Search: ' Garry Cook'

Matthew Barker looks at Silvio Berlusconi's role in the Kaka saga and at what it says about Milan's diminishing status

Silvio Berlusconi broke the news during a televised phone interview that Kaka had decided not to leave Milan. “Ricky said to me, ‘there are more important things in life than just money,’” he gushed. “It’s as if we’ve won another Champions League.” If only, thought watching rossoneri fans. That the Brazilian was staying may have prompted celebrations in the Lombard capital, but the red-and-black half of the city has had little to smile about of late.

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Fergie and Rafa entered into a war of words and unsurprisingly the Scot comes out on top

Given that the national press is chock full of inane pop psychology, it’s a surprise that none of the pseudo-scientists who get paid for stating the obvious has yet written a book about the “mind games” of football managers. Whenever one of Manchester United’s title rivals stumble, Sir Alex Ferguson is credited with crafty psychological manipulation of his managerial counterparts. For a few weeks in January, Rafa Benítez was decreed to have gone mad, firstly for holding a press conference in which he read out some prepared statements listing the ways in which the United manager escapes censure from the authorities – “the most vicious attack ever on Sir Alex”, said the Sun – then for making a series of supposedly unintelligible comments about Liverpool’s dip in form that saw them fall away from the top of the table.

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Supporters Direct is gaining momentum and credibility, with friends in high places. Adam Brown reports on their annual conference

A cabinet minister making a keynote address, a speech by the chair of the FA and even the shadow sports minister in on the act – it’s hardly what you would expect at a conference for several hundred fan activists. But this signalled just how far Supporters Direct, the ­government-funded agency promoting fan ownership of clubs, has travelled as it held its 2008 conference.

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Directors of football are a little-loved breed. Adam Powley looks at how the role is plainly failing at Spurs

 The various billionaires now carving up the Premier League are not used to deferring power to their employees. Both Roman Abramovich and the new Abu Dhabi-based owners of Manchester City, coming from cultures that tend towards autocratic rule in commerce and politics, view an omnipotent manager of the British variety as a potential obstruction to the way they do business.

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The close of the transfer window has led to more than just exchanges of players as the Abu Dhabi United group arrive in Manchester

So, quite a lively month for Manchester City. Midway through August the club appeared to be in crisis, with owner Thaksin Shinawatra refusing to return home to Thailand to face a corruption trial. If he were convicted in his absence, the Premier League would have faced an unprecedented test of its notoriously obtuse “fit and proper persons” test. There were stories of the club operating on a hand-to-mouth basis with former chairman John Wardle having had to loan Thaksin £2 million on several occasions to pay wages. A shock home defeat to Danish UEFA Cup opponents was followed by a 4-2 mauling at Villa Park.

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