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Cook's PR disaster, understanding how football works and Mancini doesn't lie

Gabriele Marcotti

Funny how, when the weather gets cold, Garry gets cooking. Last winter it was the Kaka extravaganza when the Manchester City chief executive turned a transfer coup (even just getting to the point where Milan agreed a sale was a huge achievement and one for which he and his advisors should have received more credit than they did) into a public relations fiasco with his absurd accusations of "bottling it" and the low blow directed at Kaka's father, Bosco, whom Cook deemed not "sophisticated" enough to represent his son. (Never mind the fact that Bosco is a civil engineer, whereas Cook spent most of his adult life flogging shoes and sports apparel).

Manchester City's handling of the sacking of Mark Hughes was, simply put, terrible. The idea, peddled by Cook on Monday, that Hughes wasn't told he was being sacked until after the Sunderland game because the chairman, Khaldoon Al-Mubarak wanted to tell him in person and was so busy that he couldn't physically be in Manchester until 10am on Saturday, is not an acceptable explanation for such uncivil behaviour. For a start, there is little question that Hughes had heard the rumours by that point. I can only imagine what was going through his head as he showed up at the stadium to take charge of the game, too dignified and too professional to hunt down Cook or his sidekick, Brian Marwood and shake a straight answer out of them.

We'll never know, unless Al-Mubarak tells us, which is unlikely, since the man doesn't do too much public speaking. But to me it smacks of passing the buck. I'd love to ask him the following question: "Hey, if you heard rumours that your boss, Sheikh Mansour, had decided to sack you and put you out of work, would you rather get confirmation from one of the Sheikh's minions who are all around you or would you rather be left in limbo for twelve hours, with no choice but to go about your job in front of tens of thousands of people (and millions watching around the world), because hearing it straight from the Sheikh's mouth will mitigate the pain and the humiliation?"

My guess - but heck, I could be wrong - is that Al-Mubarak would choose the former. But, yes, if we want to follow the Cook line and blame Hughes's public humiliation entirely on Al-Mubarak let's go ahead and do so. The only thing I wonder is whether, at any point, it crossed Cook's mind to say: "Gee, Khaldoon, are you sure it's such a good idea? I appreciate the gesture of telling him face-to-face, but we're heading for a PR disaster here and maybe we really should think about sparing him some embarassment ..." Maybe Cook did suggest that and was overruled. Maybe he did not. We may never know.

Ahead of TheGame: Mourinho v Ancelotti: history behind conflict

Today we ask: Jose Mourinho and Carlo Ancelotti will meet again in the last 16 of the Champions League, but what is the history between the pair?

Gabriele Marcotti responds: ”The rivalry between the pair goes back to the time when Mourinho had left Chelsea and was being constantly linked with AC Milan. That was also a time, during the summer of 2008, when Ancelotti was on pretty shaky ground at Milan and even admitted to speaking with Chelsea.

Ancelotti was being asked over and over again “what do you think about Mourinho? Is he going to take your job?” He responded with an off the cuff comment that was made as he was literally walking out of the press conference, he joked “I don’t need Mourinho at AC Milan, he isn’t much of a footballer, have you ever seen him kick a ball”?

Wolves fans deserve more, credit to Yeung and what is Mourinho up to?

Gabriele Marcotti

Did Mick McCarthy have an ethical obligation to field a more credible side than the one which stepped out at Old Trafford against Manchester United, the one which featured just one holdover from the XI that won away to Spurs on Saturday?

Premier League Rule E20 states that clubs must field full-strength teams, but it may as well not exist since, in practical terms, it's unenforceable. Ultimately, it's the manager's choice. And if McCarthy reckons he's probably going to lose away to United anyway and would rather keep players fresh for the "relegation six-pointer" against Burnley on Sunday, he has a right to do so. His job, after all, is to keep Wolves up and, if this helps, so be it.

The one thing which, perhaps, he could have done differently is to consider the feelings of the fans who travelled to Old Trafford expecting to see the "real" Wolves. This is not the League Cup, fans expect to see their clubs field something approaching their best XI.

You can see why some Wolves fans may feel cheated. A gesture towards them might be a good idea at this point. Just as, with hindsight, it might have been a good idea to share his plans ahead of time.

Win at all costs, the numbers game and scrap penalties from the World Cup final

Gabriele Marcotti

Maybe you can help me make up my mind on this one, because I'm not sure where I stand. Last weekend, Ascoli were hosting Reggina in a Serie B clash. A Reggina defender pulled up with an injury, just as he was about to play the ball. Because he was hurt, he tried to kick it into touch, but an Ascoli player intercepted the pass before it could go out of play, advanced on the goal and passed it to a team-mate who scored. Cue all sorts of (understandable) protests from the Reggina players.

The Ascoli boss, Bepi Pillon, ordered his men to allow Reggina to score after the re-start and they duly did. (Reggina went on to win, 3-1). The video is here.

As I recall, something similar happened a few years ago in League 1. Here's the question though: is this an example of fair play? Or do you have an obligation to win, by any means necessary, short of outright cheating?

Ahead of TheGame: Fabio Capello will not prioritise penalties

In today's e-mail bulletin we asked: "How will the England manager remedy the national team's poor record in penalty shoot-outs at major tournaments?"

