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Why the creeping advance of the flat screen TV is all you need to know about what next…

9th September 2008 By Rick Waghorn Leave a Comment

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It was a lovely line. And the fact that it came from down the road is not really the point.

It just summed up where this great and glorious game of ours is at right now.

Anyway, there was a story doing the rounds in one of the nationals last week that Town owner Marcus Evans had installed a video conferencing facility in various parts of Portman Road – as well as kitting out one of the executive boxes in white leather and mirrors.

The latter, you can only presume, was the stuff of an over-active imagination on a late night sub's desk. The former was, however, confirmed by Town chief executive Derek Bowden in a subsequent interview with the East Anglian Daily Times.

?We are trying to be as cost effective as we can,” he said, with the 'prawn sandwich brigade' also now being charged a nominal sum for their corporate nibbles in the club's VIP areas.

It was, however, the use of the video conferencing facilities that provided the real sign of the times – evidence of the whole 'absentee landlord' culture that in their private moments both Delia Smith and her husband, Michael Wynn Jones, rail against.

?We have video links set up in Jim's office, the boardroom and in the Trust office,” added Bowden. ?It is a green way of doing things and carbon neutral, saving trips to London or wherever, and making discussion more efficient than on the telephone…”

Nevertheless, it all still conjures up a slightly Bond-like image of the luckless Magilton being caught in the full glare of Evans' roving video eye as the Town owner puts through a call from 'wherever'; his Bahamas office, for example. And all with a white cat sat on his lap.

'So, Mr Magilton… you've lost at home again…'

All jokes aside, Magilton won't be the only manager with a new, flat screen TV adorning his office wall.

You can bet your bottom dollar that Flavio Briatore, Bernie Ecclestone and Lakshmi Mittal rarely share a tea and a sarnie with QPR boss Iain Dowie; nor will Mark Hughes have to re-arrange the chairs in his office to accommodate half the Abu Dhabi royal family.

The Abu Dhabi United Group for Development and Investment might put in the odd appearance – they can wave a big fat wad in Chelsea's direction as they travel to Eastlands this weekend – but the reasons for their interest in Manchester City is clear.

As board member Sulaiman al-Fahim, who brokered the deal, told The Associated Press, the group was attracted to the “richest European competition with more than US$3 billion revenue…” The fact that the deal itself was reported at length by the US-based International Herald Tribune speaks volumes; it was probably the longest article the Tribune had ever written on soccer.

And then, of course, there's the basket-case that is Newcastle United.

Owner Mike Ashley might have once delighted the Bigg Market by getting the rounds in for all present; today and his presence in the heart of the Geordie Nation would probably see the Gallowgate roll back the years and stage the first public hanging in the city for some 150-odd years.

Ashley and Dennis the Menace will be coming to a flat screen in St James' very soon…

The list goes on and on. Curbishley and the Icelandic bankers; O'Neill and the Lerners.

What's important is that everyone realises that this is what's coming to a club very near you. And, in every likelihood, sooner rather than later.

Probably within two to three months; maybe in as little as two to three weeks.

“They take their own time,” said City chairman Roger Munby last week, as the Turners bowed out in such dramatic fashion.

“That's all I can say. If we popped up with a name and an amount of money tomorrow it would be quite dramatic. But if it took three or four months, that's not going to embarrass the club.”

But the point is, it's happening.

And if Delia and Wynn Jones can't dig any more interest out of the Square Mile than Peter Cullum; then the Towergate chief it will be.

They're not that daft; they know that there's an end-game now a-foot; that being 'poor millionaires' in this league is a hiding to nothing; you just end up flushing all your hard-earned cash down the nearest Prince Of Wales toilet. And all to finish six points off the play-offs…

Everything points to them making a dignified exit at some stage this autumn; the level of dignity that comes attached may well depend on the price any suitor is preapared to pay for their 61.2% majority shareholding. But with a ?1.5 million hole in their finances and the January transfer window likely to sort out the play-off men from the middle-table boys, the clock is ticking.

It will tick ever louder if the next fortnight does not yield the first win of the season.

There is one, final point that needs to be hammered home before there's a change of guard at Buckingham Palace.

If the new breed of modern owner doesn't exactly listen to the manager's wishes, there is every likelihood that he won't listen to yours.

The fact that Ashley could even think of installing Wise's best mate Gus Poyet in the Newcastle hot-seat reveals just how out of touch he is with the Toon faithful; these people have trod on toes for a living for 30 years; that's how they make their millions. They'll quite happily tread on yours.

So for those of you who have enjoyed the little glimpse of power and influence that, say, the Supporters Consultative Group have brought you over the years take one last, lingering look around the room the next time you meet. Have your say for one, last time.

Andrew Cullen – the principal architect of that forum – is on his way; Munby is another fine, meeter-and-greeter who may not be part of any in-coming regime's plans; Neil Doncaster took a leaf out of Gordon Bennett's book when he patrolled Carrow Road on match-days, clipboard in hand, seeking out opinion on the streets. Who knows what the fates might have in store for him.

Nine times out of ten, these people want their own men in. Down the road and David Sheepshanks lost the 'executive' bit of his title this summer as Evans' grip tightened.

So times, they are a-changing. But, be warned. A change of owner this autumn will come at a price – the price of a flat screen TV, in every likelihood.


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Filed Under: Column, Rick Waghorn

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