Garry Cook’s Klinsmann comment upsets Liverpool

Another day, another controversy involving Manchester City. This time the club's outspoken chief executive Garry Cook has upset Liverpool by implying that they approached Roberto Mancini in 2007 with a view to replacing Rafa Bentiez.

Cook has been on a one-man mission to defend City's actions since they sacked Mark Hughes on Saturday. He has refused to accept criticism of the way the dismissal was handled, but his less than subtle approach may have done the club more harm than good.

Another interpretation would be that the City chief now appears to be indulging in the sort of mind-games that are usually the preserve of the managers themselves.

His latest salvo involves Liverpool and harks back to an episode in 2007 when the club's American owners, Tom Hicks and George Gillett, were forced to admit they had sounded out Jurgen Klinnsmann about the possibility of replacing Benitez.

Cook said: "It is naive to think that clubs are not looking at their options. Of course they are. Do we think that Liverpool just talked to Klinsmann? I am sure they also spoke to others, and I have no doubt that Roberto Mancini was one of them. Of course he would have been."

Many at Anfield will see that as a deliberate attempt to undermine Liverpool. With Benitez already under pressure thanks to the Reds' poor form, Cook's comments could be regarded as muckraking.

Both teams are determined to make it into the top four and could end up fighting it out for a single place in the latter stages of the season.

Cook has been eager to verse the general public in how football works behind the scenes. "This is what goes on within the game," he said. "It is part of what we do."

He has stated that most clubs have a manager lined up before the incumbent is shown the door and said that City had no need to apologise for their actions in relation to Hughes' sacking, even though the date at which they first approached Mancini about the job appears to be getting earlier and earlier. ·