Gabriele Marcotti, author of Capello: Portrait of a winner, writes: "England have lost five out of six penalty shoot-outs over the past 19 years so I can see the argument that says they have a problem but they are not alone in having that kind of record. In Italy, for example, we thought we were cursed when it came to penalties. We lost in the World Cup semi-final in 1990, in the final in 1994 and the quarter-final in 1998. Yet we won the World Cup on penalties in 2006.

"Capello and Franco Baldini, his assistant, do not see it as a major issue for their squad, certainly not above fitness, tactics or diet. That is partly because you cannot replicate the pressure of a shoot-out in training. But Capello also knows that to focus on the issue would unnecessarily exacerbate it.

Gabriele Marcotti's Premier League team of the decade

I know there were no ground rules in making my choices, but I had to give myself one: to qualify for my team of the decade you needed to have spent at least five seasons in the Premier League from 2000-01 to the present.  Which, sadly, rules out the likes of Patrice Evra, Fernando Torres and a few others.

(4-4-2): Shay Given; Gary Neville, Rio Ferdinand, John Terry, Ashley Cole; Cristiano Ronaldo, Steven Gerrard, Frank Lampard, Ryan Giggs; Thierry Henry, Didier Drogba.

Shay Given - He plays goalkeeper with an inherent aggression, like a flanker in rugby.  A tremendous shot-stopper, who makes up for his lack of size with quickness and positioning,  it seems ludicrous to me that Given never had a shot at a big four club.

Gary Neville - Consistency and longevity have their merits. Before his injury turned him into a virtual part-timer, Neville was a fixture down United's right flank for more than a decade.  A natural leader who made very few mistakes and often carried the can for more glamorous team-mates.

Debunking the myths against the use of video technology

Gabriele Marcotti

Acres of newsprint have already been devoted to France v Ireland, Thierry Henry's handball and the introduction of video technology.

There are valid reasons to oppose it (not enough of them, IMHO). But there are also foolish reasons to oppose it. I hope I can debunk two of the dumbest. The first is that football has to have a certain uniformity, it must be the same at every level. Putting cameras at games (or, at least, enough cameras) is something you can only do in the biggest leagues and in the biggest games. This argument is stupid on two counts.

The first is that football already lacks this uniformity. Go down the food chain and you'll find teams playing on dirt pitches or without linesmen. There is no uniformity there, why pretend that there is.

Rafael Benitez has got his sums right

 

Gabriele Marcotti

One of the key building blocks of any good PR/spin campaign is to repeat certain talking points endlessly. Never mind what the question is, just repeat your talking point. We've seen politicians do it for years. The neat thing is that, if you repeat something enough times it sort of becomes true, or, at least, actionable (remember the war over evidence of - as one former Prime Minister put it - "Weapons of mass destruction related program activities"?).

These talking points are useful when discussing Rafa Benitez. Take your pick from the following: Lucas Leiva, the mishandling of Robbie Keane, the sale of Xabi Alonso and, my personal favourite, "spending £240 million" and being "no closer" to winning the Premier League.

Enke's mental state should be a lesson to all

Gabriele Marcotti

There isn't much I can add to this story.

Thoughts and prayers go to Robert Enke's friends and family. And, with them, the hope that football learns something. Compared to other employees, footballers are scrutinized, tested and observed more than any other worker. One can only hope that enough attention is paid to their mental state as well. It may not have made a difference in Enke's case, it may make a difference to somebody else down the line.

Ahead of TheGame: video evidence can stop the divers

In today's e-mail bulletin, we asked: "In the wake of David Ngog's dive to win a penalty at Anfield last night, is it time to introduce retrospective punishment, in the form of bans, to stop this kind of thing damaging the game?"

Gabriele Marcotti responded: "Yes it is. It is certainly feasible, in fact they introduced it in Italy a couple of seasons ago. The only way to make it work would be to have an independent panel that could say 100 per cent that the player cheated and his intention was to cheat. What they found in Italy was that there were very few cases where that actually happened.

"Last night for example, although Ngog went over without being touched, you would have to prove that he was intending to deceive the referee and that is more difficult. If he argues 'I leapt over Carsley to get out of the way of his tackle' then it is very difficult to prove him wrong. Just because there hasn't been contact doesn't mean it is not a foul.

"Things like this make it very difficult to judge whether there has been cheating or not. It is certainly worth having retrospective action, especially to punish the extreme examples, but if it is introduced we should be aware that there are so many grey areas.

"In many ways it would be easier to introduce video evidence at the match. If you are talking about giving people retrospective bans you have to prove that the person was cheating. If you are doing it at the game, your objective isn't to punish the player but to get the right decision. If you take last night's example it would have taken a second to see that Ngog was not touched and the resulting decision would have had an immediate effect on the game. The burden of proof is a lot lower if you use video evidence at the game. Retrospective action would require a much higher burden of proof, because you are punishing a player, not righting a wrong.

"It will still be some time before we see video evidence used at matches. The political will isn't there from Fifa and Uefa and they are the ones who would make that kind of decision."

We also reported on Darren Ferguson's dismissal at Peterborough and footage of the dirtiest player alive.

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