongue-in-cheek term that you would use for Premier League football over the last 10 years. There are plenty of unfit and improper individuals. Dr Thaksin has been really open about this. He has said to me: 'If you need me to resign as a director, because it would serve the needs of the Premier League, then I'm fine with that as long as that doesn't change any other thing'."

Does Cook not have any personal qualms? "I worked at a company – Nike – where we were accused of child labour rights issues. I managed to have a career there for 15 years and I believed we were innocent of most of the issues. So, morally, I felt confident. Morally, I feel comfortable in this environment," he said. "I mean is he [Thaksin] a nice guy? Yes. Is he a great guy to play golf with? Yes. Has he got the finances to run a football club? Yes. I really care about those things. Whether he is guilty of something over there [Thailand] I can't worry too much about that."

There are also no regrets over the fruitless pursuit of Ronaldinho. "I am remorseful because we need a superstar," Cook said. "A global franchise entity – Mark [Hughes] and I talk about this a lot and he sort of understands it. In the intellectual property world of running a football club – when you have 3.7 billion people a year looking at you – you have to move away from football the way it is. I know people are going to say, 'Here we go again, another guy from America telling us how it should be'. It's true. China and India – 30 per cent of the world's population – don't have any football content. We are going to try and tell them that Manchester City is their content.

"To do that you need a superstar. No disrespect to any player we have but Richard Dunne doesn't roll off the tongue in Beijing. I love Richard, he is a key member of our team. But we need a superstar. Ronaldinho – what he does is bring players to the club. He brings access from major sponsors and financial reward."

But how does that square with a manager such as Hughes? "We told Mark not to come if he thought we didn't need a superstar," Cook said. "It was very much that. Mark's comment was, 'We all should all challenge ourselves, because that's what makes a difference'. Had he not wanted [Ronaldinho] we would have had a very heated debate and it would have been Mark's decision. I can't tell you who the next one will be, but we have one."

It is all part of a plan which includes winning the Premier League, Champions League – and overtaking United. "If I didn't have that goal, I wouldn't be here," Cook said. "Growing up at Nike, you don't sit around saying, 'Can we?' You say, 'We will.' I've got to change that here."
<br /><br />-- Wed Jan 22, 2014 12:05 pm --<br /><br />And this one

<a class="postlink" href="http://www.theguardian.com/football/2008/aug/23/manchestercity.premierleague" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;">http://www.theguardian.com/football/200 ... mierleague</a>

City laid bare: from Thaksin's troubles to old-school Hughes·The club's executive chairman, Garry Cook, talks Daniel Taylor through past problems and future hopes
Daniel Taylor The Guardian, Saturday August 23 2008 Article historyTo traditionalists, they will probably never change. Manchester City will always be the attractive, loveable losers while, down the road, their enemies get all the trophies. City get by on spirit and gallows humour and a general acceptance that things will always go wrong. It is all part of the charm, the endearing qualities that have led their former manager Joe Royle to talk of a disease called "Cityitis", Sir Alex Ferguson to nickname their stadium the "Temple of Doom" and their supporters to fear they will always be in the shadow of their overbearing neighbours.

And then there is Garry Cook, headhunted by Thaksin Shinawatra three months ago to become their executive chairman and clearly a man who wants to look at the stars in the sky rather than the mud in the gutter. A man who believes City can be the biggest club in Manchester. "And we will," he says. "Can we be as big, or bigger, than Manchester United? Yes. Can we win the Premier League? Yes. Can we win the Champions League? It will take time, probably 10 years or more. But if I didn't think that, I wouldn't be here."

It is a staggering prediction at a time when Thaksin has £800m of assets frozen in Thailand and Mark Hughes's body language is so downbeat. Yet Cook is deadly serious. "The truth is that this club is not going out of business, it is not bankrupt and we currently have good offers in for four players. I know what's ahead and I know Thaksin's ambitions. He still wants to buy the Ronaldinhos of this world and he knows he can do that only if he has an abundant amount of cash."

