“Power-Crazy Thaksin” – Man City, Didn’t We Tell You So?

As if we wouldn’t know it: Money makes the world go round. Or so thought the great puppet master Thaksin Shinawatra, owner of honorable Manchester City Football Club. After having behaved like the owner of the Kingdom of Thailand but being kicked out, he at least could afford to be the owner of a faraway football club.

But how quickly sweet can turn sour and dreams crash down. There’s all poison between Thaksin and his star coach Sven-Göran Eriksson. The quiet Swede, known for his tranquility, even had a bust-up with Thaksin.

No surprise for us in Thailand. If Thaksin could drive us here crazy, he can easily drive Eriksson up the pole. But even more worrisome: “Shinawatra has become power-crazy at City,” wrote The Sun.

Brits, you who welcomed Thaksin with cheers and applause, didn’t we in Thailand tell you so? There’s a reason for him being kicked out of our kingdom in disgrace.

Many in Manchester still trust Dr. Frank – Frank? Taken from Frank Sinatra, whose name is more pronounceable than Shinawatra. How could Dr. Frank be not a man of honor. Truth though may be:

What a backlash he may just have ignited. Another sign of the delusions of Dr. Thaksin.

Manchester is not Thailand, where you can buy everybody and everything, with the cheapest items being integrity, honesty and the truth.

Thaksin may have kicked a football once or twice in his life, but “wants the final word on everyone who comes in or out — and even wants to pick the team”, said The Sun.

And that’s not all. More importantly and encouraging:

The kind people of City love Eriksson for the life he brought back to eternal bridesmaid in Manchester football. This very Eriksson, ”in an amazing show of fury, the normally mild-mannered former England boss tore into Shinawatra for publicly criticizing the team’s performance and his own abilities.”

Wow. Talk about Thaksin’s loss of face.

Not well done Thaksin, not well done. You should have known better. Still try to master everybody and everyone, even the ones superior to you.

We warned you Sven.

Facing the prospect of being taught the art of football by Thaksin, the Swede reportedly said: “Shinawatra expects the manager to do what he says no questions asked and if he decides a player should be in the team the boss should accept it.”

“But Sven won’t agree with that. How many top managers would?”

Still didn’t learn, Thaksin, that you can’t buy everything with money.

If Man City’s players would have the choice between Eriksson and Thaksin, the choice seems clear. The Sun: “Eriksson told his shocked City stars that he is going to be sacked in the summer.”

He revealed he will be chopped after their last two league games.

Maybe it was all old well-known Thaksin-style pressure tactics trying to squeeze more profits and successes out of Eriksson. Will he really get the boot/sack?

A number of senior players however stood up to pledge their support for Eriksson.

One eyewitness, wrote the Sun: “Everyone was totally shocked. The players have all taken to Sven and enjoy his methods.”

“It seems ridiculous after what has been an excellent season.”

We in Thailand, seen that before, heard that before, went through that before.

The good flee the scene, the ugly triumph.

Me figures the fans won’t welcome Thaksin anymore with cheers and applause.

As many Thai noodles, spring rolls and whatever Thai goodies and smiles he serves them.

Thaksin, you may boss around your own people.

Please start showing some respect.

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Comments

23 Responses to ““Power-Crazy Thaksin” – Man City, Didn’t We Tell You So?”

Andrew Philcorn on April 29th, 2008 12.05 pm

Thaksin is the worst personality I ever seen in my life. Full of lies and twist and turns. I feel sorry for anyone who can’t see the big picture behind his big mouth, but is rather captivated by his smart and charming appearance at first if one doesn’t know him.

Thaksin is a shameful, power greedy, short-minded person (his politics were based on short-minded cash plans for himself, his family and cronies), who will do anything and remove anyone at any cost standing in his way.

No more Thaksin for Thailand please! Especially not in politics. However we are all worried Thaksin will try to become the next PM again.

He can’t wait to be back with his sadly still ignorant farmers screaming their heads off in support for the populist.

The truth though will always shine through. Thaksin needs to learn this so badly!
Nong on April 30th, 2008 1.15 am

Thaksin is famous for being very unpatient and irrational – remember:

- War on drugs (TH), where a very short time deadline was given to his police to reach a clean-up-goal, leaving thousands of people dead, without even any proper trials later on to clear the names of many innocent.

