Football is a ruthless game – or a £4 billion business – as Week Four of The Apprentice showed.
Siobhan Smith was fired after just one week managing Team Graphene, paying a high price when the girls lost at Wembley Stadium in a task played on the occasion of the Women’s Cup Final.
‘We woz robbed !’ the wedding planner said as she left the series in the taxi home. Or would have at least – if Siobhan had researched the right vernacular on Match Of The Day.
Eliminated: Siobhan Smith was fired after just one week managing Team Graphene, paying a high price when the girls lost at Wembley Stadium in a task played on the occasion of the Women’s Cup Final
Gary Lineker and the pundits could probably have argued over the episode’s result as much as any controversial contest on most Saturday evenings.
After three consecutive defeats in the 2017 season, the boys’ team finally scored their first win over the girls’.
Vitality beat Graphene but it was another unconvincing performance by the lads – gifted to them really by an own goal (by Siobhan).
Delighted: After three consecutive defeats in the 2017 season, the boys’ team finally scored their first win over the girls’
Plenty to smile about: The boys couldn’t contain their delight on Thursday evening
The MOTD experts and the viewers could have debated whether the Graphene’s leader had committed an elementary blunder (a classic ‘schoolboy error’) or had been unfortunate to get a red card from referee Lord Alan Sugar.
After all, unusually on this show, she had lost despite having the happiest clients, and the most professional performance.
‘The customer is always right’ they say in business. We all know that’s the Golden Rule – or thought it was, after twelve series watching The Apprentice.
Here it transpired in fact, before this the priority is being sure who your client actually is.
Losing side: Vitality beat Graphene but it was another unconvincing performance by the lads – gifted to them really by an own goal (by Siobhan)
As Lord Sugar reminded Siobhan (before he fired her), he was.
This week’s task required the candidates to run a confectionary stall and provide the entertainment/catering in a corporate hospitality box for 14 guests watching the Women’s Cup Final.
Siobhan’s Team Graphene even won the battle of the popcorn versus candy-floss – making £352.80p to the boys’ meagre £222.50.
Sweet deal: This week’s task required the candidates to run a confectionary stall and provide the entertainment/catering in a corporate hospitality box for 14 guests watching the Women’s Cup Final
Graphene’s clients in the hospitality box were clearly happier too but her expenditure, and the boys’ lack of expenditure (and hospitality) gave Vitality enough profit to win the task.
So it was a largely undeserved success. Harrison Jones’ Man Of The Match performance for Vitality was based on the quality of his singing in the shower rather than any business skills he contributed.
Siobhan’s extravagance meant Team Leader Andrew Brady escaped with the red card offence of needing to buy more booze for his clients from Wembley Stadium’s (exorbitantly over-priced) bar – rather than a wholesaler or supermarket.
Profit: Siobhan’s Team Graphene even won the battle of the popcorn versus candy-floss – making £352.80p to the boys’ meagre £222.50
Siobhan on the other hand had stocked up on 21 bottles of wine, meaning the clients in her box were all merrily plastered while Vitality’s guests were all hungry, dying for a drink, and stuck listening to Harrison murdering My Way.
Siobhan had demonstrated she had understood the main element when it came to catering to corporate fans at this type of event: i.e. alcohol. A) it was hospitality and B) it was football.
Ironically this also proved to be the cause of her downfall.
Not complaining: Graphene’s clients in the hospitality box were clearly happier too but her expenditure, and the boys’ lack of expenditure (and hospitality) gave Vitality enough profit to win the task
She spent so much on it she didn’t make enough profit.
Siobhan thereby became one of the few losing team leaders to exit from The Apprentice with her reputation strangely enhanced and probably in a position to put her prices UP when she returned to running her own business (as a wedding planner).
‘Client satisfaction is key to me,’ she said in the taxi, unbowed. ‘My clients saying Thank You means more to me than money sometimes.’
Siobhan Smith may have failed as a candidate on The Apprentice but she could well become an icon of the Events industry.
You’re fired: Alan Sugar wielded the axe yet again on Wednesday evening