There is, he admits, a "cash challenge" in the short term. City have taken out a £30m bank loan to help them through, he confirms. "Do we have £40m in the bank to buy new players? No." Yet Cook is encouraged because Thaksin is talking to some of the world's richest men about investing in the club. They have had "Dubai, Saudi Arabia and Kuwait on the phone" and met "the second richest man in China". Funding is on its way. "We have five or six different options and we want to get it done in the transfer window because we need three or four players."

The important thing is that Thaksin will continue to bankroll the club. "As he resolves his issues in Thailand, the anticipation is that he will get some of his money back." Does the one-time billionaire have bank accounts outside Thailand? "I'm going to assume he doesn't," says Cook. "All I know is that he has some very wealthy friends."

Thaksin is "embarrassed about the indignities he has brought on the club" and willing to stand down as a director. Yet Cook has misgivings about the Premier League's fit-and-proper-person test. "It is a very loose term, almost tongue-in-cheek, because there have been plenty of unfit and improper people in the league over the last 10 years." He talks of a sport rife with "greed and jealousy - I won't use the word corruption but wherever there's greed and jealousy there will be something else that follows it".

As for working for a man who has been described by Human Rights Watch as a "human rights abuser of the worst kind", Cook replies: "He's embroiled in a political process and I've chosen to stay out of it. Is he a nice guy? Yes. Is he a great guy to play golf with? Yes. Does he have plenty of money to run a football club? Yes. I really care only about those three things. Whether he [Thaksin] is guilty of something over in Thailand, I can't worry. I have to be conscious of it. But my role is to run a football club. I worked for Nike who were accused of child-labour issues and I managed to have a career there for 15 years. I believed we were innocent of most of the issues. Morally, I felt comfortable in that environment. It's the same here."

Not everyone will be satisfied, but Cook is more bothered about the "10-year plan" to become a "global empire" and bringing in a box-office signing. "We need a superstar," he says. "I've talked about this a lot to Mark and he sort of understands. China and India, 30% of the world population, need a league to watch and we want Manchester City to be their club. To do that, we need a superstar because, no disrespect, Richard Dunne doesn't roll off the tongue in Beijing."

The obvious question is: shouldn't it be up to Hughes who they sign? Cook says there would be a "heated debate" if Hughes objected. "When we talked to Mark about coming to this club we said, 'Don't come if you don't think you need a superstar.' He said he wanted to challenge himself by managing the best players."

Yet Hughes was lukewarm, to say the least, about the drawn-out pursuit of Ronaldinho. As Cook admits, the former Blackburn manager has simpler tastes. "Mark is adamant he wants Premier League experience because that is what let us down last season. Mark's a homegrown lad, very old school. He'd rather sign players he knows, even overpay. That's an endearing piece of what he's all about. He doesn't like the unknown because it takes him out of his comfort zone. He jumps out of his comfort zone when we say to him, 'Hey, you've got to change this up a little bit.' But he can't have Roque Santa Cruz so now he's back in his 'uncomfortable zone', which is that he will have to bring in someone new and develop them."

Hughes, he says, was unfortunate because Sven-Goran Eriksson's recruiting from abroad meant City had "players who weren't right for the club" - especially in "the dead of winter when the players are putting on gloves and tights, there are five games in 10 days and it's bloody tough".

Hughes was said to be against City's plans to sell Vedran Corluka and Stephen Ireland. Cook's take is very different. "Mark's assessment was that he had seen the players he wanted to keep and the areas where he felt we could do better. There were a couple of players we looked at [selling] because Mark said he wanted to bring in better. We went out to sign those players, they didn't come and we were left holding the baby."

It hardly represents a vote of confidence for Corluka and Ireland, but Cook is unapologetic. "Everyone's for sale. If they want to stay at this club they will have to aspire to it."

The better news for Hughes is that Thaksin will not, according to Cook, automatically sack him if City fail to reach the last six. "Thaksin has said himself, 'I probably made some mistakes last season.' He realises he needs to give the manager more room, be more patient."