- Removing any party colleague disagreeing with him.

- Suing various people, groups and media for rightful criticism against him.

- Misusing local goverment channels (radio & TV) to bring “only” his point of views, while opponents were denied any airtime.

- Calling snap elections and dissolving parlament instead of replying to corruption claims against his non-taxed sale of his telecommunication business (by amending the relevant law just shortly before).

I’m not sure if Thaksin really knows what he’s doing. Lecturing everybody.

I hope the still pending court case(s!) against him will bring the real face of the man and his real intentions to light.

Not a good role model this man. Remember him saying “corruption is normal”? Said by a prime minister!

Anyhow … Chapeau Sven, you at least had the guts to speak out against.

We might see Thaksin doing a turnaround, as he so often does and did when he sees the public opinion (such as City fans) turn against him.
jo on April 30th, 2008 2.51 am

I don’t think Thaksin will play a role in politics here in the coming years. Samak want to run his own show.
Nuch on April 30th, 2008 9.06 am

Jo are you dreaming? Thaksin is pulling the strings since the very beginning.

PPP = TRT

Why you think so many of his relatives are are honored with government jobs (even if not qualified) and the planned constitutional amendments have no other goal than to turn back the clock.

This men has his fingers in all the cakes he can get!

In Thailand everybody will run – if they get paid.

Thank God in England these questions arise now. Hardly anybody here in Thailand would dare to do what Sven did – where hidden alliances and hierarchies overrule ethics.
BangkokDan on April 30th, 2008 9.10 am

Me gathers Thaksin can drop Samak anytime, Samak doesn’t have that “Eiseskälte”.

Maybe the probs over at Man City are all due to a slight miscalculation by Dr Thaksin (as they call him in Britain, nobody calls him Dr over here …): Thaksin, in all honesty, expected to take the championship the first year or so. Quiet Sven quite simply shattered his dream.

BangkokDan
JJ on April 30th, 2008 10.52 am

Thaksin has done good for the club.

They play their best football since a quarter century. Thanks to mainly Thaksin’s fresh inputs.

He knows what he’s doing.
Nuch on April 30th, 2008 12.43 pm

JJ you always have to ask yourself why is Thaksin buying a club in England shortly after he was not willing to reply to corruption charges?

It’s all about PR and has nothing to do with his apparant love for football. Even when he wanted to buy Liverpool a few years ago, I remember him being criticized by many football experts, as his comments about football were and still are absolutely unprofessional and lacking of know-how.

It was also then that he was in a “crisis”. Liverpool diverted attention.

His hijacking of a club for his own agenda – the same he did with Thailand with the hijacking of the elections – first and foremost serves his family fortune, his ego and his deep conviction that only he and himself has the solution for everything.

Face it. Thaksin is not an honest person. We gave him the benefit of the doubt. He deceived all of us. Most Bangkok people understand this very well.

People who don’t understand this, well, have my pity.
Andrew on April 30th, 2008 12.51 pm

I was fortunate to interview Thaksin in Dubai a few weeks ago for my Thai business magazine. We touched on football and he’s running Manchester City in exactly the same way as any other business. In his eyes the business is not successful (number one, or at least close to being number one) therefore the management must be changed.

Sure, Manchester City has improved since he has been at the helm but he expects much, much more.
BangkokDan on April 30th, 2008 12.59 pm

Andrew:

Remember him saying at the beginning of the season that it will take the club a few years to get somewhere …

You got a link to that interview?

BangkokDan
Andrew on April 30th, 2008 2.38 pm

I can’t seem to find that link but I do remember it well.

A Manchester Evening News poll yesterday showed 97 per cent of City supporters want to keep Sven. Thaksin is in for a tough time.

Interestingly as recently as 20th March Thaksin was quoted, also by the Manchester Evening News, as saying: “First year top ten, second year top six, and third year top four to the Champions League. That is the strategy. We are number eight now so there is not much pressure to reach the top six but reaching the top four is a lot of pressure. There will not be huge amounts spent this summer but maybe the following summer.” I wonder what has happened in the last six weeks?

