No word yet on whether Sparky chipped in for De Jong too,
Manchester City Monday continues here at UF as the fallout over the Hughes sacking starts continues to play out in the English papers.
Apparently Sparky chipped in to lend his employers 250,000 pounds to seal the deal for Craig Bellamy, and it seems like without the offering, that deal would have died. Bellamy has been on excellent form this season, scoring 6 goals in his 14 games, setting up 5 for his mates.
Bellamy joined in January from West Ham for the sum of 14 million but the deal nearly died as Chief Executive Garry Cook broke the news to Hughes that City were short. So in steps Sparky with his check book to seal the deal and save the day!
Now its a nice story right? But clearly a load of crap.
One: Why would the billionaires of Manchester City need 250k from Hughes when they were in the middle of an incredible spending spree and dropping 14 million on Bellamy?
Two: West Ham would not have killed the deal over 250k anyway when they know that Man City are good for it. Buying a footballer is not like picking up some DVDs from the dodgy bloke in the market.
The Likely Lad has been moaning on the UF email thread about how ‘poor old Hughes’ is being martyred in the English press. With stories like this around I have to agree with him. The papers certainly like a ‘stabbing’ and a famous ‘victim’ story and they certainly have one here. City appear to have been shopping for a new manager for weeks behind Hughes back.
Meanwhile, Hughes has been consulting a top employment lawyer and plans on making sure he gets whats coming to him. Paul Gilroy represented Curbishley in his ‘unfair dismissal’ case against West Ham and now he gets to go after the big cash.
Well lets hope he gets his 250k back at least!
Mark Hughes, HUGE Ben Folds Five fan.
*slow clap to Georger*
Oh, and to credit EPL Talk, here’s a quote from Gary Cook that sums up all you need to know about Citeh: “China and India are gagging for football content to watch and we’re going to tell them that City is their content. We need a superstar to get through that door. Richard Dunne doesn’t roll off the tongue in Beijing. Ronaldinho brings access to major sponsors and financial reward”
Thanks, Gary!
idk, when I think of Richard Dunne in an incredibly racist Chinese accent, it’s just two smooth syllables.
ben Folds is that Israeli footballer, no?
Garry Cook is an incredible cock.
As a Rovers fan, who understands that he was offerred the opportunity to take a big step up, I feel a little bit bad for Sparky. His best buys have all been “bargain” ones as compared to the “flashy” ones being “the richest team in football” seems to have required: DeJong, Given, Kompany. And, given his personal history with him, even Bellamy looks like a good buy. Those are not the guys who let him down…