Debbie Cook Interview

I thought it was a good interview overall, but I don't think we pay a fair wage. Whilst the recent advert for matchday staff starting from £5.90 per hour is an improvement on £20 per match from years gone by, it's still not the Living Wage that we pride ourselves on paying everyone.

Good to hear her wanting to improve commercial income, despite being up. A large proportion of that will be increased shirt sales and I think we can all agree it needs to improve. She defended sticking by Hurst in that bad run because the data hadn't changed much; I wonder what would happen in a similar run if the data had changed?

On the surface, a very solid interview, but a little while back I devised a handy little scorecard to help more objectively monitor the progress of our new regime’s PR skills versus those of the old guard. You get a point for every “no”, and lose a point for every “yes”.  Let’s see how Debbie did…

• Did she appear to be drunk? - “no”
  
  
• Did she communicate almost exclusively using peculiar idioms with little real substance or meaning? - “no”
  
  
• Did she attempt to abuse or otherwise humiliate the interviewer? - “no”
  
  
• Was anyone’s tie “waggled”? - “no”
  
  
• Were any chairs “smashed” - “no”
  
  
• Flags deconstructed? - “no”
  
  
• Did she display a repulsive and flagrantly outdated taste in fashion? - “can’t be certain, but I’ll give her the benefit of the doubt”
  
  
• Did she fail to refer to our first-team manager using his correct first name? - “no”
  
  
• Did she make reference to an “enabling development”? - “no”
  
  
• Was anyone told to “shut up”? - “no”
  
  
• Did she at any point make you feel like you were listening to an Alan Partridge sketch? - “no”
  
  
• Did she make any unnecessary snide and discriminatory comments about prospective officials”? - “no”
  
  
• Did she refer to any potential investors as “tire kickers”? - “no”
  
  
• Did she attempt to steal the limelight from the players and staff on account of her own ego, whilst stood next to an orange juice soaked manager? - “no”
  
  
• Did she attempt to downplay the actions of a serially convicted fraudster, most recently famous for having caused significant distress to a particularly vulnerable, ageing demographic? - “no”
  
  
• Did she make references about the value of her car, in a not very subtle attempt to let everyone know how wealthy she is? - “no”
  
  
• Did she make any promises or set targets so blatently unrealistic that they were met with instant derision? - “no”
  
  
• Did her surroundings suggest a lack of basic decency and taste in interior design, typical of classless individuals belonging to what is known as the “Nouveau riche” - “again, there’s simply no way of knowing, so in the interest of balance I’m going to say ‘yes’”
  
  
• Did she generally display a high level of contempt for the club’s supporters? - “ no”
  
  
• Did she threaten any of the club’s supporters with legal action, or attempt to have its main online discussion board excrement down due to low-level, personal criticism?” - “no”
  

All-in-all, a very solid 18 out of a possible 20 points for Debbie - a possible overindulgence in Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen interior design documentaries being the only blemish on an otherwise perfect score.

Who’d have thought a modicum of intelligence, a touch of class and a splash of common decency would go so far?

Quoted from jamesgtfc

I thought it was a good interview overall, but I don't think we pay a fair wage. Whilst the recent advert for matchday staff starting from £5.90 per hour is an improvement on £20 per match from years gone by, it's still not the Living Wage that we pride ourselves on paying everyone.

Good to hear her wanting to improve commercial income, despite being up. A large proportion of that will be increased shirt sales and I think we can all agree it needs to improve. She defended sticking by Hurst in that bad run because the data hadn't changed much; I wonder what would happen in a similar run if the data had changed?

You make an interesting point. Have you emailed Debbie or the Trust to find out why there is this apparent anomaly?

Quoted from forza ivano

You make an interesting point. Have you emailed Debbie or the Trust to find out why there is this apparent anomaly?

I intend to.

Ask her about the calendars while you’re at it

Quoted from ska face

Ask her about the calendars while you’re at it

Ooh, err, missus!

Quoted from ska face

- commercial revenue up 76% in the 2 years since 1878 came in

All in all a great interview but the pedant in me has to pick her up on this point. In the same breath she said commercial revenue had more than doubled and in fact it had increased by 76%. Which is it?

Quoted from jamesgtfc

I thought it was a good interview overall, but I don't think we pay a fair wage. Whilst the recent advert for matchday staff starting from £5.90 per hour is an improvement on £20 per match from years gone by, it's still not the Living Wage that we pride ourselves on paying everyone.

The club do pay the living wage for over 18's. The argument for paying those under 18 less, which is fairly valid in my eyes, is that if you pay them the same as an over 18, you wouldn't employ them. If you needed to employ a bar runner at the Living Wage, you would want them to be able to hop on the bar without needing supervision of sales, you'd also want them to be able to clean with chemicals (which you can't do for under 18's).