lefty goldblatt wrote:
No one's SAID "meddling owner", but that rather goes against DDI's article involving Russell's quote, and Andrew Johns says hi.
I can't imagine Paul Cullen banging on Simon Moran's door in the summer of 2005, saying " If you're off to Lord's for the cricket, Si, make sure you have a word with Joey about coming to the HJ, and I'll leave you to sort out Graham Appo if you manage to get him"
I'm struggling to understand this Matty Russell story.
Are we saying that TS didn't want Russell but Simon Moran saw him as some kind of galactico signing that he wanted to have, so went over TS head. So how come TS played him as an ever-present, seemingly regardless of form, but as soon as TS left and Price came in, Russell got shipped out. Simon Moran was still here, so how come he didn't put his foot down and tell Price to keep Russell?
And is all this just based on Russell saying in a press interview that he spoke to Simon Moran?
As for Andrew Johns, Cullen talked about this on something recently, can't remember whether it was on the radio or Paul Wood/Micky Higham's youtube show. I think his side of it was that we were playing well and he was looking to the playoffs but he was worried about Nat Wood managing an injury and he asked if it was possible to get some extra cover, and Simon Moran said what about Andrew Johns, he was going to the cricket and could talk to Andrew Johns agent. And Cullen wasn't going to say no, because Johns was the best player in the world at the time. It's not like he was being forced to take Johns against his will.