Thaksin Asks Manchester City Players To Bow

[farang prince]

You would think that if this story was not true, Thaksin and the Manchester City FC would have issued an angry denial. So far, I have not seen any denial at all. Quite amazing if the story is true. Thaksin seems to have taken his arrogance to a new level.

By the way, Ratcatcher, great job with the revised Pink Floyd lyrics. Loved it.

Edited May 5, 2008 by farang prince

[Rinrada]

With the amount of dosh these prima donnas are collecting...loadsa Moola... I am supprised that they dont get down on their knees and kiss his ...assks no question.......from the origional request/suggestion...

Not 2 worried about their pensions ..right...

Gawd ...luvva duck...one dosnt behave like that over here ..does one.............................err ..tor rai krup...

[sriracha john]

Break point

The abrupt end to Thaksin Shinawatra's honeymoon with Manchester City Football Club may deteriorate into something worse. After the controversy involving the Thai flag and the close-call with dressing room mutiny, Thaksin has reportedly rocked the club further by asking its players to bow to him before the kick-off at each home game.

The report will not help the rapidly souring relations between Thaksin and the club he bought last year, and the latest controversy coincides with its fans' first major show of discontent toward the former Thai prime minister on Sunday.

There was less than five minutes on the clock at Liverpool's Anfield grounds on Sunday, when fans expressed their feelings about Thaksin's plans to dismiss manager Sven Goran Eriksson at the end of season.

"Hey, Thaksin, leave our Sven alone," read a banner. "We don't need no Phil Scolari, we don't need no Mourinho", they sang to the tune of Pink Floyd's "Another Brick In Wall".

"I'd rather say goodbye to the Thai", one banner read in a stadium that has become accustomed to anti-American placards as Liverpool's owners have continued to generate anger.

It was an unequivocal show of support for the beleaguered Eriksson and one not lost on the City owner's Thai acolytes, who shifted uncomfortably in their seats when the chant was explained to them.

The discontent has also increased doubts about Thaksin's claims that the display of a Thai flag bearing Thaksin's name at City's last home game was the work of British fans.

Pictures of the flag triggered a political uproar in Bangkok. On his return from England two days ago, Thaksin said he regretted the incident, but virtually blamed cultural ignorance of fans.

He has yet to react to the report that he wanted City players to bow to him. The Sunday Mirror said some at the club see this as another example of how Thaksin "is turning the club into his personal dictatorship".

A City insider was quoted as saying: "At first we thought it was a joke, but the owner was serious about the players paying their respects. It's just not going to happen."

Sunday Mirror revealed three weeks ago that Thaksin's relationship with manager Eriksson was at breaking point. And the former England coach will be sacked at the end of the season, despite being less than 12 months into a three-year contract.

Thaksin aims to placate fans by bringing in Phil Scolari after the Brazilian's contract with Portugal expires after Euro 2008. He is preparing to sack Eriksson against the wishes of all the high-ranking officials he retained at the club when he took over last summer. Former chairman John Wardle, chief executive Alistair Mackintosh and legal expert Bryan Bodek could follow Eriksson out.

City fans are furious about Thaksin's treatment of Eriksson - and some have demanded season ticket refunds after the Swede issued a plea on marketing material urging supporters to renew.

British media said former chairman John Wardle, who smiled ruefully as the pro-Eriksson chants reached a crescendo at Anfield, is as dismayed as every fan.

The days when fans affectionately dubbed Thaksin "Frank" - as in Sinatra - are long gone, the British media said. They have been replaced by fierce antipathy towards him over his shabby treatment of Eriksson.

- Daily XPress (today)

[steviekes]

Perhaps a one or two fingered salute would be more appropriate. There may indeed be bowing--we used to call it flashing the moon.

[Rhys]

The Brits.. will honor him with the Royal B. A. Well Done LADS.. Let them Dangle proudly..

[adjan jb]

Hail to Caesar.

Lucratori te salutant.

[JohnPeel]

Sad thing is how many posters here think this story is actually true and cant spot tabloid nonsense when they read it.

