Why Former Chief Executive Garry Cook Deserves His Place in Man City History

There’s been seismic change at Manchester City since Sheikh Mansour's takeover in 2008. Perhaps no other club in world football can claim to have improved quite as much in recent times, moving from perennial underachievers to one of the dominant sides in English football.

In Txiki Begiristain and Ferran Soriano, City possess perhaps the best off-field setup in the Premier League, but before the former Barcelona pair arrived in 2012, there were other notable architects of City’s rise, and none of whom were more important than the oft-criticised Garry Cook.

Cook’s time at City is often remembered for his gaffes. The time he tried to induct Uwe Rosler into the "Manchester United Hall of Fame" didn’t exactly endear himself to the City fans, nor did his assertion that ex-City owner Thaksin Shinawatra, the former Thai PM with a questionable human rights record, was "a nice guy" and a "great guy to play golf with." 

And his time at City was ended when he sent an insulting email to Dr Anthonia Onuoha, the mother of former City player Nedum Onuoha, who was battling cancer. Cook had to go and the club have hardly looked back since.

However, his ugly exit and gaffe-prone nature should not cloud his record. He, arguably more than anyone, played a key role in City's renaissance, for it was he who put together a vision of the club to entice investors when City were on their knees financially and delivered a strategy for growth on and off the field once that investment was secured.

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In a recent interview with the Blue Moon Podcast, some of which was reproduced here on fan site Typical City, Cook spoke candidly about his time at the Etihad, giving an in-depth analysis of what he did to change the fortunes of the club.

Hemorrhaging money under Shinawatra and reliant on former chairman John Wardle’s limited cash reserves to pay the players, Cook "had to go out and find new owners”. He designed a PowerPoint presentation to show some of the most powerful businessman in the world what they would be getting for their money—a vision of City as a club with a strong brand, a large fanbase, an association with a city known for its footballing tradition and a modern stadium with the opportunity to build in close proximity.

Mansour and Khaldoon Al Mubarak, as well as the rest of the ADUG, were suitably impressed and a new era for City was ushered in, one defined by financial security and investment in every aspect of the club. Having been the key to securing the new investment, Cook was suddenly at the heart of the process to redefine City and make them a force again.

And despite the errors that ruined his reputation and turned sections of City’s support against him, he delivered emphatically.

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He put together a team of people off the field who revolutionised the club and set about helping to construct a squad of players capable of being successful. “In my mind there are four communities [to a football club]: there are the owners, there’s the media, there are the supporters and there are the employees," he said. "You can’t please all of them. A lot of people in football satisfy the needs of the press and their owners and they sacrifice the supporters and the employees.

"Being a big people man...I said, 'employees and fans—they’re the two most important components to being a great football club.'

“The media add nothing, other than extracting value from a football club. It’s disrespectful of me to blanket the entire media, but as a model, it’s about getting a story out of the football club. I didn’t need to satisfy their needs, although I did, inadvertently."

Arguably, his biggest achievement, though, was convincing some big-name players to come to City, despite their development being in its infancy.

“I really don’t know how we got some of the players to come,” he said, citing Yaya Toure and David Silva as two he holds in the “highest regard” because “they came for the right reasons."

He brought players to the club who have been the bedrock of City’s success, convincing them they could “make a difference” and be catalysts for change.

One player he famously failed to land was Kaka, and Cook admits the move was as much about showing City's intent as it was landing, at the time, one of the finest playmakers in the game.

"It was a representation of our ambition. It was an attempt to try and get one of the biggest players in the world at the time to come to the football club. There’s a realism to knowing it’s a slight chance.

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"I think what it did was, it made a lot of people go, 'Well, hang on a minute, maybe these guys are serious,' which impacts the players, impacts the fans, impacts the employees and the world of football was starting to look a little different. All of a sudden there was a new kid on the block, and really that was what we set out to do.

"I’ve actually bumped into Kaka and he’s said, 'Sometimes, I wish I’d come.' I was allowed to have a point of view and I was allowed to say they [Milan] bottled it, because I thought they did."

Ultimately, Cook knows better than anyone that he was the architect for his own downfall, and he says he regrets his dealings with Dr Onuoha.

"It’s easy to sit and point fingers and blame others, and I think I live every day with the knowledge that there was more than just an issue between Dr Onuoha and I, bless her, unfortunately she passed. There are no excuses and I won’t make any for my actions because I’m regretful of them, they were poor and they were misjudged."

He quite rightly paid the price for a horrible misjudgement, but a balance should be struck between fair criticism and praise for the work he carried out changing the fortunes of the club. City are no longer recognisable to the club they were when Cook arrived in 2008, and much of that is down to his work.

He assembled a team of people capable of leading an elite-level side on the world stage. He worked tirelessly to convince some of the very best players in the world to play in blue. And he always had the best interests of the club at heart.

He made mistakes and openly admits them, but let's not forget the role he played in securing the club's future and delivering success.

Rob Pollard is Bleacher Report's lead Manchester City correspondent and will be following the club from a Manchester base throughout the 2014-15 season. All quotes were obtained firsthand unless otherwise noted. Follow him on Twitter: @RobPollard.