Vindication of the stripes

I don't get a huge amount of interview requests - which is hardly surprising since I'm not a journalist or a celebrity - but the occasional offer does come up. This weekend though, I got two requests on the same day, which is a first. One was for an Australian radio station (via an old colleague) and the other was for a very well known international TV station.

To make the coincidences even more pleasant, both requests dropped in on the day that my 2007 prognostications of the fortunes of Mr Thaksin and Manchester City were more or less vindicated. When Thaksin first bought out MCFC, my article was plugged on the front page of 'The Nation'. Amongst the rebuttals came a bash from Matt Crook - probably the most popular blogger in Thailand at the time - who said it "makes perfect sense" for Thaksin to buy City. It didn't. It was a purely political move, and the decision to sell now is not related to the assets freeze - that happened before the purchase - but is in fact a face-saving gesture to avoid failing the "fit and proper person" test required by the FA for all majority shareholders.

Thaksin was never keen or knowledgeable about football. He once said he wanted the City fans "to treat me as one of them". Well Mr Thaksin, you failed that test, too. Fans never walk out on their club.

Back to Bangkok and the ongoing mess. I said recently that the scene was "eerily reminiscent of May 1992". Bangkok Pundit responded - I'm not sure if it was to me or someone else - by pointing out the lack of fatalities in the ongoing protests. In fact, when I said the new events were "reminiscent", I meant more in atmosphere than in violence. But of course, today saw the first fatality. I hope it is the last, but I fear not.