Garry Cook

[Didsbury Dave]

Re: gary cook

Never mind Didsbury Dave, whilst there was that stupid kids disco, the real fans celebrated on the pitch, so everyone left happy.

Never mind. Whilst you kids might have danced on the pitch, the real real fans closed their eyes, shed a tear, thought about City supporting loved ones they have lost but mainly about that big Garry-shaped hole in the Director's Box.

He will become our "Munich 58". We will have a clock outside the stadium stopped at the exact time he sent his email.

 

[Skashion]

Re: gary cook

Never mind. Whilst you kids might have danced on the pitch, the real real fans closed their eyes, shed a tear, thought about City supporting loved ones they have lost but mainly about that big Garry-shaped hole in the Director's Box.

He will become our "Munich 58". We will have a clock outside the stadium stopped at the exact time he sent his email.

Don't worry, I serenaded him as he arrived for the match. He knows how I feel.

 

[BoyBlue_1985]

Re: gary cook

The man that launched Air Jordan!! The job was too big for him! No

If we carry on at this rate we'll soon be claiming he used to be President of the USA.

Launched 'Air Jordan'? Come on now, there's no need to exaggerate.

To be fair I completely got that wrong (had a little read up) but I would stand by the fact that this job was by no means to big for him.

 

[OB1]

Re: gary cook

The media chose to make Cook some kind of pantomime villain and there's no denying he could have chosen his words more carefully at times but he had a huge impact on MCFC and mostly for the good. I've never met him but I know a number of people who have, including friends of his, and I've no doubt that he is fundamentally a good guy as well as being intelligent and creative in a business sense. The fact that City have not managed to replace him yet and that he was invited back by the club for QPR game should tell people something.

 

[Dubai Blue]

Re: gary cook

The man that launched Air Jordan!! The job was too big for him! No

If we carry on at this rate we'll soon be claiming he used to be President of the USA.

Launched 'Air Jordan'? Come on now, there's no need to exaggerate.

To be fair I completely got that wrong (had a little read up) but I would stand by the fact that this job was by no means to big for him.

I agree. He was comfortably well-qualified enough to take on the role and he did more good things than bad during his tenure, so he can certainly keep his head held high for the job he did at City. But he's just another ex-employee now, so I find some of the hero-worship on here a tad OTT.

 

[spiny]

Re: gary cook

One thing I've learned about this club over the years is that you can never please everybody. In my opinion, Garry Cook was good for our club and I reckon history show him to be a (not necessarily 'the') catalyst to get us where we are.

He has that Malcolm Allison attitude and belief in what he does. He has a really positive, enthusiasm about him and a will to win. Sure, he made mistakes and sadly for him they were in the full public glare, but I genuinely feel the club is better for having had him as an employee.

I liked the fact he wasn't afraid of calling out what he perceived the issues with the club were, eg the inherrent negativity in the club right the way through to the fans. I might not have agreed that he used our anthem as an example of the negativity but you could understand the argument he was making.

I'm sure the naysayers will disagree with that, but I thought he was good for us. Very much looking forward to the interview as I am sure he will not slate us (I don't think he has much cause to).

My sentiments exactly. He was the right man at the right time. He got us in the spotlight and brought order to the shambles sufficient to make us an attractive proposition for ADUG. If he was good enough for Sheikh Mansour and Khaldoon then good enough for me too.

Gary Cook did not take bullshit and delivered. Only jobsworths keep a low profile so gaffes and mistakes are never seen. Shit never sticks to them but what do they achieve? Nowt worse than the moral indignation from the press that Cook did not deserve. He did a lot for City and had the interests of the club at heart.<br /><br />-- Thu Jun 07, 2012 2:12 pm --<br /><br />

I agree. He was comfortably well-qualified enough to take on the role and he did more good things than bad during his tenure, so he can certainly keep his head held high for the job he did at City. But he's just another ex-employee now, so I find some of the hero-worship on here a tad OTT.

Tongue in cheek hero-worship?

 

[Anonymous]

Re: gary cook

It would be a nice gesture to have him as the next inclusion in the Manchester City Hall of Fame.

Maybe we can't as he wasn't a player. What about a statue next to the Joe Mercer one or at another part of the ground? Or name a stand after him, perhaps the Family Stand as it embodies so much of what the great man was all about.

Splitter. I thought you wanted to Kill The Cheese and here you go advocating the very thing?! There are dedicated KTC-ers staring dumbfounded into their Theakston's Old Peculiar while tears snuff out rolled up tabs of Ogden's Nut-Gone Flake.

I'm going to be honest here, strongbow, comrade.

The KTC campaign was dealt a crushing blow with that half hour primary school disco that tannoy jerkoff played after the QPR game. The sight of fat 60 somethings bobbing along to Sweet Caroline is a hard one to remove from the mind.

I think the battle has been lost. They'll be playing Tom Hark after each goal next season and the spirit of Garry will live on.

Cook 1 KTC 0. That was the real score the other week.

Love it!

