Completing the 92 - how we got here, and where we might end up

Ten years ago, Blackburn Rovers drew Newport County in the FA Cup third round. Me, Joe and Louis thought it would be a great day out and I had my sights on the ever elusive 92 target, that seemed a long way off, and it would only have been ground number 69.

As I described in this post here, tickets booked, we had to collect them at the ground, we hooked with our pals Smithy and Mushtaq and were genuinely excited about a day out in South Wales.

Once we stepped off the Arriva Trains Wales service that skims through the beautiful border country from Shrewsbury, Hereford and Abergavenny, the heavens opened. We ducked into Nando's for lunch as we watched the bedraggled masses sheltering outside the trickle of people between where we sat, and the stadium over the river Usk, seemed to be in the other direction. 

"Match off, lads," everyone seemed to say to us, as we headed down to pick the tickets up, in order to claim a refund (I never did).

Bizarrely, chalking off Newport yesterday wasn't the plan either. We had planned a day out in Cheltenham Spa with a couple of friends and then to watch the local team alongside the visiting Tranmere Rovers fans, to chalk off my 85th of the 92. Except the game got called off because 20th placed League Two side Tranmere Rovers had three players called up for international duty. 

So, with an investment in train tickets to Gloucestershire made, unrefundable, a chance to skip along to Newport to take in my 85th ground opened up.

These adventures aren't just about the football, but a match is a great way to see anywhere, in any country. Which is just as well, because a nervy encounter between two struggling teams, in a wind swirled Rodney Parade, was the worst game we've seen this season by some margin. It was rescued by a peach of a winning goal from Newport's Bobby Kamwa, right in front of us.

The stadium, which they share with a rugby team, is effectively two permanent stands along each side, one very modern, and the one opposite, that we were in, that has a terrace in front of a covered wooden grandstand.

The away fans were in half of the temp open seats at one end, and a section of the modern new structure.    

Lunch in Newport Market in as good a food hall as we've seen anywhere else was almost worth the trip itself. From Sri Lankan stall Ceylon M8 we had fried butter squid, mutton rolls and chicken koththu,
and a jar of cheesecake each from The Cheesecake Guy. 

Since I last posted I've ticked off Barrow (82) on a freezing cold New Year's Day, Everton (83), and a solo jaunt to Lincoln City (84) in the sold out away end against my local team Stockport County. We got turned away in December, but the return visit found Lincoln on top of the table and on a record 20 game unbeaten run and real winning streak.

With Lincoln on the rise, I’d fully expect Sincil Bank to be massively redeveloped. Props to their fans for keeping up a barrage for most of the game.

I really liked Hill Dickinson stadium, Everton's brand new ground. It was walkable from the city centre and I was lucky enough to be a guest of the law firm that sponsors the new home of the Toffees. It reminded me of the Stade De Drago in Porto, and I feel pretty sure that the atmosphere will get going once the fans build some institutional memory and people find their favoured places.

We've got a firm plan to do Stevenage (86) next week and are eyeing Crawley (87) on the last day of the season, which will leave me short of the 92, but these are expensive and long days out.

Brentford will be tricky to get tickets to because they sell out every week in the Premier League, it may necessitate taking in a game when their women's team play at the Gtech, which some purists will tell me doesn't count. A weekend that could take in Wimbledon or Bromley would work.

I have massive respect to anyone who has done them all. It is no small effort, but great fun.

HIP store to close - what's next for these cornerstones of Northern fashion?

A couple of shop closures wouldn't normally trouble the top end of TheBusinessDesk.com news list, but the slow erasure of its non-core brands by JD Sports Fashion is pretty significant.

In one sense, it’s just two shops in the sprawling JD Sports retail empire that have been earmarked for closure, amongst 4,850 worldwide, but the likely closure of Hip Store appears to represent another break with JD’s street fashion heritage.

Under the brands section on the JD website the only UK brands now listed are JD, JD Gyms, size? and Footpatrol.

63 Thomas Street, which was once the home of the mothership, Oi Polloi, has been a Hip Store since 2023.

Now that too looks like it will go the same way as those other influential boutique northern retailers - Oi Polloi, Aspecto, Hurleys, Scotts, and Wade Smith - that either get bought up by the big guns, then slowly disappear, get sold in a game of retail pass the parcel, or retreat online, priced out of the city centres. Yet without them JD as it is today wouldn't exist.

I hope this creates an opportunity for something else genuinely fresh and in tune with how fashion is evolving in our northern cities.

