As per other posts on here. I was at the OSC dinner last night. During Gary Cooks drab fully scripted speech, he inducted Uwe Rosler into the City Hall of fame. I suppose the only bit he assumed he could competently announce without his scripted notes is the club that he is charged with building into a global brand hence
"...... and it gives me great pleasure to induct Uwe Rosler into the Manchester United hall of fame..............................."
That alone is highly embarrassing & some would deem a sackable offence, but what happened next was more worrying.
I was on a table with Giles Curruthers (talk sport producer) who always gives a good account of city when on air, also susan bookbinder (5 live) was there. Basically Cook/ City's "people" went out of their way to ensure that this slip of the tongue wouldn't reach the media. There was serious pressure applied to Giles & Susan, and probably any other media hacks present. Probably along the lines of "if this gets into the media we know where it has come from & your (talk sport/ 5 live) media access to city will severely restricted." Well put it this way Giles who was fuming and is no fan of Cook, made it clear he would much prefer the fans to go public with this story.
RIP Gary Cook - You won't be missed !!!!