You'd think that if it was true then the City fans posting on Bluemoon Forum would be up in arms. As it is, they are sensible enough to dismiss the story as a lame attempt to sell papers.

Well if you click on this clink u r not going to see much complimentary about Mr.Sinatra

[selftaopath]

Oh dear!!! That won't go down so well with the brits

Maybe he still wants to be King; if not here then there might suite him

[sriracha john]

Thaksin offside with City fans

A large group of Manchester City fans turned up the heat on Thaksin, the club's owner, during the team's game against Liverpool on Sunday night, in a bid to stop the former PM sacking manager Sven-Goran Eriksson. The sell-out 3,000-strong City contingent who travelled to Liverpool vented their anger at Thaksin's decision to axe Eriksson at the end of the season. Supporters unveiled banners, held up the back page of Friday's Manchester Evening News and repeatedly chanted Eriksson's name during the 1-0 defeat. The Manchester newspaper said more than 10,000 City fans had signed an online petition condemning Thaksin's plans to ditch Eriksson after what has been the club's best season ever in terms of points in Premier League history. Thaksin's top Thai aide, Pairoj Piempongsant, was at the match on Merseyside to hear the prolonged chanting of the City manager's name from the loyal travelling fans in the Anfield Road End. The club's travelling army of fans was fully aware the game was being beamed live to Thailand where Thaksin is now fighting to clear his name of corruption charges and unfreeze his assets. Eriksson said he hasn't spoken to Thaksin since last Sunday. "I've not been told anything regarding the situation, but at my age I don't need to be told what to do," Eriksson said. "This is not the worst time of my footballing life." *getting kicked in the balls when I was playing at age 13 was just a smidgen worse.*

Continued here:

http://www.bangkokpost.com/News/06May2008_news11.php

*Edit... sheesh, for the uninitiated I suppose I should put out a disclaimer that the red text is not actually Sven's words. If Thaksin wasn't so ridiculous on his own, it'd be easier to not have to do this but, with him.... ANYTHING is possible.

Edited May 6, 2008 by sriracha john

[selftaopath]

story probably isn't true, rather a stunt by the media to raise the level of general hatred towards Thaksin in the UK. I've never had a high regard for British tabloids (apart from page 3 ), but my esteem for them has gone up a couple of notches!!

Nevertheless, you'll probably find people taking it seriously, and the fans mooning him (instead of bowing) on game day.

Good one, and thanks for the mental image. I would love to see that. LOL I'd even pay to see it :-)

[digitele]

Thaskin is obessed with titles. When it was Cellular 900 (Long before AIS and Shin Corp) I worked for him.

He demanded that everyone refer to him as 'The Chairman' or 'Mr. Chairman'.

All the hired foreign gun's had many a good laugh and some great jokes while sipping amber liquids off duty about it.

So now, I could see that in his mind it's 'The Owner' - like I own you people type thinking.

I believe he would try this crap. Even in Falang land, he'd float the idea for sure.

That float is now just backfiring.

What a guy......Frankly, "Frank" is scary. He feels that money can buy anything.

Sorry to say, He is right when he is in Thailand.

[Seneque]

he stole the money

he wants respect

he got kicked from thailand

he will be kicked from manC

Nowhere to hide

a gangster on the run

[Dave the Dude]

I look forward to seeing what creative chants the Man City fans are gonna think up. Someone should teach them some Thai.

You would think someone in the Man City mob would be able to organise large banners written in Thai saying what they though, just for the INTERNATIONAL TV.

That would go down a treat 'at home' for 'Frankie goes to ManCitywood'

Dave

[LomSak27]

Who says British tabloids are not up to the high standards of Thailand, the bastion of the free sporting press.

[selftaopath]

he's lost the plot ,non of his players are thai ,he's not in his own country ,xo abide by the uk rules ,we have to in this country ,silly man .

I wonder what it would be like if the UK applied the Thai laws for foreigners to foreigners there? Or how about ever country reciprocating in kind . Would that be "karma"?