Thaksin, however, has not had a complete change of personality. As Cook says: "If I were to ask him, 'Is it true we haven't got any money?' he'd fire me on the spot."

By his own admission, Garry Cook has radical views on football that not everyone will agree with, not least his belief that there should be a new top division of 10-14 elite clubs with no promotion or relegation. 'The fans,' he says, 'would find a way to get passionate about it.'

A Birmingham City fan, with a part-West Midlands and part-American accent, Cook previously worked in an executive role for Nike in Portland, Oregon, becoming president of the Nike Jordan Brand.

The Premier League is '10 years behind' the US in merchandising. 'This is the most powerful sports league in the world but also the most undervalued.' Manchester United had not 'even scratched the surface and if anyone's got a headstart it's them'.

As for City, he says their behind-the-scenes operation is a 'shock to me' explaining: 'You look at our brand and it's Thomas Cook. There's something not quite right about watching us in a bar in Beijing or Bangkok or Tokyo and seeing "Fred Smith's Plumbing, call 0161 ..."'

He was angry when a side of ex-players won the Masters tournament 'using our name and our badge when they had nothing to do with us - then, lo and behold, we congratulate them in the programme. You couldn't set up a band and call it the Drifters, so what are they doing using our name?'

He sees City becoming a 'global empire' and 'bigger than Manchester United' but feels the club is undermined by leaks to the media and suggests there is 'someone inside the club with a vendetta'.

He is unimpressed, too, with some of the footballers he has encountered. 'They don't understand their responsibility to the club,' he says. 'Trying to get them to do something is like dragging them out of bed.'

Since Cook's appointment in May the previous chief executive, Alistair Mackintosh, and former chairman John Wardle have both left the club.
 
I think I´ll just add that during the takeover Thaksin lived in Dubai.. Which as we know is in the UAE and the generals was trying to get UAE to hand him over.
Sheikh Mansour was in a position to make sure that it never happened, as long as Thaksin signed the papers of course.
 
I managed to miss this thread when it was properly 'live'. It's been a great read.

I'd guess the mole on WSC was Bowen.....he has a habit of internet postings of inside info even on here.

What a period in the history of our club this was, just like stuff in Parliament it'll be 25 years before it all comes out.

Re Thaskin for or against him i'm still amazed that someone with his profile would end up in a normal seat in the South Stand for the rag game. I imagine he has body guards all round him normally it would have been an eye opener (no pun) for him in the bogs at half time having to put his hand on the wall so he wasn't pushed into the trough with mobi's filming him.
 
Prestwich_Blue said:
Apologies for the long post but as promised, here's my recollection of events up to and during the Thaksin takeover.

My involvement in this really started back in 2005, when I became a shareholder. Having attended my first AGM, I became quite concerned about the attitude of the people running the club towards us, the fans, and the club in general. That led to a few of us getting together to explore the idea of a Supporters Trust, where we got supporter shareholders together to act as a pressure group . Not to take over the club but to get a couple of suitably qualified and experienced people onto the entirely inadequate board. Through that, we built up a lot of contacts inside and outside the club. Those contacts came in very useful in the next few years. The club had always maintained they were seeking investment but Mackintosh never quite managed to drum any up. I believe there had been offers for the club at this time but they had been rejected, without the Stock Exchange being informed as they should have been.

Then in December 2006, the club dramatically announced they were in talks that may lead to investment. This was a complete load of tosh caused by the realisation we, with the backing of a wealthy City fan, had agreed a deal in principle to buy Sky’s 10% for a sum somewhere around £1.75-1.8m I think. This valued the club at around £18m. The announcement effectively kyboshed the Sky deal (as it was meant to do) but the club was at least now publicly ‘in play’ as they say in the City. Ray Ranson came in about March/April 2007 but Wardle simply wouldn’t do business with him. We were also in contact with Ranson but he could be quite frustrating to deal with. The source of his funds wasn’t clear and nor were his plans for the club afterwards. We potentially offered to fund him if he could give guarantees that a significant proportion of the shares would be held in the fans’ name but he wouldn’t. In hindsight it’s probably just as well he didn’t buy the club.