My posting of the story on LinkedIn sparked a fascinating series of contributions from people far closer to the retail frontline than I.

Requires a follow up and a chat to Tim at This Thing of Ours, Jess at Hurleys, and the people behind Outsiders. 

Why Industry is the best thing on TV since Succession

Every once in a while a TV show comes along that smacks you in the face with its high stakes drama, sign of the times commentary, and it dares you to imagine how much further, which moral low point it could go to next.

It keeps popping up in meetings, usually an investment banker or lawyer saying - our culture is great, and nothing like that TV show they’re all watching. Yes, they mean Industry.

When it started in 2021 Industry was like a super charged version of the 90s coming of age drama This Life: edgy, zeitgeisty, young, sweary and tinged with darkness and foreboding. It also made superstars of Jack Davenport and Andrew Lincoln (though scandalously not Daniela Nardini).

But now that we’re on season four of Industry, all available on the BBC iPlayer, it seems more like that other, must-see, can’t look away, screen depiction of the worst excesses of capitalism - Succession. It also shares with that televisual masterpiece the accomplished feat of creating an entire cast of characters you never actually like very much. Each one comes coloured with different shades of dreadful, ever capable of ethical breaches, self serving greed and appalling morality.

Industry started by following the contrasting paths of a bunch of graduates embarking on life at fictional London investment bank Pierpoint. Pulsing with sexual tension and twisted manipulation, it quickly pivots around the twists and turns in the relationships between American CV forger Harper Stern (the actor known known mononymously as Myha’la), silver spooned international publishing heiress Yasmin Kara-Hanani (Marisa Abela) and working class Robbie Spearing from a council estate in Hull (played by Harry Lawtey). Though a slow burner, it nonetheless earned Lawtey and Abela roles depicting Richard Burton and Amy Winehouse (as well as a BAFTA), and they won’t be the only talent propelled up the A list by this series.

It rubs against real events very tightly, post-COVID, the KamiKwazi budget, the 2024 election, and how that all rippled through the trading floors of the city. There’s real drama when they’re shorting the pound, or second guessing government policy - proving that markets can be moved and can topple governments.

So, yes I could sell it to you on the basis of the script, the realism, the glamour, the filthy language, and the acting - even, my fellow geeks, the accompanying music and the next level sound design - but as we’re up to season four now, the air is still thick with the same level of tension, action and intrigue, and the reason you have to delve in now is because it has suddenly got very Rainmakers adjacent.

Our very first piece on this platform was about the collapse of an African fintech app. Just saying. A recent episode, no spoilers, has such close parallels to the story about the German payments unicorn Wirecard that even the music overlaid one of the dramatic scenes was Forever Young by Alphaville, surely no coincidence that the name of the FT column in which Dan McCrum shattered Wirecard’s facade, amidst accusations he was colluding with short sellers, was Alphaville.

On our Rainmakers Substack we take you occasionally into the darker corners of mergers and acquisitions, sometimes murders and executions, and this should be a warning that due diligence, bold EBITDA forecast claims and family shareholder preference rights can and are the stuff of everyday life on the frontline of your world.

The experience of former bankers Mickey Down and Konrad Kay, as Creators, Writers and Executive Producers carried the show so far, now a sprawling jungle is growing out of the vacillating reputations of the main protagonists. They also use their characters to propel forward the twisted plotlines with their own warps and flaws, there is never a sense that you are going to warm to them, to empathise, to get a deeper understanding of their motives and horrendous capacity to mess up.

No spoilers, but Down and Kay have said of this current season - “It was a fantastic and experiential precinct and gave the show it’s velocity and immersive feel, but we felt we could take that energy out into the world and broaden the canvas to deepen what the show was saying about capitalism and the feedback loop of finance, politics and media, while also introducing us to a broader array of characters.”

Adding: “We wanted the show to centre on a global story with more stakeholders.”

Yes, the media. There’s a journalist in season four, Jim Dycker, with a complex about Patrick Radden Keefe (we all have) as well as an unravelling dark back story. I liked his depiction because he’s significantly poorer than everyone else, he inhabits a shabby council flat and works for a niche title called FinDigest (I’m sure they were on the floor downstairs from us when I worked in the trade press in London).

It works because as the creators have said “people like watching people work” and you just don’t know where they’ll go next, it’s like the first show I’ve seen since Succession that I also can’t comfortably predict what any character is capable of doing next.

For a professional audience in a similar world, I can confidently say that the rigour the creators have applied isn’t just fun, but provocative and at times properly funny.