When I interviewed him two weeks ago he said that players wages were “killing” and that was his biggest cause of concern. Maybe Sven’s been asking for more money too?
BangkokDan on April 30th, 2008 7.54 pm

Andrew:

How was he as a person? His gestures? Convincing? A man rather lonely/despaired or enjoying self-fulfillment?

BangkokDan
tUM|BleR on April 30th, 2008 11.57 pm

Erm … I think the oh-so-clever-and-morally-superior Bangkok people should probably mind their own business. I mean it’s perfectly acceptable to criticize Thaksin, but calling his supporters in the countryside “ignorant”!? I see why the rift between Bangkok and the north & Isaan is so hard to repair now.
BangkokDan on May 1st, 2008 12.15 am

Agree with you on this one tUM|BleR.

He provided health care to the masses, affordable credits, a first taste of wealth.

At the cost though of pluralism and freedoms, by means of monopolizing/privatizing state funds & state authorities.

Quite some incidents are known how the then-government “used” the police and other government bodies against critics.

Longterm Thaksin’s populist authoritarianism was doomed to fail big time.

And now his name on the Thai flag … A non-event for outsiders, for Thais a stab into the heart. The Thai flag represents the Thai crown.

As far as I can understand from talks with Thais most people here assume that “that” flag in Manchester wasn’t just brought along by a fan.

BangkokDan
tUM|BleR on May 1st, 2008 1.01 am

A dirty crook Thaksin may be, but if the elites (who, again, think they are morally superior) believe the solution is to deny people democracy (the coup, Clause 7, this twisted constitution, etc) then the consequences will be nothing short of disastrous.
Nuch on May 1st, 2008 10.15 am

tuMBleR … The problem is you don’t understand how democracy works in Thailand. It’s still Thaksin and his people who continue to buy votes in the country side, by going door to door. And as we saw, he want’s to in governmentize (so to speak legalize) corruption that he and his cronies can change any law according to their spouses and businesses favor.

You have a lot to learn about Thaksin real meaning of democracy and how he (and his cronies) trick their own rural country people, for their own profit/benefit. They get quick cash from banks to borrow money and buy from their companies, but get indebted more and more. A vicious circle – and soon they ask again for debt relief.

This is not real help, this is corrupted superficial help to enrich those benefiting already.
tUM|BleR on May 1st, 2008 12.19 pm

You are absolutely right, but i think we all know that every party buys votes in this country. The Democrats do it too and it’s unfair to portray TRT/PPP as the only one that pays people to vote.

I think TRT/PPP supporters in the countryside don’t vote them simply because they’re paid to do so. As you’ve said, it’s all about the populist policies which you may think are responsible for creating more personal debt. I agree with most of that, but my question is: is it fair to say that those supporters ‘tricked’ into voting Thaksin/PPP?

For me, the rural inhabitants have every good reason to vote for a party that finally pays so much attention to their well-being. These people were long ignored by mainstream politics. Parties used to promise to do this and that for them but never turned those words into reality. People were sick of those empty, ‘dream-selling’ promises and when TRT arrived – being the first government in Thai history to promise and eventually carry out government projects that gave true, real, hard benefits for the rural people – they responded by voting them even more overwhelmingly the second time around. I see the rural voters not as having been tricked into it, but as having taken a highly rational decision by voting someone who was most likely to protect their interests.

By staging a coup and drawing up this hugely flawed constitution, the elites simply conceded their defeat in the battle against Thaksin. Sadly, they have also denied the countryside people their chance to have a say in mainstream politics and to make their voice heard by those in power. If you think democracy was corrupt under Thaksin, I don’t see why a return to the old elitist & royalist way could solve the problem.
Andrew on May 1st, 2008 7.14 pm

Dan,

I found him to be friendly, approachable and with a sense of humor too. He was keynote speaker at a leadership conference in Dubai with an audience of some pretty influential business leaders, and I am sure there would have been impressed with the ‘real’ Thaksin and not the one that is often portrayed in the media. Having said that I know he is very clever and is a PR master.
My interview will appear (in Thai) in the May edition of BusinessWeek Thailand – available from all good bookshops from May 6th. I will see if I can also put an English version somewhere.

