Manchester City CEO Garry Cook Resigns Over Offensive Email

Manchester City CEO Garry Cook has tendered his resignation, which was been accepted by the club.

The departure of Cook from Manchester City stems from an incident that happened eleven months ago. Dr Anthonia Onuoha, who is the mother of Nedum Onuoha and also her son’s agent, had notified Cook and City’s Director of Football Brian Marwood that she was “ravaged” with cancer.

However, Cook allegedly forwarded the e-mail to Marwood which read:

“Brian,

Ravaged with it!!……..I don’t know how you sleep at night. You used to be such a nice man when I worked with you at Nike.

G”

Except that instead of forwarding the e-mail to Marwood, Cook must have hit ‘Reply’ or ‘Reply All’ by mistake because Dr. Onuoha was copied on the e-mail.

Nothing happened for eleven months until the e-mail in question was brought to the attention of The Sun newspaper, which wrote an article about the incident. Cook initially denied the incident and claimed his computer had been hacked.

But after an investigation by Manchester City, the club announced that “there is foundation to Dr Onuoha’s allegations and the Chairman has written to apologise to Dr Onuoha for any distress caused.”

This isn’t the first time that Cook has gotten into trouble. He’s been prone to errors (such as welcoming City favorite Uwe Rosler to the Manchester United hall of fame, in addition to other mistakes). However, despite the errors, he has been a pivotal player in getting Manchester City to where they are today.

In the past, City may have blown off the incident. But with the owner Sheikh Mansour, there are high expectations and the club, rightly so, should only expect the best of the best. They can’t afford to have a PR nightmare such as Cook making silly mistakes. Yes, mistakes do happen, but when they happen over and over again, it’s time to move on and get someone more qualified and reliable for the position.

Cook may pass the incident off as an honest mistake, but City can’t afford to have a loose cannon such as Cook on their books, especially when he’s a liability to the rising Manchester City brand.