Even though we are now well into the fourth series, seriously, what else are you going to do?

So do it. Binge the lot, and do it now, it’s better than Night Manager and you could credibly make a case that watching it qualifies you for extra CPD points.

This scarf is a symbol of my own individuality and represents my belief in personal freedom

Everyone has a treasured item of clothing, a piece that they wear because it reminds them of someone or something, a time and a place.

This silk Paul Smith scarf, with green polka dots on a deep dark blue base is mine. I sometimes tell friends I call it my 'Mandelson scarf'. Not because he bought it for me or anything, or because it reminds me of a great day we spent together, but because it represents a symbol of my own personal resilience and my ability to shake off setbacks.

Part of my job when I worked at Manchester Metropolitan University was to find useful things for our then Chancellor to do, for it was he. I had initially been the conduit to approach him to meet with the VC and the Chair of Governors and accept the offer to become the Chancellor, a pro bono role, mainly ceremonial and ambassadorial.

At his installation ceremony, where I was tasked with making sure he turned up on time and knew who everyone was, I was mistakenly identified by the official photographer as his personal security detail when he asked me if I was ex-Army or ex-Police (I know, I look well hard don’t I?).

It was a new job and I had to carve out a place for myself in a sprawling organisation, not always successfully. 

Even though it was in my job description, slowly the responsibility for utilising the skills and connections of “Lord M” moved away from me. 

I wasn’t invited to the Chancellor’s Dinner in the summer, or involved in the Graduation ceremonies when he was present, and certainly didn’t go to Wuhan in China as part of the entourage when a deal was struck. 

Which brings me to the scarf. I’d been encouraged to go to the offices of Global Counsel and meet with Peter and his CEO. It was early in the job and I had high hopes for how we might work together, especially as I had some ideas about industrial policy that a former minister could input on.

The meeting didn’t go well. They didn’t seem to know I was coming, and seemed distracted and disinterested in me and what I had to say. I came away feeling that I’d made a fool of myself thinking I could move in these circles and be taken even vaguely seriously, that I was a lower league lightweight. I left feeling really flat and so went to the Paul Smith shop in Beak Street to buy myself something nice to cheer myself up, so that my trip to London wasn’t entirely wasted.

In the reset of my relationship, with a great bunch of colleagues, we set up MetroPolis, a think tank that was something of a forerunner in the education sector. It was designed to project policy relevant research work into the attention of policy makers. Part of the offer was a series of Chancellor’s Fellowships in his name, which connected academics to think tanks and government departments, and proved really effective when the university submitted its work for the REF assessment a few years later.

I wrote some speech notes for a HE conference, which seemed to go down well at the time. He also spoke at a couple of events under the MetroPolis banner, and always drew a big crowd, especially if we framed it as being about Brexit. 

One thing though, my colleagues in the comms team were always reluctant to promote his involvement, because he was such a controversy magnet. Understandable when your job is to protect the reputation of the University. 

At the outset I was genuinely quite excited about the potential and the prospects for a senior politician being involved. My day to day job often meant showing government ministers, local senior leaders and opposition politicians, what the university was doing. They included at different times Sajid Javid, Chris Skidmore, Margot James, Sam Gyimah, early meetings with elected Mayor Andy Burnham, all the local MPs, including Jonny Reynolds and Lucy Powell.   

The last event I was involved in with him was at the Manchester Tech Centre, where he was the warm up act for Andy Burnham, something the Mayor took great delight in reminding everyone how the roles were once reversed.

After I left in May 2021, (the picture is at my leaving drinks, wearing THAT SCARF), I got a very nice email from him telling me I’d done a good job for the university and wished me well. But we haven’t spoken since. I haven’t reached out, and though we were both at an event in 2022 and he saw me, he didn’t come and say hello.

I’m not writing this to distance myself from him any more, but to remind myself that although I sometimes allow people to assume I mixed in such circles, I don’t and I didn’t. It was also a realisation that at heart I’m a hack, a journalist, and simply don’t aspire to power and money. I mean, look where it gets you when you do.

But also, some people curl up in embarrassment after the revelations about people who they worked with who disgrace themselves. I have called this out and will continue to do so. Maybe they witnessed things where they turned a blind eye. In the case of the former Chancellor, I certainly don’t have any dirt I’m sitting on. None of us were aware that he was mates with the abuser, though everyone priced in his political reputation as a risk. Also, yes he was often imperious, and aloof, and distracted, but he was also charming when he wanted to be.

