Garry Cook

[Shaelumstash]

He works for some Cage Fighting organisation now and, IMHO, he'll never work in football again because of the way he disgraced himself. A smarmy liar who thought he was one of the lads. Ferran Soriano couldn't be anymore professional in his conduct and things are now notably better.

Easily the most uninformed and silly opinion I've read on here in years. "some cage fighting organisation"? He's one of the head people at of one of the fastest growing brands in the world at UFC.

He has Air Jordan brand, MCFC brand and now UFC brand credit. Any team in the world would beg to have him. Don't be surprised when he lands at NYCFC.

I've never read a more one sided and biased reply. There are people on this forum incapable of constructing a sentence, spelling or forming any kind of coherent exchange without swearing yet you single me out?

He completely disgraced himself at City and dragged the name of our great club through the mud. I think he's the only top Executive every Blue would have an opinion of because of his controversial tenure. If you listen to his interview with Ian Cheeseman then you'll hear a broken and humiliated man knowing he screwed up both his professional life and his personal life at our club. He was woefully out of his depth and employed by an absolute villain at the time in Thaksin Shinawatra. How on earth would he not have been savvy enough to take a wide berth from such a character?

Your rebuttal.

Don't get his PR gaffes confused with his ability to his his job. There is rather more to being a CEO than talking to the press!

Look where we were when he took over, and look where we were when he left us. 2008-2011 was the greatest period of change and growth in the history of this, or any English club in history. That all happened on his watch.

Of course Mansours millions was by far the major driving force behind that change, but do you think we'd have seen the same improvement if Alastair Mackintosh was in charge? Or Bill Kenwright, or Christian Purslow, or Ivan Gazidis, or Derek Llambias? Of course not.

He changed the entire culture of the club. It's almost become a clichéd anecdote, but when he arrived there was no HR dept at the club. Nobody could tell him how many people were employed by the football club. This was not an International standard of operation behind the scenes that he took over. It was a shambles, and he completely altered the culture of the business behind the scenes.

He was instrumental in selling the club to Mansour. Khaldoon said Garry was the major asset of the business that he wanted to keep on (that's why he's still on their pay roll at UFC).

He completely revolutionised our marketing and PR operations, delivered the best website in football, developed City Sq which has proven to be a huge success, appointed our second most successful manager in history, took us from 10th to 1st in the league in 3 years, negotiated the purchase of some of the best players in the world for a club that had not won a league title in 44 years.

But he sent an idiotic email, and once called us "United" by mistake, so people forget all of that. Strange how people don't have the same scorn for Pellegrini for doing the same.

 

[bluemooninho]

I'm sure I read somewhere recently that being at City cost him his marriage, because his wife and kids were American.
That's some sacrifice!

yeah I read that to. It was also said in the same report that he was the one to sat ro Thaksin that he needed to find a new owner because his politcal issues would affect his ability to focus on City. We owe the Sheikh ownership to him.

Yeah, he made mistakes but in my eyes, we owe any trophies that we get to Gary Cook.

 

[gordondaviesmoustache]

I'm more of a Thomas Cook man, myself.

 

[CTID1988]

I'm sure I read somewhere recently that being at City cost him his marriage, because his wife and kids were American.
That's some sacrifice!

He wouldnt be the first person who's marriage went tits up because of city!

 

[BWTAC]

I'm more of a Thomas Cook man, myself.

I somehow can't see you on a cheap package deal to Benidorm, I had you more of a villa in the South of France type of gent.

 

[unlikelyfan19]

I'm sure I read somewhere recently that being at City cost him his marriage, because his wife and kids were American.
That's some sacrifice!

He wouldnt be the first person who's marriage went tits up because of city!

His wife was awesome. I got to meet the both of them, turns out, she and my wife went to the same uni (Vanderbilt) and Garry knew exactly the house I lived in due to his time and history in Nashville. (which is where is wife is from). Bizarre encounter. Never expected that.

 

[gordondaviesmoustache]

I'm more of a Thomas Cook man, myself.

I somehow can't see you on a cheap package deal to Benidorm, I had you more of a villa in the South of France type of gent.

Normally , yes, but I'm such a.... errrrr......massive blue that along with my self-imposed cheap package deals, I also drive a sky blue Saab, make my own City scarves on a Brother knitting machine and watch all my City videos on a Philips VCR.

 

[chris8910]

people laughed at him before the take over saying it would never happen
I think he will be back in football in the near future

He works for some Cage Fighting organisation now and, IMHO, he'll never work in football again because of the way he disgraced himself. A smarmy liar who thought he was one of the lads. Ferran Soriano couldn't be anymore professional in his conduct and things are now notably better.

you make it sound like its a small organisation! he also worked for some organisation called nike before coming to us!
yes he made mistakes throughout his time at city the main one being that email to nedums mother but who hasnt made mistakes?
he was on the verge of a major signing in kaka if it wasnt for the Italian president, the deal was done i'm lead to believe (glad it didnt go through now though)
he also pretty much chose city over his marriage too which cost him dearly.
he still has very strong connections with city and i tell you now a lot of clubs would snap their hands off at having him as their CEO.
I do however agree with what you say about ferran soriano

 

[dirtydenzel]

I met and had a pint with Garry Cook this Saturday in London after the UFC event.

He was an absolute top notch bloke. Spoke about City with a passion, talked about how much he loved the fans and how the fans deserved all the recent success. Apparently he was driving up for the Wigan game yesterday. Only talked to him for about 20 minutes but I was blown away by the love he still seemed to have for the club and fans.

He's doing great things for the UFC and moved it forward significantly in Europe. An incredible businessman who played an integral part in our recent success.

 

[moomba]

His mistake wasnt sending the email. It was trying to bullshit his way out of it.