Roberto Mancini, Manchester City’s new manager, contradicted chief executive Garry Cook on Monday over when he was approached to take over from sacked predecessor Mark Hughes. The club said Hughes had been dismissed after Saturday’s 4-3 home win over Sunderland, a victory that left City sixth in the English Premier League table — having lost just two league games so far this season.
City called a press conference at their Eastlands ground on Monday to unveil new manager Mancini, the former Inter Milan boss.
Cook, in a prepared statement, tried to outline that no discussions with Mancini had taken place until after City’s 3-0 league loss to Tottenham Hotspur on Wednesday.
But Mancini revealed he had actually met chairman Khaldoon al-Mubarak and the club’s billionaire Abu Dhabi-based owner Sheikh Mansour in London a fortnight ago.
Speaking from a statement, Cook said: “I think it is important for people to know that Roberto was only offered the job after the Spurs game, we negotiated on Thursday and finalized his agreement on Friday.”
Cook seemed oblivious to the point it was odd, at best, to keep Hughes in charge for Saturday’s match after signing a contract with Mancini 24 hours earlier, saying only Mancini had not, as had been reported, been in the stadium for the Sunderland match.
Mancini then said he went for dinner in London with City’s board two weeks ago before claiming the City managerial position was not mentioned once, the Italian suggesting he merely discussed sport and soccer in general rather than specific plans to replace Hughes.
“Two weeks ago I met Khaldoon in London,” Mancini said. “Only to speak in general on football — it is possible [to only meet up to discuss sport].”
Cook then broke his own plan not to answer questions by backtracking and confirming City had indeed spoken to Mancini but only on “general matters.”
The clearly riled Cook then suggested media mischief was trying to suggest a “conspiracy” was taking place at the club.
“Two weeks ago Roberto met Khaldoon al-Mubarak in London and after the Spurs game he was contacted for further discussions of a more serious nature,” Cook said. “The discussions in London were general, they were about football and they were about considering managerial options at that point.”
“I’m going to say something here fellas, it seems to me there is an overwhelming theory there is a conspiracy,” Cook said. “There are no conspiracy theories, we need to draw a line and move on to the future.”
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