One of the most impressive, professional and courteous former leaders I met in the course of that job, and my next one, was Gordon Brown. My esteem for him has only grown over the years with everything he says and does.

The emails released this week appear to show the most shameful betrayal of the former Prime Minister, who has said he regards Mandelson’s disclosure of market sensitive and confidential government information to Jeffrey Epstein, “an inexcusable and unpatriotic act” at the time he was dealing with the global financial crisis that was damaging so many livelihoods.

I felt disappointed and deflated all those years ago, but nothing compared to the abject betrayal that Gordon Brown will be feeling now. 

Interviewing Andy Burnham just before he made his first move

The thoughts I shared after I interviewed Andy Burnham recently may be worth repeating.

The first observation was how much better a communicator he is than almost everyone in UK politics right now; he deals with hard questions with genuine empathy, and has a rare ability to change what people think of him in a single encounter.

Secondly, devolution is the only hopeful political movement in politics, and that’s on him. He acknowledges that in doing so he stands on the shoulders of the giants that went before him, Sir Howard Bernstein, Sir Richard Leese, and never misses an opportunity to acknowledge the cadre of high quality officers and political leaders (of all parties) that back him up.

Thirdly, I think he’s a people pleaser. As he bounces from packed room to packed room, stopping for selfies and charming everyone on his way, he seems happy, proud, empowered and determined. The King of the North is in his pomp.

The first two observations are what self-evidently drives the constant speculation that only he could lead Labour to an election victory as Keir Starmer and Rachel Reeves lurch from crisis to crisis.

The third point is why I really wish he’d put it all to bed and say he’s not interested in returning to Westminster.

Were he to make a move, he clearly wouldn’t do so as the backbench MP for Gorton and Denton, or wherever else, if he’s barred from standing. He would then be subjected to the kind of relentless sniping from a deranged national media, and loons on social media, that would make the abuse that his whole family got during the anti-Clean Air Zone campaign seem like a bit of banter at the match.

He pointed to a number of projects – Carrington, Atom Valley, the MBacc skills revolution – that could genuinely make Greater Manchester’s next economic growth spurt the most exciting decade since the Victorian era.

Yet there are still immense local challenges – too much crime, not enough good affordable housing, and an opportunity to lever in ever better jobs and technologies.

Much of the change that the whole country needs – and I don’t depart much from his analysis – can be influenced more effectively from here, than it ever could be from there.

So I said then, “don’t do it, Andy. Just don’t”. 

PS

My MSc academic thesis about his first term was about how his “narratives” drove the “convening networks” to achieve what he could within the limited constraints of the devolution settlement.

“Business friendly socialism” or “Manchesterism” he has more latterly called it as the solution to “the four horsemen of Britain’s apocalypse: deregulation, privatisation, austerity and Brexit.”

Few people have been willing to say that, shamefully, yet here we are. Now that the game is on I think we’re going to see a very different Andy Burnham.

Books of 2025

 

Books of 2025.

Really enjoyed every book I’ve read this year. All 67 of them.

I’ve dipped into a few biographies and more hard hitting journalism this year, but my go-to is still cleverly written fast-paced smart fiction.

Recommedations welcome for 2026.

Not necessarily crime either, but a few regulars certainly delivered.

