You couldn't make it up part 478. Throwaway comments by Dale Chairman Chris Dunphy about the recent Man City takeover have been picked up by certain quarters of the media and are now the main headline on an Arabian business website.
Dale supremo Chris Dunphy did an interview with the Guardian newspaper a couple of weeks ago, and perhaps understandably he was asked his thoughts on the recent Man City takeover with the newspaper going for the Princes v Paupers angle.
Amongst other things in the interview, they reported the following comments from the Dale chairman with regards to the City takeover:
"I'm always amazed – I wonder at the reasons why they do it, I can't understand the guys who have just bought Manchester City for however much it is – surely they don't expect to have a trading profit on the company?
"If someone was buying a club for immortality, for recognition, why don't they buy a club like Rochdale? Because for four or five million pounds they could take us up the leagues and have almost guaranteed immortality, if only in a small circle. I think these people have different motives, and to be honest I just don't understand what they are."
Tongue in cheek or not, the comments have been picked up and any Dale fan waking up on Tuesday to their pre-breakfast read of ArabianBusiness.com (as we all do) would have spat their cornflakes all over their computer screen to see Dale as the main headline on the website.
The full story can be read by clicking on the image below which shows our place at the top of the Arab world.