Football Thoughts

A couple of times in the last few months (here and here) I've blogged about the poor behaviour of the employees of an English football club owned by a wealthy benefactor.

Up until now Chelsea - a club formed when two businessmen wanted a professional football club to use their Stamford Bridge stadium, having already been turned down by Fulham - have been the subject of my dissatisfaction.

My attention now turns to Manchester City.

Back in January, following Manchester City's failure to sign the former World Player of the Year Kaka, the clubs chief executive Garry Cook accused Kaka's club Milan of 'bottling it'.

"The player was clearly for sale," Cook told BBC Radio Five Live. "We had entered into a confidentiality agreement weeks ago but, in my personal opinion, they [Milan] bottled it." [source]

What a distasteful comment to make - ".. they bottled it".

This week it has come to light that the Manchester City "forgot" to inform the Football Association of Wales that their captain Craig Bellamy was not fit to represent the nation in this weeks fixture against Montenegro [source]. Not that Bellamy is blameless in this episode in my opinion, as national team captain is it unreasonable to think that the player himself might have telephoned the manager John Toshack.

I've always had a soft spot for Manchester City - perhaps it's because they've always been the underdog in the city of Manchester, perhaps it's because the size of their attendances has always left me thinking they deserve more (some?) success.

For all their expensive signings it's important to do things properly off the pitch or risk becoming the new Chelsea: the team everyone 'loves to hate'.

Some may feel that being the team everyone 'loves to hate' is a price worth paying for success.

The top, top clubs manage to achieve their success whilst being respected and admired - truly something to aspire to.