1. Project Hail Mary - Andy Weir

2. Land’s Edge - Tim Winton

3. The Secret Hours - Mick Herron

4. Humankind - Rutger Bregman

5. The Last Dance - Mark Billingham

6. The Wrong Hands - Mark Billingham

7. Bold Lies - Rachel Lynch

8. That Night - Gillian McAllister

9. I’m never drinking again - Dominic McGregor

10. Penance - Eliza Clark

11. Big Sky - Kate Atkinson

12. You don’t have to have a dream - Tim Minchin

13. Minority Rule - Ash Sarkar

14. The Rumour - Lesley Kara

15. Brand Warfare - Julian Kynaston

16. A Little Bird - Wendy James

17. The Lost - Mari Hannah

18. The Insider - Mari Hannah

19. No Comment - Jess McDonald

20. The Scandal - Mari Hannah

21. Black Fell - Mari Hannah

22. The Accidental Footballer - Pat Nevin

23. Strange Sally Diamond - Liz Nugent

24. Rogues - Patrick Radden Keefe

25. Somebody Feed Phil - Phil Rosenthal

26. Taste - Stanley Tucci

27. The Family Remains - Lisa Jewell

28. Small Things Like These - Claire Keegan

29. Say Nothing - Patrick Radden Keefe

30. Bedsit Disco Queen - Tracey Thorn

31. The Cracked Mirror - Chris Brookmyre

32. A history of the world in 72 borders - Jonn Elledge

33. Brat: an 80s story - Andrew McCarthy

34. Uncommon People - Miranda Sawyer

35. Just another missing person - Gillian McAllister

36. The Fathers - John Niven

37. Don’t Let Go - Harlan Coben

38. The Hunter - Tana French

39. Cardinal - Louise Milligan

40. Everything I know about love - Dolly Alderton

41. Feel Good Club - Aimie and Kiera Lawlor-Skillen

42. Nemesis - Patricia Wolf

43. This Bird Has Flown - Susanna Hoffs

44. Do Disrupt - Mark Shayler

45. Do you believe in the power of rock n roll? - John Robb

46. I Will Find You - Harlan Coben

47. Eyrie - Tim Winton

48. Koba the Dread - Martin Amis

49. Rough Beast - Mairia Cahill

50. Butler to the world - Oliver Bullough

51. Rinsed - Geoff White

52. Grave Regret - Fiona Tarr

53. If Russia wins - Carlo Masala

54. Red Star Paris: More than just a football club - Simon Binns

55. Clown Town - Mick Herron

56. Billion dollar whale - Tom Wright and Bradley Hope

57. None of this is true - Lisa Jewell

58. Meltdown - Duncan Mavin

59. Trespasses - Louise Kennedy

60. Win - Harlan Coben

61. In The Woods - Tana French

62. Pheasants Nest - Louise Milligan

63. Legacy - Chris Hammer

64. Last one out - Jane Harper

65. Zine Age Kicks - James Brown

66. The proof of my innocence - Jonathan Coe

67. What have I done? Ben Elton

Mani, the Mayor, and the rhythm of a city

At our lunch event with Fieldfisher yesterday the MIDAS managing director Joe Manning explained how Manchester’s global brand, the ability to project cultural power was absolutely integral to its success.

So it was that as Andy Burnham wrapped up the media interviews at Stockport’s Stockroom, after his major speech on the economy, people were visibly rocked as news flew around the room that Gary Mounfield had died.

The bassline from Stone Roses Fool’s Gold, amongst the many, many incredible sounds he created, feels like it’s part of the very rhythm of the city. But Mani also represented a hard working, good humoured, big hearted approach to life, doing so much for cancer charities with his late wife Imelda, which is probably why my Instagram has been full of such warm tributes from far and wide.

That particular tragedy bookended a week that started with the sad news that Mark Fuller, another great bloke in his early sixties, had left us too. Mark was a huge help to me in my early career in the North West, and as the tributes made clear, his generosity and intellect was respected and valued by many.

Andy Burnham’s speech yesterday saw the Mayor back on form, unwilling to be drawn on the Westminster circus, and fully focused on pushing the devolution ambitions ever further.

The build up to next week’s Budget has been a shambles. The expectations are low.

But Burnham not only warned that more dithering on rail investment would be an “intentional anti-growth policy,” and he demanded we stop having to beg for scraps.

“After a decade of doing more for ourselves than they ever did for us, you would think the system would stop behaving as if it knows best?” he said.

He’s right. The begging bowl culture has harmed the North over the last thirty years. The broken promises and shallow gimmicks have made fools of us.

Simon Binns, his new book, and loving football as we do

For 18 years Simon Binns is someone I have known and respected. First as a business journalist, more recently a generous walking companion, consistently as a fellow middle-aged media operator, wherever jobs we did, and also as a profoundly inspirational advocate for mental health self-care.

The banter boy in me would at this stage make an awkward link to his support, like me, of a perennially disappointing northern working class football club. But I won’t. I have been given the honour of an early draft of Red Star Paris, Simon’s book, which we are here to talk about tonight.

It’s brave, revelatory, funny and strikes home to anyone who loves football as we do.

Ladies and gentlemen, Simon Binns.

That was my intro to Simon at the event at George Street Books in Glossop last week.

And here’s what I said to Simon in a message after I’d read his book:

Mate, I loved the book. 

I mean really loved it. 

I think it’s because I’m terribly fond of you and you hold nothing back. 

More than the football, which you joined up so skilfully with your own quest for belonging. 

I’d love to explore that with you at the event, but obviously balance with pale ale, ultra culture, David Bellion and Habib Beye anecdotes for the football hipster element. ❤

https://www.pitchpublishing.co.uk/shop/red-star-paris-more-just-football-club

Closing in on the 92

We went to watch a cracking cup tie at Salford City's Peninsula Stadium today. It had it all. The true magic of the FA Cup.