[selftaopath]

haha. its obviously a joke.

major loss of face for Thaksin.

very low of the newpaper editor I might add.

and well done to him.

It certainly MUST be a prank because it states: Toxic “asked.” Now when has he ever “asked” for anything? Has he ever shown on shred of humility? Therefore I can only think this is just another joke and maybe a form of advertising. What is the saying?

[bangkokrick]

haha. its obviously a joke.

major loss of face for Thaksin.

very low of the newpaper editor I might add.

and well done to him.

It certainly MUST be a prank because it states: Toxic “asked.” Now when has he ever “asked” for anything? Has he ever shown on shred of humility? Therefore I can only think this is just another joke and maybe a form of advertising. What is the saying?

If Taksin has the time to look at the British history he will find that the British have not and will not ever bow to anybody. I would love to attend the next game to see the reaction of the fans towards this demand. He will be lucky to leave the ground with his life.

This kind of action shows the world just what this guy is and confirms his megalomaniacal ambitions. Thailand is well rid of him but please don't dump him on us.

What an embarrassment to himself and to Thailand.

Shame,

Cheers, Rick

[timlatyao]

Taksin can't surely be that stupid.

I would love to see it though, it would be so, so funny.

I doubt if the fans could concentrate on the game after !

Sacking Sven after 1 year? Highly questionable if anyone else could have done any better.

He'll happily take his 5million quid and watch Man City unravel

[Insight]

The news is obvious <deleted>, but I don't think the British tabloid readers were ever held up as bastions of intelligence and reason. The frenzied reponse here suggests that anything apparently in a newspaper must be true however, save a sizeable minority with voices of reason.

Can we also include the "frenzied" response from The Nation? They've took a questionable article from (no-doubt) the middle page of a British Sunday tabloid, made it a front page story and dedicated an entire editorial to it...

[himachal]

haha. its obviously a joke.

major loss of face for Thaksin.

very low of the newpaper editor I might add.

and well done to him.

It certainly MUST be a prank because it states: Toxic "asked." Now when has he ever "asked" for anything? Has he ever shown on shred of humility? Therefore I can only think this is just another joke and maybe a form of advertising. What is the saying?

If Taksin has the time to look at the British history he will find that the British have not and will not ever bow to anybody. I would love to attend the next game to see the reaction of the fans towards this demand. He will be lucky to leave the ground with his life.

This kind of action shows the world just what this guy is and confirms his megalomaniacal ambitions. Thailand is well rid of him but please don't dump him on us.

What an embarrassment to himself and to Thailand.

Shame,

Cheers, Rick

Tax-sin is an embarrassment, an affront, to all that is human.

As for Brits not bowing, Rick, ....how many Man City players are British????

[bangkokrick]

haha. its obviously a joke.

major loss of face for Thaksin.

very low of the newpaper editor I might add.

and well done to him.

It certainly MUST be a prank because it states: Toxic "asked." Now when has he ever "asked" for anything? Has he ever shown on shred of humility? Therefore I can only think this is just another joke and maybe a form of advertising. What is the saying?

If Taksin has the time to look at the British history he will find that the British have not and will not ever bow to anybody. I would love to attend the next game to see the reaction of the fans towards this demand. He will be lucky to leave the ground with his life.

This kind of action shows the world just what this guy is and confirms his megalomaniacal ambitions. Thailand is well rid of him but please don't dump him on us.

What an embarrassment to himself and to Thailand.

Shame,

Cheers, Rick

Tax-sin is an embarrassment, an affront, to all that is human.

As for Brits not bowing, Rick, ....how many Man City players are British????

Hi himachal,

Thats a fair point regarding the players, but i think that most of the supporters are and they certainly will not put up with this bullshit.

Cheers, Rick

[LomSak27]

Insight wrote:

Can we also include the "frenzied" response from The Nation? They've took a questionable article from (no-doubt) the middle page of a British Sunday tabloid, made it a front page story and dedicated an entire editorial to it...

