Just comes across like all the other bitter cunts around. I wonder when was the last time he actually paid to see his team play?stony said:Conn's piece in The Grauniad is another typical hatchet job. He really is a contemptible fucking turd.
George Osborne, not the sort of chap traditionally associated with Manchester City fans, opened the club’s astonishing new training academy this week, hailing it as a “benchmark” for investment in the north of England – where, he tells us repeatedly, he is creating a “powerhouse”.
The complex, built in one of Manchester’s and Britain’s poorest areas by Sheikh Mansour of the ruling Al Nahyan family in oil-rich Abu Dhabi, is the ultimate hothouse to train footballers for City and Mansour’s other clubs in New York, Melbourne and Yokohama.
Manchester city council wrought all the public good it could from the investment, with the result that after a generation of blight and deprivation, Abu Dhabi money has financed a new school and leisure centre for community use. But as well as spurring some vital economic activity, this whole football project has also shown Manchester’s true place in the global powerhouse league.
East Manchester, a crucible of the industrial revolution, was still a heartland of industry until the 1980s when more than 150,000 jobs were lost. The council spent £127m public and lottery money building the stadium for the 2002 Commonwealth Games; City moved in afterwards, and in 2008 hit the jackpot with Mansour.
The sheikh has since spent £1.15bn funding the football club, mostly bankrolling massive transfer fees and multimillion-pound salaries for players to win the Premier League. The community facilities for which Manchester is genuinely grateful have been built on 5.5 acres of City’s 80-acre academy, at a cost of £20m – a tenth of the £200m total cost and just over half the £38m that City paid for one player, Sergio Agüero, in 2011.
Since then, the city council has itself suffered £250m cuts, imposed by Osborne. The council last month announced it faces a further shortfall of £59m in 2015-16. Coping options include taking fewer troubled children and vulnerable old people into residential care, “efficiencies” in disability services, reduced spending on mental health, homelessness, youth services, school uniform grants, community projects, galleries, libraries, and ending free swimming for children and over-60s. It anticipates 600 job losses, on top of 3,000 gone since 2011.
Abu Dhabi has oil, and is a powerhouse. “The north of England” remains a long way behind.
You sound so grateful that you had to mention how much in comparison we paid for Aguero. What a snidey ungrateful ****. This twat is supposed to be a blue. I think someone mentioned his second club is FCUM. If he's so bothered about Manchester council cuts why no mention of the huge fucking chunk of taxpayers money that they've just been given?
Despite my dislike of Conn, I never had him down as a hypocrite until now.
Was up there yesterday and have to say I agree with you.unexpected item said:Walked over the new bridge before the game yesterday and there were a couple of big puddles where the water wasn't draining, with one being black sludge and also, the surface is very slippy when wet. Also, I hope City have got plans in place to de-ice the path in freezing conditions, as it would have to be closed to pedestrians if not.
mrbelfry said:Not really sure what Conn is suggesting here. With the council cuts and job losses surely a £200 million pound build with £20m community facilities should be applauded and that's just considering the figures rather than the ancillary effects of having the CFA in the community. Also the project has created local jobs for local people. Regardless of how much Sergio cost city are spending money, regenerating an area and creating Jobs in an area that no one else is. If conn wants to bang on about the growing disparity between the rich and the poor then he should do but maybe chose a different target
oakiecokie said:FantasyIreland said:Thanks for posting the article Oakie.It helps......
It should be cut and pasted onto Rag Cafe mate and let them hang Holt.Can`t believe he`s actually giving us the upper hand for once, over the Rags.
AlexWilliamsGloves said:I don't read it that conn is disrespecting or attacking sheik Mansour's investment...
...he's attacking the fact that Osborne is hanging off the coattails of this development. ..Osborne suggested he was building a powerhouse in the north east. ...conn is highlighting that it's Sheik Mansour who is the powerhouse....and not the government as it's continuously introducing cuts. ..