Salford City FC of League 2 beat League One Lincoln City on pens, and they deserved it too.

It was my 81st ground of the current 92, following earlier day trips this season to Harrogate and Barnet. The quest to complete the 92 before my significant birthday next year is very much on.

It was a very similar sized ground to Harrogate, but not too easy to get to by public transport.

Gary Neville tried to move them to Salford Community Stadium, which also has its own shortcomings, but if he had succeeded it would have saved me the bother as I saw them play a game there.

I just mapped it out. Two Premier League ones are the trickiest because of tickets - Brentford and Everton.

Then Lincoln, Wimbledon and Stevenage in L1, and Barrow, Bromley, Cheltenham, Colchester, Crawley and Newport in L2.

As it stands, I could skip the current bottom two because if they go, then they'll likely be replaced from the promoted teams from National League by two that I've been to. Which would mean that at the start of next season I will have done the 92.

Manchester faces terrorism, again

 

At the Business of Greater Manchester conference I hosted our guests were treated to a powerful eulogy to the late great Sir Howard Bernstein, whose family had built a life in Manchester after escaping pogroms in Russia. 

It was delivered by Mike Emmerich, who is writing a book about the life and times of Howard, as the incredibly humble former chief executive of Manchester city council always preferred to be called.

His legacy was felt in the energetic discussions that coursed through our conference.

Everyone spoke proudly of an inclusive, dynamic and welcoming city. One that opened its arms to businesses looking to locate here, and to attract the talent to come and work for them.

They are the “dreamers and schemers” evoked by the poet Tony Walsh in his epic tome, This Is The Place, who have been “drawn here” collaborating with those who are “born here”. 

It’s a verse that touched my heart when I stood in Albert Square in May 2017, the day after a previous monstrous attack on our city, our place and who we are. Or who we like to think we are.

But a dark side pervades. That Jewish friends of mine now feel they have to wear flat caps to hide their yarmulkes in the city centre is shameful. It is also appalling that places of worship, supposedly a peaceful sanctuary for prayer, have to have private security. But yesterday, thank God they did. 

I’m also calling out the tatty flags and racist graffiti which seek to intimidate communities made up of people who don’t look like me. We have to be better than this. 

Our first responders, especially the armed police, deserve our thanks for what they had to do, but also members of the public we reacted bravely and quickly in the face of terror. 

Manchester has defied those who have sought to divide the city with hate and terror before. In 1996, in 2017 and now, tragically, we will have to do so again in 2025.

Ricky Hatton RIP

What a week.

It started in such a sad way with the tragic news that Ricky Hatton had died at home in Gee Cross on Sunday. Just over the hill from where I live, the news rippled out when we were on a country walk with friends.

The Hitman wasn’t just an elite sporting hero, but a local champion too. It took a tribute from his local MP Jonny Reynolds, the former Business Secretary, to remind us that he was also a businessman who had re-invest the money he made in boxing to his local area.

On Tuesday I heard with my own ears the claims of Andy Burnham that you don’t need to go south to advance your career. He was speaking as Zopa Bank outlined how they are creating 500 jobs in Manchester as the fintech neo-bank continue their quest to become the “home of money”.

I watched the Starmer - Trump love-in at Chequers yesterday and wondered how Andy Burnham would have handled some of the outrageous things the US President was saying, and the loopy questions his client media were asking to provoke our PM. 

Our Mayor is charming and authentic, and on the occasions when I’ve had my turn at chairing his Mayor’s Question Time he’s faced down hostile questions very effectively. He’s at his best when he’s taking on bullies and using his power to stand up for those that don’t have it. The very opposite of the blustering orange monster. 

But he also has people pleasing tendencies, and it would take a particular skill - to come out with your domestic credibility intact.

The rise of the creative class

There’s been a debate raging amongst city leaders for the last two decades about how to become a city that attracts “the creative class” that propels a city into the global fast lane.

Name drop alert, but it was Tony Wilson who was the first person to tell me to read The Rise of the Creative Class by American urbanist Richard Florida, back in 2003.

Wilson, who sadly passed in 2007, was always a strong advocate for Manchester’s cultural capital being an important plank for the city’s economy.

Florida’s central argument was that civic leaders make their cities as attractive as possible to this so-called creative class. Economic development will naturally flow if they do.

