The Telegraph interview with Garry Cook

"Is he a nice guy? Yes. Is he a great guy to play golf with? Yes. Has he got the finances to run a club? Yes. I really care about those three things. I need a left-back who can win tackles, get the crosses in and Jo can bang them in. Whether he’s guilty of something over there, I can’t worry too much about."

>>telegraph.co.uk

Quite a revealing interview with Henry Winter in The Telegraph which covers a range of topics - from what Thaksin is really like, long term plans for the club (and its financing), the pursuit of Ronaldinho and some very, very interesting thoughts on the future of the Premier League.

(Unsurprisingly) it provides a defence of Thaksin and gives a glimpse into his relationship with Mark Hughes - something which will hardly dampen the rumours with regards to transfer disharmony over the past couple of weeks:

"I’m not treating them like a commodity but in the two transfer windows everybody is for sale,"We told Mark not to come if he thought we didn’t need a superstar. Mark wants to challenge himself to manage the best footballers in the world.

But Mark is from the old school. He would rather overpay for the player he knows than for the player where he’s relying on scouting reports. That’s an endearing piece of what Mark is all about."

Well worth a read indeed.