Man City will be ‘biggest club in the world’

The war of words at the centre of a media whirlwind continued yesterday with Manchester City chief executive Gary Cook causing controversy with a speech in New York.

Speaking to fans he proclaimed: “This football club [Manchester City] is, without doubt, going to be the biggest and best football club in the world.”

“I will make no excuses for saying it, as I truly believe it – with the resources and capabilities we have,” he added.

The timing of his statement of intent is ill-advised in a week which has been ravaged by controversy. The high-octane Carling Cup clash between Manchester City and Manchester United boiled over with the provocative celebrations of Carlos Tevez.

After the game it was revealed that Gary Neville had made an obscene gesture towards the Argentine player, yet both escaped without retrospective punishment from the FA.

On Friday morning the papers were awash with quotes from a Tevez interview with ESPN Argentina. Controversially, he described Neville as a ‘boot licker’ and a ‘moron’.

The rising tensions between the two clubs has been slowly building for a period of time. The poaching of Tevez from rivals United increased the friction between the pair which was subsequently heightened by the infamous ‘welcome to Manchester’ poster showing a photo of the player.

Ferguson described the club as ‘noisy neighbours’.

“It’s City isn’t it? They’re a small club with a small mentality. All they can talk about is Manchester United; they can’t get away from it,” Ferguson stated.

This Wednesday sees the return leg at Old Trafford. Greater Manchester police have asked for both clubs to quell the growing bad feeling between the city rivals.

Following Carlos Tevez’s outburst, the authorities insisted that there be no more derogatory comments in the media. The FA is worried that there will be further flash-points during the second leg and this could lead to crowd trouble.

Gary Cook won’t have endeared himself to the footballing world with his latest speech. He has already displayed a lack of tact in the past when dealing with the club’s pursuit of Kaka and the firing of Mark Hughes.

His actions yesterday will disappoint the FA who had contacted both clubs informing them that they were on their last warnings and could afford no more slip ups.