You see evidence of this throughout modern Manchester. The rich Kuwaitis playing Padel, the expansion of global brands like Booking.com and BNY Mellon in the city and this week, a great party to launch iconic Swedish denim brand Nudie Jeans.

The signing of a special relationship between the Mayors of Greater Manchester and Japan’s second city Osaka today is just the latest in a series of high profile relationships that stimulate not just tourism, but hard business investment between city regions.

But some people are left behind by this hipster influx, or priced out, making once cool places one-dimensional and boring. Even Richard Florida has also been rethinking his original idea. More recently he has spoken of “a deep and dark side” to urbanism and regeneration that we are all too familiar with.

It’s important then that any economic vision is inclusive. That’s what has shaped the agenda of our Business of Greater Manchester conference on the 1st of October, where we will plenty of vision, and lots of business, but also a real focus on cultural opportunities. 

There are also some “international” investors you probably don’t want. 

The absolute fiasco at Salford Red Devils Rugby League club looks likely to drag on after legal tactics bought the “owners” some time before HMRC next presents a winding up petition in October. In the meantime, the squad depletes, the debts pile up, and the pipe dream of a sports and entertainment complex at the Salford Community Stadium fades even further into fantasy.

I’ve been feeling bleak recently, watching the unchallenged hate spilling onto our streets, and hearing too many stories of bad guys getting away with it. 

I feel we have a responsibility to balance our news with stories of achievements, as well as to tell it like it is.

On balance there is still much to be optimistic about, I think coming to the events I put on are as good a place as any to plug into that positive energy..

First new column for the Manchester Law Society magazine

August is meant to be silly season. Full of slow news days where news editors fill their pages with editorial landfill.

Not this August we haven’t. I’m going to be writing a monthly column for the Manchester Law Society on what’s been happening in Manchester business over the course of the month, so I’ll run through some highlights you might have missed whether you were on your holidays in the Algarve, Tuscany, or Prestatyn, after a brief introductory hello. 

I’ve been writing about business most of my professional life, I started out interviewing pop stars, artists and models for a music paper in Australia, but even then as a chippy English kid, I only ever gave five star reviews to New Order, Stone Roses and the Happy Mondays.

Through the 90s I was a reporter, then an editor, for the media trade press, covering the rise of satellite TV, Granada Television and the tech revolution in video and film production.

I rocked up in Manchester in 2000 to be the editor of a business magazine based in Minshull Street behind the court house, where I was frequently approached by local ladies to discuss business, but not of the variety I was employed to write about. 

I love the life that I’ve built here and remain that chippy northerner. Though I do cover crooks, liquidations and shady deals, I do so from the position of wanting to police the boundaries of a business community so good people aren’t ripped off. I take being a journalist seriously, something I cherish having been offered the chance to return to the frontline after a period as a political adviser.

This August some big exclusive stories came thick and fast.

We’ll start with the big positive one first. The sale of a stake in cult female fashion brand Adanola, which values the Manchester-based business at £400m (US$530m) is a huge lift for the city.

Further south, Dr Nyla Raja known locally as the "Botox Queen" sold her aesthetics business to an American “consolidator”. I’ll keep an eye on this one. She received a stinging assessment from the Care Quality Commission in 2023 for the hair transplant service and she used to be in business with footballer’s wife Dawn Ward, a star of Real Housewives of Cheshire.

The investment into Leonard Curtis by Pollen Street Capital was also a big deal for the city, as a really well-run, deadly focused business in the flux world of professional services looks to an exciting next phase.

I also attended court to get some more insights into the case of Stockport accountancy firm Bennett Verby and the charges they face for failing to prevent tax evasion.

We also saw the conclusion of the scrap to buy Assura, a North West based healthcare property investment business where Primary Healthcare Properties beat off American private equity firm KKR, three initials that are known to send a chill down the spine of even the toughest business executive.

Finally, it was with a very heavy heart that I pressed send on a breaking news alert on a sunny Wednesday afternoon about the Greater Manchester Chamber filing a notice of intention to appoint administrators. 

There are plenty of people there who I have the utmost respect for. The reason they gave for their financial perils is that its Chamber Space co-working and meeting room rental venture has become “an unsustainable part of the business” since the pandemic. 

I’ll be sure to keep you posted on these stories, and more, on TheBusinessDesk.com.

Unpopular chief executive leaves Blackburn Rovers

I went on BBC Lancashire to talk about Steve Waggott leaving his job as chief executive of Blackburn Rovers Football Club, and my story on TheBusinessDesk.com.

