That was the BBC headline after the Liverpool manager's post-match interview. I listened to the interview just in case, but fortunately he said nothing of the sort.
Not only would that have surpassed Robinho's belief that he was signing for another team, it would have been the final nail in the coffin of every die-hard Liverpool fan.
Sunday, January 17, 2010
Tuesday, January 12, 2010
The art of innuendo
I know nothing about Robbie Savage apart from the comments that are usually made about his behaviour by self-righteous hacks, so when I saw the headline “Savage fury at criticism of Rams staff” and “Savage fury at criticism of Derby coaching staff” I was interested to hear him speak. Neither do I know anything about the journalist (Colin Gibson maybe, but I didn’t catch the name) so both contestants started off fair and square.
The headline suggested that there would be screaming and abusive language and possibly sounds of violence being done to the journalist. Certainly there was the suggestion of the footballer going postal on the journalist, and yet he came across as quite a reasonable person.
I know nothing about Derby's and Savage's performances this season because I don't follow the club, but I do know that journalists rely on rumour-mongering and sly suggestiveness and petty innuendo to sell newspapers/radio shows and the initial reaction from that journalist (before he rallied later in the interview in the face of Savage’s calmness) proved that he knew that he had been caught out.
And the unintelligent – and just plain wrong – BBC headlines simply underline Savage's point, that journalists use whatever rubbish they want to grab people's attention. Fair play to Savage (and Lampard before him) for challenging the mediocre innuendo-merchants who poison the game.
The headline suggested that there would be screaming and abusive language and possibly sounds of violence being done to the journalist. Certainly there was the suggestion of the footballer going postal on the journalist, and yet he came across as quite a reasonable person.
I know nothing about Derby's and Savage's performances this season because I don't follow the club, but I do know that journalists rely on rumour-mongering and sly suggestiveness and petty innuendo to sell newspapers/radio shows and the initial reaction from that journalist (before he rallied later in the interview in the face of Savage’s calmness) proved that he knew that he had been caught out.
And the unintelligent – and just plain wrong – BBC headlines simply underline Savage's point, that journalists use whatever rubbish they want to grab people's attention. Fair play to Savage (and Lampard before him) for challenging the mediocre innuendo-merchants who poison the game.
Monday, January 11, 2010
The spoilt child
Arsène Wenger has a history of making surprising statements, but during the last few weeks he has surpassed himself. On Christmas Day the Arsenal website published a quote about Stoke City’s Rory Delap which ran as follows:
“For example at Stoke, for Rory Delap it is like kicking the ball. It is a little bit of an unfair advantage. He is using a strength that is usually not a strength in football. So [the rule I would change would be] maybe to play throw-ins by foot.”
This would be the same as saying that passing should be outlawed because Xavi passes the ball with a far superior accuracy, or that shooting should be against the rules because Torres is lethal in front of goal. Of course, that isn’t the problem. As one popular BBC journalist put it, “Is it me or is he basing this on the fact that the Gunners haven’t got a player who can lob it into the penalty area?”
When a number of matches were postponed because of the extreme weather conditions last week Mr Wenger was back on his high horse. One part of his complaint ran like this:
“The question you can ask is, for the fairness of the Premier League, if there are two or three games postponed, should the whole day be re-scheduled? Because if you play one team now who fights not to go down, and you play them again in May when they are already safe or already down, it is not the same game.”
As any fan knows, the essential characteristic of a league is that it is a marathon not a sprint, so one game should not make that much difference – unless you are in the habit of dropping points to clubs in the bottom three that your main title rivals thrash. The difference in matches played may be important in countries where there is a strict schedule and every team has always played the same number of games (for example France and Spain), but in England there can be as many as three games in hand for some clubs over some others (right now, for Bolton over Manchester United and Birmingham) and nobody has complained up until now. It all sorts itself out in the end. And quite how cancelling even more matches benefits the game is quite beyond logic.
However, without doubt the worst part of the Arsenal Manager’s complaint was the following:
“Personally I know only the inside of the stadiums - I don't know the surroundings well enough, but I must say it is the price we pay for living in a society where everybody wants 100 per cent security. Nobody accepts any risk any more and everybody is always guided by fear. If one of 60,000 people has an accident, you feel very guilty and nobody accepts any more that the slightest insecurity could exist in our society and that is why the games are postponed when there is no real need for it.”
These were the worst weather conditions in England for many decades and the authorities were urging people to stay at home and only make trips that were absolutely necessary – football is not necessary. It is an irrelevant bagatelle when placed opposite the loss of life or serious injury. Mr Wenger lives in a privileged ivory tower, far removed from the realities of the person in the (icy) street and has the arrogance to assume that we should be obliged to leave our houses just to watch his prancing ponies.
There is no reason to wonder why most of his players behave like petulant children – their manager is a spoilt brat and is fast losing any credibility he once had.
“For example at Stoke, for Rory Delap it is like kicking the ball. It is a little bit of an unfair advantage. He is using a strength that is usually not a strength in football. So [the rule I would change would be] maybe to play throw-ins by foot.”
This would be the same as saying that passing should be outlawed because Xavi passes the ball with a far superior accuracy, or that shooting should be against the rules because Torres is lethal in front of goal. Of course, that isn’t the problem. As one popular BBC journalist put it, “Is it me or is he basing this on the fact that the Gunners haven’t got a player who can lob it into the penalty area?”
When a number of matches were postponed because of the extreme weather conditions last week Mr Wenger was back on his high horse. One part of his complaint ran like this:
“The question you can ask is, for the fairness of the Premier League, if there are two or three games postponed, should the whole day be re-scheduled? Because if you play one team now who fights not to go down, and you play them again in May when they are already safe or already down, it is not the same game.”
As any fan knows, the essential characteristic of a league is that it is a marathon not a sprint, so one game should not make that much difference – unless you are in the habit of dropping points to clubs in the bottom three that your main title rivals thrash. The difference in matches played may be important in countries where there is a strict schedule and every team has always played the same number of games (for example France and Spain), but in England there can be as many as three games in hand for some clubs over some others (right now, for Bolton over Manchester United and Birmingham) and nobody has complained up until now. It all sorts itself out in the end. And quite how cancelling even more matches benefits the game is quite beyond logic.
However, without doubt the worst part of the Arsenal Manager’s complaint was the following:
“Personally I know only the inside of the stadiums - I don't know the surroundings well enough, but I must say it is the price we pay for living in a society where everybody wants 100 per cent security. Nobody accepts any risk any more and everybody is always guided by fear. If one of 60,000 people has an accident, you feel very guilty and nobody accepts any more that the slightest insecurity could exist in our society and that is why the games are postponed when there is no real need for it.”
These were the worst weather conditions in England for many decades and the authorities were urging people to stay at home and only make trips that were absolutely necessary – football is not necessary. It is an irrelevant bagatelle when placed opposite the loss of life or serious injury. Mr Wenger lives in a privileged ivory tower, far removed from the realities of the person in the (icy) street and has the arrogance to assume that we should be obliged to leave our houses just to watch his prancing ponies.
There is no reason to wonder why most of his players behave like petulant children – their manager is a spoilt brat and is fast losing any credibility he once had.
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