 

[Mad Eyed Screamer]

Garry Cook on BBC Manchester Thursday 6pm (UK)

Garry Cook was a surprise visitor at the Mad Hatter bar in New York last night (see the NY thread about that!)

He did a short speech and said he has turned down many, many offers for an interview about his time / leaving City but turned them all down - however, he is on BBC Radio Manchester today at 6pm UK time for his one and only interview.

Here is a preview and the link

<a class="postlink" href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio/player/bbc_radio_manchester" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;">http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio/player/bbc_radio_manchester</a>

Man City: Ex-chief executive Garry Cook felt he 'embarrassed' fans

Former Manchester City chief executive Garry Cook has revealed he felt he "embarrassed the fans" with mistakes he made while working at the club.

He told BBC Radio Manchester: "There are no excuses. There are my interpretations and there are the interpretations of the press.

"The thing I always felt when those interpretations were manifested was the embarrassment I'd caused the fans."

Cook resigned in September 2011 after more than three years in the role.

His departure came following accusations that he sent an email to then-City defender Nedum Onouha's cancer-suffering mother mocking her illness.

Cook denied sending the email, claiming his account was hacked, but chose to resign after an internal investigation.

"In the end, I really felt that I didn't want to continue being the scapegoat of Manchester City and the point of attack," he said.

"I am who I am but I was getting more and more concerned that it was becoming more about me than it was about the football club and the fans.

"That's not fair to them, it's their club and they deserve better than that."

Cook is credited with brokering the Abu Dhabi United Group's takeover soon after his appointment as chief executive in 2008, a deal which has transformed Manchester City into Premier League champions in the space of four seasons.

"We built a prospectus to sell the club," he continued. "They were interested in other football clubs and we had to sell the idea that Manchester City was a good investment.

"They liked the vision and we started to meet the key stakeholders. We then realised that we'd got it right and we knew that we were going to make a big, bold statement in the world of sport, not just football.

"It was about getting someone who cared for the football club. They are passionate about it, they want to win and they're ambitious. They knew how passionate the fans were about the club - there was nothing plastic about this.

"I am proud of what I've done, but it's not me alone. What I feel I managed to do was build a team of people who believed and could see the vision.

"I'm not responsible for what happened at Manchester City. I only played my part and I was very fortunate to be given that opportunity."
Use accessible player and disable flyout menus

But along with the success and City's progression on the field, there were also "a catalogue of four of five incidents" that Cook believes "will be his nemesis that he will carry forever".

He inadvertently inducted former City striker Uwe Rosler into the "Manchester United Hall of Fame" at a special ceremony, and accused AC Milan of "bottling" a deal that would have seen Brazil international Kaka complete a world-record transfer to Eastlands.

"I was angry at AC Milan for the way they treated the football club with regards to Kaka," Cook added. "In retrospect, it was disrespectful to make public statements the way I did and I obviously regret that.

"Making a mistake with Uwe Rosler, my biggest concern was if I had dishonoured Uwe Rosler or the supporters' club.

"I deeply regret making a mistake. But I'm also a great believer that if you're not making mistakes, you're not trying hard enough."

Hear Ian Cheeseman's full interview with Garry Cook on BBC Radio Manchester's "In The Spotlight" from 18:00 BST on Thursday, 7 June

 

[1.618034]

Re: gary cook

Apperantly interview with him on gmr from 6 tommorow...should be worth a listen

I'd give him the job back. Fuck the press. It won't happen like, but he was doing a fantastic job. It's a real shame that he couldn't quite resist a joke/dig (but that's why a lot of us like him) and he obviously really, really regrets it, esp because it was beginning to cause "embarrassment"... But I also think we could've lived with it. We certainly could now that we've actually gone and won the league. (God I loved typing that last bit... Brrrr)

Looking fwd to the full interview... Will it be available as a podcast?


Anyway, since he's a proper Blue... can you please spell his name right and give him capital letters. Ta.

 

[mcfc1632]

Re: gary cook

Re the Ned’s mum incident - it looked really bad and of course all thoughts go out to her - there is no place for ridicule of that subject if it is made in an intended personal manner.

The reason that I did not jump on Cook's case so much about that was because I did not at all see it as a nasty remark aimed personally to cause distress and offence.

I saw it as more likely an interaction between two colleagues - some banter made in the way that colleagues do.

I did not see it as a deliberate and personal slight.

Who on here has never made a 'wisecrack' or 'remark' which could be positioned as clearly dreadful taste if taken and presented in a different context to the 'aside' manner in which it was meant. I would believe that if any can put their hands up they need to be either canonized or buy better mirrors to have around their house.

I laughed at some of the jokes doing the rounds after the Tsunami and after the Morecombe bay tragedy – it did not mean that I thought anything other than they were tragic situations.

Of course his mistake was simple in that incident - he made an 'off the cuff' aside to his work mate and pressed 'reply all' rather than just reply. I would guess that a number on here have also done that - and very many come close to it. I do not mean to belittle the situation - it was clearly crass and clumsy.

I would have in back in a heartbeat – and I think that our commercial progress and with the MCC with whom he seemed to have built strong relations needs him – or a (more polished) clone