Me and Graham Liver both agreed that the two line statement felt harsh and I said it was "classless".

It simply said: “It has been agreed that Steve Waggott will be leaving Blackburn Rovers.

“We would like to thank Steve for his work over the past seven years and we wish him well for his future endeavours.”

Here is the rest of my story.

Fans groups are furious that the chief executive, although unpopular with them, appears to have been offered up as the fall guy for a series of catastrophic recent decisions, including the withdrawal of funding for the BRFC women’s team earlier this week, and the mid-season departure from the promotion chasing club of manager John Eustace for relegation-threatened Derby County.

The fans consensus is that Waggott is being made a scapegoat, and a statement from fan group,  the Supporters’ Coalition, highlights the owner’s representative Suhail Pasha, who is now also on the board, and who fans feel is not accountable for any of the recent mishaps.

In a statement they said: “It’s clear to the Coalition that Ewood Park is currently rudderless, with knee-jerk reactions, floundering responses and concerning concentration of power around one man – Suhail Pasha Sheikh.”

The statement went on to say that two short paragraphs to announce Waggott’s departure was “not sufficient for a football club facing as many challenges as Blackburn Rovers currently is.”

For his part Waggott may claim that he has been unfairly castigated in what is almost certainly his last big job in football, given he will be 71 in June.

In the latest report and accounts it was revealed that his pay package for the year soared to £592K, mostly bolstered by a rise to £433,028 for his basic salary from £308,888, and increased contributions to his pension of £159,002.

He will claim he has kept the owners sufficiently engaged to keep the lights on, and has played a part in maintaining a strong Championship side on a limited budget.

The former player’s agent, who also worked in leadership roles at Coventry City and Charlton Athletic, will also claim credit for recruiting high calibre managers including Tony Mowbray, who lifted the club out of League One, European Champions League winner Jon Dahl Tomasson, and John Eustace.

He may also argue that his hand hasn’t been helped by pressure on the owners in the Indian courts for their investment in overseas businesses. In early 2024 theBusinessDesk.com reported that the Lancashire club’s financial destiny hung in the balance as the owners had to apply to the High Court in the capital New Delhi for emergency permission to pay an outstanding tax bill. An earlier application to send £26m to Blackburn was turned down when the Indian government’s Economic Directorate refused to issue a ‘No Objection Certificate’ to payments to Rovers.

Venky’s achieved permission to settle the tax bill which they argued would have caused “a huge loss to the reputation.”

However, any assessment of Waggott’s performance will also have to take into account falling attendances, poor fan relations, and a failure to bring in commercial revenues to the club. At way less than 10,000, season ticket sales are almost half the level of neighbours Bolton Wanderers, in a division below. His biggest sponsorship deal was with a local vaping company, which abruptly walked away in the summer of 2024 after the new Labour government committed to outlaw the marketing of vapes.

The annual report pointed towards fresh efforts to raise commercial income streams under a new structure of a Chief Operating Officer and Head of Commercial and the further development of the Business Club, improving match day experience and attendance levels.

Towards the end of the 2024/25 season the Supporters’ Coalition urged Waggott, Pasha and sporting director Rudy Gestede to stay away from the club, which they declined to do.

In an excruciating interview with the club’s media, and the local BBC, the three displayed a marked lack of empathy with the frustrations of fans, with Waggott self-assessing his own engagement with them as excellent.

“For the seven-and-a-half-years I have been at the club, my door has been very open to the fans,” he insisted.

“I attend all the fans’ forums, the Supporters Trust, We Are The Rovers, individual groups, away travel groups, individual people who write emails with constructive criticism. I bring them in and discuss certain points with the club.”

But it has been the decision to withdraw from Championship tier of women’s football that has provoked the latest outpouring of ire at the leadership of the club.

Both the Blackburn Rovers Trust and the Supporters’ Coalition slammed the decision by the club and the Coalition once again called for Venky’s to sell the club and for the removal of their representative Suhail Pasha from the board.

“The Blackburn Rovers Supporters Coalition is devastated and outraged by the decision to remove Blackburn Rovers Women’s Football Club from the Tier 2 Women’s Championship League,” they said.

The feeling now is this latest development appears to be heading towards an inflection point in what has been a bizarre ownership story, even in the context of British football. Despite sinking over £300million into Rovers, the Rao family haven’t attended a game at Ewood Park since Mrs Desai’s husband was hit on the shoulder by a snowball thrown by a protesting fan in January 2013, angered at relegation from the Premiership the previous season and the ensuing chaos at the club.