Did the City hacker buy Santa Cruz?

You know the sort of thing. Every few months a story comes
out about some chump who bad-mouths his boss or his mother-in-law, and
accidentally sends the offending screed to them.

Earlier this year, one Harry Fildes went viral when he
engaged in a bawdy email conversation about his ex-girlfriend - then
accidentally copied her in.

Most of us have done something similar, if less
catastrophic. We all know that stomach-churning feeling as you realise you have
dropped a clanger.

The latest instalment is rather distasteful and centres
around Manchester City chief exec Garry Cook.

The situation is this: Nedum Onuoha was in a contract
dispute with Manchester City. His mother, Dr Anthonia Onuoha, is also his agent.
She also happens to have cancer.

She wrote an email to City's 'football administrator' Brian
Marwood, copying in Cook, expressing displeasure at some previous
correspondence from Marwood.

Her email included the sentence: "My body might be
ravaged by cancer and ongoing chemotherapy but, thankfully, my intellectual and
mental capacities remain fully functional."

What followed was an email from Cook's account, intended for
Marwood. It read:

"Brian,
Ravaged with it!!.......I don't know how you sleep at night.
You used to be such a nice man when I worked with you at
nike.
G"

Problem is, the email was sent to Dr Onuoha, who was
understandably very upset. D', and indeed, Oh!

Now, ED should make it clear that Cook denies sending this.
He insists his email account was hacked into, and that disciplinary proceedings
are under way against a member of staff at the club.

Early Doors has no knowledge of the situation besides what
it has read in the paper and certainly has no evidence that Cook is telling
anything but the truth.

It's just that, rather than Cook absent-mindedly pressing
reply instead of forward, he is asking us to believe; that his email account
was hacked by a staff member at City; the hacker either attempted to send an
email to Marwood, masquerading as Cook, and mistakenly sent it to Dr Onuoha; or
they deliberately sent it to Dr Onuoha, presumably in an attempt to get Cook
into trouble.

ED knows what Occam's razor would say.

In any case, if Cook's explanation is correct, isn't that a
much bigger issue for City than a single unpleasant email from the chief
executive?

If a hacker has been in Cook's emails, what else have they
been doing?

Have they gained access to confidential information? Have
they sent any more emails in his name?

Maybe it was actually a hacker who chose to spend £17.5
million on Roque Santa Cruz?

Did the hacker invite Roberto Mancini into the City of
Manchester Stadium while his predecessor Mark Hughes was in the dugout managing
the team against Sunderland?

Perhaps it was a hacker who told the Daily Telegraph of
Thaksin Shinawatra: "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."

And was it the hacker who inducted Uwe Rosler into "the
Manchester United Hall of Fame"?

All could become clear in the coming days...

- - -

Isn't it lucky Jack Wilshere didn't play the European
Under-21 Championship in the summer?

By giving the young tyke a well-earned break, Arsenal have
ensured he is in peak early-season form for club and countr... What's that? He
could be out until December with his ankle injury?

Never mind. At least fellow U21 cryer-off Andy Carroll
looked pin-sharp as he fired Liverpool to Carling Cup glory at Exeter.

- - -

QUOTE OF THE DAY: Carlos Tevez turns the self-pity up to 11: "I'm not
the s**t that they say I am. I had a personal crisis this summer. I
put on five or six kilos and had to check into a clinic. I was depressed and so
I ate and ate. Only my family and friends know this.
People can criticise me if I don't play well, but they can't say 'He missed a
penalty so the coach would be sacked.' It's the bad feeling towards me that I
can't stand."

- - -

FOREIGN VIEW: Barcelona vice-president Josep Maria Bartomeu is absolutely
begging to be punched in the face next time he goes to North London.

Here he is gloating about how Barcelona mugged Arsenal for
the purchase of Cesc Fabregas: "The transfer of Cesc was a very good deal
for us.

"The price on the open market wouldn't have been €29m
but he lowered his value by saying that he really wanted to go to Barcelona.
His real price was what Arsenal initially asked - at least €60m.

"The fact that we announced in advance that we would
only spend €45m this summer worked to our advantage. Clubs were already aware
of our position."

To paraphrase:
tapping-up works.