There are a million and one other stories I could tell about the events of those days but they don’t really add to the subject in hand.
Thaksin’s name eventually surfaced in May 2007, he made a formal offer in June and eventually took control of the club in July. John Wardle claimed he had no qualms about dealing with Thaksin and the club had checked with the Foreign Office but corruption charges had been issued against him in Thailand back in March. His assets were frozen just before he made the formal offer for City but still none of this rang alarm bells with the authorities or the club. To me, that’s truly staggering.

However, I do know questions were raised (I assume in meetings with Keith Harris/lawyers) about his ability to fund the transactions under these circumstances. To satisfy these questions I believe Thaksin produced evidence of a number of offshore accounts containing substantial funds (up to $2bn possibly). These were not part of the frozen assets. If you want to read about one of these accounts, that was held in the British Virgin Isles, then Google “Ample Rich Thailand”. He had at least one other similar account in the BVI and the others spread around other offshore tax havens.
Anyway, as we know, he completed the purchase and we all assumed there would be substantial investment. He appointed Sven and brought in those 8 players, including Elano & Petrov. We’d sourced those through Jerome Anderson and paid a third of the total money up front (about £15m or so).

I was at the Emirates for our game there early that season and bumped into a good contact who told me that far from putting new money into the club, Thaksin had incurred further debt in order to buy the group of players we’d brought in. It’s not clear whether that this was money he’d introduced (either his own, offshore money or borrowed from someone else) or we’d borrowed against next summer’s Sky income but I strongly suspect it was the latter. As we were struggling to cope with the debt we already had, this was ringing alarm bells already.

I also heard around that time that Thaksin had been advised by a number of people close to him to get rid of Mackintosh. Mackintosh had been telling people not to talk to Thaksin’s Thai advisors at the club and knew his neck was on the line, so part of the agenda for the season was him and Tyrrell briefing against Thaksin. The “bowing” story that DD mentioned came from them I believe, as well as a story that Jerome Anderson had pocketed a fortune (he ended up with about £700k I believe as none of the players we brought in were his clients) along with a few other stories designed to show Thaksin in a bad light and make him lose face. Anyone remember the story about the fury in Thailand over the national flag being defaced? I’m not sure if that was one of theirs or not but it certainly fitted the pattern.

Anyway, let’s fast forward to June 2008. Mackintosh had been replaced by Cook and Sven by Hughes. Almost immediately Cook was faced with having to find the next £15m instalment for the players brought in by Sven and we hadn’t got it because we’d pledged the incoming Sky money to pay off the first instalment. So they’re scrambling around trying to find the money and it looks like going into administration is the only serious option. We can’t borrow the money up-front again as the credit crunch is starting and Singer & Friedlander (who I think are the bank that provided this facility) aren’t lending. There’s a team of accountants from Ernst & Young going over the books and preparing for that. In the meantime, Richard Scudamore is ringing round people to try to find a solution to avoid this.

I had a call in mid June from someone who I’ll describe as a former City director asking if the funding we had for the Sky shares is still available and, if so, would we be interested in buying the club. In conversation it came to light that Scudamore preferred a sale as a going concern but that if the club went into administration, it could probably be bought for a couple of million or so and largely debt free. It seemed pointless to buy a club that is clearly going to struggle under the weight of its debts so, as hard as the decision was we agreed that we would wait until it goes into administration and started putting together a plan for that.

I think I was told at the time that we had four weeks grace to pay this money then we were screwed. However, in the nick of time a few weeks later, City arranged a loan for around £30m from Standard Bank (of South Africa) which was secured on a charge over future Sky income for the next two years. Given that we’ve already secured the £43m of bonds on season ticket income then we’re looking at another, possibly fatal, mess in 12 months time and will have to sell to raise some cash and cut down the wage bill.

