Syed is certainly leaving it late in the day if he if going to change my opinion of him for the better.

Syed is without a doubt one of the most dislikable people I have ever come across. He is rude, arrogant and cocky. I can’t understand (but then, I am not in Sales) how that attitude helps in the business world. Yes, I understand how confidence and perseverence, and even an element of pushiness, are useful, but I can’t see how generally appearing a wanker will endear you to potential clients.

Indeed, a point Jarndyce made here and which didn’t occur to me in the first place, but I suppose I initially forgot that The Apprentice is first and foremost a TV programme, not a recruitment device, and the candidates have been picked for their entertainment value, not business prowess.

As for the Sky/Amstrad thing, I must admit I have always gone with the view that Sky were picked over ITV by the smaller clubs to piss off the likes of David Dein who had got their cosy deal with ITV to show the bigger clubs more often and so get more TV revenue for the top sides, but I may check out that David Conn book; I have heard him interviewed a few times on Radio 5 and the like and he seems to know his stuff.

(An aside: When the “Big 5″ - Man Utd, Liverpool, Everton, Arsenal & Tottenham - were negotiating the television rights of the soon to be formed Premier League, ITV were hot favourites. Under Greg Dyke they’d already had the rights to top flight football, and all the Chairmen expected them to continue. A surprise occurred, when Mr Murdoch at newly formed Sky managed to deliver a last minute bid that beat ITV. I believe it was a sealed auction, and several attendees were suspicious of how Sky knew what ITV’s bid was. During the final stages of the bidding, the Tottenham Chairman - Alan Sugar - had left the room. He was the CEO of Amstrad, a firm that had an exclusive agreement to supply the satellite dishes required for Sky TV. If Sky didn’t win the bid, Amstrad would have gone under. The suggestion that Mr Sugar phoned Mr Murdoch to reveal the ITV bid, merging his roles as Tottenham Chairman and Amstrad CEO, is pretty convincing. For more, see this book.)
http://thefilter.blogs.com/thefilter/2005/12/kerry_packer_19.html

Incidently, I enjoy watching The Apprentice but aren’t impressed with any of the candidates. It seems there’s a massive selection bias - why would a geniunely capable and ambitious person apply to be on the show? Depsite Sugar’s puzzlement, I think they’ve got what they advertised for - self-confident knobheads