Andrew/
Sir Ron Manager on May 4th, 2008 11.04 am

BangkokDan:

I do not know who in “Britain” (do you mean England?) calls him Dr., some do perhaps, but Manchster City fans refer to him as “Frank.” BTW, it’s the Premiership, or properly, the Premier League Title, or simply, the League Title. The “championship” is what used to be known as the second division.
BangkokDan on May 4th, 2008 11.14 am

Duly noted Sir Ron.

As you see, I have no clue about English football. I do have though about Thaksin.

Some posters in Man City forum referred to him as “Dr.”, in quite some respect as I understand.

Wonder how Frank’s doing at the moment.

BangkokDan
Sir Ron Manager on May 6th, 2008 3.43 am

Okay: City fans still largely refer to him as Frank (which is NOT meant to be disrespectful). Some refer to him as Dr., true, some do so now to mock him though, some refer to him as “The PM”, some as “Toxin” or “Toxic” – those who do not like him. We aren’t stupid…we KNOW the allegations (fraud, graft, neptotism, the drug war, the south etc.), but many of us still think anyone is innocent until proven guilty, the prosecution has the burden of proof, proof beyond a reasonable doubt (in criminal matters), the right to examine any charges, the right to confront (cross examine) witnesses, the right to call witnesses, the right to remain silent without a negative inference being drawn, the right not to self-incriminate, the right to counsel, the right to appeal and so on.

I’ll tell you the truth, more and more City fans are changing their mind about what has been going on over the last few days. Once emotions have calmed.
Sir Ron Manager on May 6th, 2008 4.03 am

Can I just say something else? I know Frank is reported (how do I know the truth?) to be a master of propaganda and public relations. I’ll just accept that as fact. On the other hand, this Sven affair had shown the other side.

The Manchster Evening News has been running a poll for a few days on it’s website. Although addressed to City fans, anyone can vote (which raises a question …). You can see the poll on the right, here:

http://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/sport/football/manchester_city/

You can also see the result which as I type stands at 96% (it was 97% earlier) answering yes to the question “Would you like to see Sven stay at City”? 96/97%? If this were a “pro-Thaksin” result, I can only imagine the screams. Well, it turns out, that anyone can vote in this poll as many times as they like by taking five seconds to delete their cookies and page cache in Internet Explorer and re-load the page. Yet this poll has been reported all over the media and internet as having some basis in fact, without questions! So much so, that the head of the League Managers Association came out in support of Sven and actuallt cited this poll! Amazing.

There is a big on-line petition containing about 15,000 signatures (last time I checked). This petition has been cited as proof against Frank throughout the media and the internet. The problem with this petition is, it is open to anyone (like the poll), which means City fans, non-City fans who are trying to cause trouble, Frank’s political opponents in the UK or worldwide, and so on, furthermore, anyone can vote in this petition as many times as they like by simply giving a false email address! A false one! Not even a real, but different one than that a person might usually use! How reliable is THAT???

I’ll end with this: The worst Frank has done in this case is to make publicly ambiguous statments, and then fail to make a definite statement when the issue blew up. However, we are subject to daily leaks about private meetings, player rebellions, and finances from “sources” within City, and they all make Frank look bad! Not only that. Manchester City’s own website continues to reproduce stories from the British media that make Sven into a martyr, and Frank look like a foolish dictator. It makes no sense, does it? Frank the master of propaganda allowing his own clubs website to make him look foolish? Or does it?

Did you know there was a well-publicized protest outside Manchester City last week? Do you know how many of the 000s of outraged fans turned up?

10. Just ten. I know because I saw the photos taken by a man who went. Then on Sunday against Liverpool…not only were the protests half-hearted to say the least, they were also convenient as they were ALREADY going to be at the game.

There is supposed to be another protest in the next few days organized by a couple of official supporters clubs. I’ll make a prediction: it will be pathetic.

No one really knows what is going on, but in THIS case, it isn’t Frank who is manipulating things … at least not so far.
Ake on May 6th, 2008 8.42 am

His family and him are a problem for Thailand. Why/how he got those government contracts before he became PM?
Is Scolari the man for Man City? on May 9th, 2008 12.42 am

Is Scolari the man for Man City ?

Click here:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/606/A35673483

for 511+ comments, on above question, on the BBC’s excellent website and forum.

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