Liverpool director calls Wigan chief Dave Whelan 'a comedian' Liverpool's managing director Ian Ayre has described Dave Whelan as a "comedian" for his comments during the Reds' managerial search. http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/18330718
Gotta agree with Ayre,Whelan made a **** of himself and virtually blackmailed Martinez not to take a job that wasn't offered to him in the first place.
I am delighted that ayre has done something about it and i'll have to go have a read right now. My gut says let him have it.
"It is disappointing, then, that Dave Whelan felt the need to run the kind of sideshow he conducted via Sky Sports News and various other media outlets." that's pretty much it isn't it... a sideshow for his own ends while LFC never actually talked to any press. I think unfortunately at this point LFC need to examine the "behind closed door" policy and the vacuum that it creates and replace it with a "respectful communication" policy that provides official updates that means there is no vacuum and idiots like this pleb are not able to run thier agenda. I think we don't want a barca style thing where we effectively tap guys up by talking about them but i think running a process update type thing where the details are still prvate but genral updates are public is needed.
It's fair enough that people have their own agenda etc but Whelan was blatantly stirring and trying to force things through the media (who typically lapped it all up). I am glad Ayre has spoken out to set the record straight and make whelan look like a bit of a tit
My bolding - I respectably disagree. I do not see why Liverpool should change their polices to apease morons.
you may be right but the 70s and 80s didn't have the 24 hours press coverage that created a feeding franzy and made out that a 13 day process was long winded and chaotic. i think learnign from the way the press reacted to our not tlaking would be good.
Well said Ian Ayre! It's one thing to try and protect your club's manager, but it was OTT for Whelan to behave in such a way. Kind of liked the guy but he's gone down a peg or two in my estimation.
I think they were more reacting / pandaing to the likes of Whelan, I didnt hear anything negative said about us for not talking (I may have missed it ofcourse if that did happen)
Expressing the disappointment in Whelan was enough. Calling him a comedian wasn't big or clever. He's been a good chairman for Wigan. It seems to me that's how the game is played these days and you've got to be able to handle the media with skill and tactical nous. Who knows what info Martinez was being fed and subsequently being given to Whelan? Who knows how much of what Whelan said was contrived by journos for media articles? The media loved Kenny on his return, in awe and chuckling at his sharp Glesga wit but when they tried to catch him out Kenny would let them have it both barrels, to cheers from LFC fans but nervous ticks from sponsors, and it's the sponsors who count for more with the owners than the fans do, it seems.
Kenny gave the bastards the response they deserved,loaded questions and snide remarks aimed at him and LFC after every game. I hope Rodgers learned from Kenny that kissing the media's arse is a sign of weakness.
And if I was a Wigan fan I would applaud him for a game well played (result wise anyway)but I'm not. If we as LFC fans have had to suffer the blackout of the Liverpool Way which allows characters like this to criticise our club for no other reason than to increase his public profile for a couple of weeks a little retribution is not remiss. Our team out of as much respect for Martinez & Wigan said nothing & as it turned out rightly so because Martinez had to go back to his employers after discussions. If Whelan had just been a tittle tattle I'd have agreed with you MFG but he passed judgement very publicly on the supposed way we did things & yet it turns out none of what he was saying was remotely true. He attempted to tarnish our clubs reputation when we behaved in such a way as to do the very opposite to his. He behaved like a D list Jordan type telling everyone that listened who he was going to shag next but it turns out he was a liar. Comedian is polite.....very polite.
Don't forget he was also spilling out we wouldn't have money, what transfers would be available, what control would Martinez have, and basically as stated above " they don't know what they are doing". Well kindly do one.
It turned out none of what the NotW or the Met or the inquiry into phone hacking said about one rogue reporter was remotely true, either. So why trust what you read in the media so readily?
sky drove the agenda. 24 hour coverage demanded something so they were trying to get whelan every chance they got and it as he who broke the fact that martinez was approached, to talk... my view, and it is just my view, is that by the end of the process its was "assumed" by the media that it was us that carried out a messy and public process when it fact it was their insatiable desire for an hourly headline to read out adfinitum to attract viewers to hang on for the scoop. I am feeling that had there been a message stating what we were doing when we could be doing it and frankly maybe go as far as publically denying approaches to guys whom the club stated "were never approached at all" then i think more agents and managers would have shut up for fear of looking desperate or just plain bad. I think had the club acknowledged the fact that wigan were approached among other clubs and requested respectfully that those who wish to make public gain from the process would respect LFC's approach then maybe he's have not spoken so much.... another totally unrelated lesson may be to have your very shortlist and their agents well tapped up in future to bring the process to a short and snappy conclusion. after all sending kenny to boston and back just to sack him is bad enough, having his replacement within 24-48hours would not have been too hard had they done their homework.... applying this logic to the DoF thing one wonders if any are really being approached... again this is now a topic of speculation up until some signings are made.
Whelan had his own agenda and played his few cards very well in the interests of Wigan. He did however create a problem for Liverpool that was none of our making. However, Ayre should remember that a simple "When we have something to say, we will announce it" would have backed the media off.
whelan was on the end of a phone on SSN and ESPN!!! can't get more direct than that. whelan is a manc lover to enjoyed himself so now he's trying to play the nice guy card, I for one can't wait to see them all relegated, blackburn went this time round, they are the last of the half empty,can't be bothered teams now.