It's been rather sad to watch the decline of The Nation over the last couple years. They tacked their shingle to the PAD and Democratic party and rode the tiger. Well and good for a couple years, in fact it looked like they won (!) Taks, the evil dragon was slain, the kingdom saved, happiness and joy and the people rejoiced. Unfortunantly as time went on 06/07/08 they drifted further and further from the idea of "democracy" they so feverently editorialized about ... as if that was ever their intent, and magically morphed into a shill for the Dems. I guess that is what they always were. Still I liked it for many years because it did give a differing view from the Bangkok Posts knee jerk disinformation, deflections and distortions.

[nomoretalksin]

Does Thaksin have the right to, pull all peoples strings at M-CTY and here in Thailand?

He told also the press here in Thailand, that "cultural ignorance" in England was the cause

of the Thaksin wording on the Thai flag in the stadium. I just wonder how come such a flag with Thaksin,

can be hung next to the Manchester City flag, on the VIP terrace, and no-one would remove it after

he also admits that he saw the flag. I think rather his staff planted this flag (seams to me).

This is typical Thaksin, he spins and turns facts always to his favor. But unfortunately people

are getting it, sooner or later, also thanks to Internet.

Read the BBC-606-Forum, also interesting to get some "point of views" directly from england:

visit BBC's Manchester Cities Forum here

I hope one day Thaksin will stop trying to controll all people, and become a human person again.

For the good of Thailand. It's embarissing enough he uses his short-minded/planned tactics in England!

[kiakaha]

I think Taksin should be more focussed on replacing the position occupied by his ecstasy and cocaine addicted son (the real catalyst for the southern drug war)

[sibeymai]

Wouldn't the simplest way for Man City supporters to show their displeasure with Thaksin be to turn up with lots of Thai flags with Thaksin's name on it ? It would make things very difficult for Thaksin in Thailand.

And if Thaksin did have something to do with the first flag this would make it all backfire on him beautifully.

[TAWP]

The news is obvious <deleted>, but I don't think the British tabloid readers were ever held up as bastions of intelligence and reason. The frenzied reponse here suggests that anything apparently in a newspaper must be true however, save a sizeable minority with voices of reason.

Can we also include the "frenzied" response from The Nation? They've took a questionable article from (no-doubt) the middle page of a British Sunday tabloid, made it a front page story and dedicated an entire editorial to it...

It's also worth nothing that in many countries we have a slant on the news but any cases with made up or false stories gets huge with hefty fines for the newspapers involved. I mean, it's not every day food as it seems to be in the UK.

As sad of a state that seems to be.

[OlRedEyes]

Cool times ahead. Head Idiot Meets The World.

[steveromagnino]

The news is obvious <deleted>, but I don't think the British tabloid readers were ever held up as bastions of intelligence and reason. The frenzied reponse here suggests that anything apparently in a newspaper must be true however, save a sizeable minority with voices of reason.

Can we also include the "frenzied" response from The Nation? They've took a questionable article from (no-doubt) the middle page of a British Sunday tabloid, made it a front page story and dedicated an entire editorial to it...

yeah, true dat.

Sad innit.

[jayjayjayjay]

Whoi the <deleted> does he think he is? He needs to remember that respect is earnt in England, not bought.

The bloke is finally losing all touch with reality.

mrtoad, we dont agree on much, but if this is true,,,,,,,,, i agree

[Insight]

The news is obvious <deleted>, but I don't think the British tabloid readers were ever held up as bastions of intelligence and reason. The frenzied reponse here suggests that anything apparently in a newspaper must be true however, save a sizeable minority with voices of reason.

Can we also include the "frenzied" response from The Nation? They've took a questionable article from (no-doubt) the middle page of a British Sunday tabloid, made it a front page story and dedicated an entire editorial to it...

It's also worth nothing that in many countries we have a slant on the news but any cases with made up or false stories gets huge with hefty fines for the newspapers involved. I mean, it's not every day food as it seems to be in the UK.

As sad of a state that seems to be.

Good point. Cracks on a certain runway spring to mind...