Behind Hughes’ back, the club agreed to sell Ireland to Sunderland. He was furious when he found out and told Cook/Thaksin that he decided who stays and goes and if this deal goes through he’ll resign. I’m not sure about the Corluka to Spurs deal. Thaksin had to back down and Ireland stayed but that doesn’t help our finances any.

Incidentally, I believe this loan was facilitated by the Manchester based Blemain Group, which was then owned by City fan Henry Moser. Given the state of the credit market at the time, I dread to think what the terms were like, particularly as Blemain specialised in sub-prime loans. So we could pay the £15m and had some left over to finance the purchase of SWP, Kompany, Zab & the legend that is Jo. Some people have speculated this might have been done with Abu Dhabi money but the deal hadn’t been completed by then so I doubt it.

I’m not sure of the exact timing but obviously ADUG were now in talks. I have got some information which would probably give me a more precise date but I haven’t got access to that as I’m not at home. I understand they targeted 4 clubs – us, Everton, Newcastle & Arsenal. The latter two fell by the wayside early on but I know for sure they were starting to talk to Everton as I’ve seen emails that passed between people involved in the Everton talks. Essentially Everton wanted or wouldn’t agree to certain pre-conditions before detailed talks and due diligence took place and this wasn’t acceptable to ADUG’s advisers. So it was just us but Thaksin pissed around & wanted all sorts of stuff so the deal nearly fell through. Eventually as a compromise, they let him keep a title and 10% of his shares. This was a meaningless gesture as a holder of 90% of a company’s shares can force the minority to sell and eventually they bought or took those off him.

So that's what I know. It was a fascinating time and I remember the emotions I experienced when I heard we were in severe danger of going into administration were the same combination of nervousness and, I guess, adrenalin that I had before the QPR game.

Great read pb... fuk me we were screwed....pppphhheewweeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee.
 
moomba said:
Didnt Zaba get bought the same day Corluka was sold?

If it was I can't see the situation being that dire.
He was (on 30 September) but the immediate crisis was past by then. We'd already borrowed the money to pay the second installment on the previous summer's transfers. And of course ADUG were waiting in the wings by then.

The real financial crisis was back in June, when Ernst & Young were in.
 
Cracking thread with some excellent input, especially from PB who by the sounds of it, could well have been the proud owner, in part of the club he loves.

What a football club this is and no wonder we all love it so much!
 
Great thread DD with some fantastic contributions namely PB and OB1 ( I remember you being vocal on the old manchester online city website at the time OB). On the pitch the season that had just finished was joyous in comparison to the dross under Pearce the season before, I think we all needed a bit of excitement and under Sven and Thaksin we certainly got that. I saw us do the the double over united and was there at OT to see us win there for the first time in my lifetime. We played some great free-flowing football but it was clear that things were becoming a disaster off the pitch. I'm actually reading Sven's book at the minute which sheds a bit of light on what was going on at that time. As you can see I joined this forum on the depressing Monday morning after our 8-1 defeat at Middlesbrough. I wanted to know what was was going on at the club I loved behind the scenes and I think it's common knowledge that the players were willing to refuse to play in a revolt against Thaksin and in support of Sven. I'd signed up interested in the supporters club trust the year before ( after the demoralising fa cup defeat at Blackburn if I remember rightly) but as a lad at Uni in his early twenties I really had no idea of the severity of our plight. In hindsight everybody at the club was papering over the cracks for a long time and trying to maintain a front for the fans and media but we were regularly getting leaks on here and it was really frightening stuff. That summer was chaos. It seemed to go from bad to worse all summer until the end of August. I was in Ibiza on hallucinogenics when the takeover and Robinho happened ( I rang about 20 different people from outside a bar in San Antonio because I was convinced it was a sick wind-up). They all knew I cared too much. At the time it was the greatest moment of my life. I've gone onto have a few more in the following 7 years. I'm so thankful our fortunes have changed. I'm genuinely emotional writing this. As a few have already said I wouldn't change it for the world but I'm glad it's consigned to the history books. Thank god it turned out the way it did.
 

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