SpeculationThe speculation season has started in earnest for the British football press. With the domestic season over and the European Championships yet to begin, there is still a need for footy hacks to justify their bloated salaries and write stuff that sells newspapers. And they never let the truth get in the way of a good story – even if it was made up without checking any facts or even leaving the office.
Now don’t get me wrong, I’ve got nothing against factual, truthful reporting. I just can’t remember the last time I actually read any! If Newcastle United were to eventually sign all of the players we are supposedly linked with, we’d end up with a wage bill approaching the level of the national debt. So there must be a lot of crap reporting out there somewhere – it stands to reason.
The key to spotting made up stories is of course the lack of direct quotes. If it says “a source close to the player” or “a source close to the club” – lets face it, un-named, impossible to prove sources are reliable? I don’t think so. Treat all such stories with a pinch of salt. What makes matters worse is that a made up story by one journalist is then picked up and repeated ad-nauseum – and this is particularly easy since the advent of the Internet, it’s not just other publications repeating made up stories but online publications, blogs etc If you don’t believe me, check a news aggregator like Newsnow, pick a story and watch it get passed around and grow! (more…)
The Bensham Van Basten: Not for sale.News yesterday of a bid for one of our young, local lads – Andy Carroll – from Bolton Wanderers as their new manager Owen Coyle seeks to add numbers to squad in a bid to stave off relegation. A cheeky £2 million bid has said to have been lodged.
Andy Carroll has been an important player for us this season so far. Whilst he hasn’t exactly been prolific in front of goal, he has had the knack of unsettling the opposition defenders, perhaps allowing other players scoring opportunities by creating space, like for Lovenkrands on Wenesday evening.
With 4 goals in 18 appearances this season, Carroll is far from the finished article and has attracted his fair share of criticism from fans for an alleged altercation on a night out in Newcastle’s Blu Bamboo bar in the Bigg Market – a hotbead of chavs, slappers and sexually transmitted diseases – and that’s on top of another transgression a while back! I personally feel that if he can knuckle down and work on the mental aspect of his game off the pitch, and learn some composure in front of goal on the pitch, then we are better off keeping hold of him. Manager Chris Hughton seems to be thinking along the same lines, saying:
“They are wasting their time with Andy – He is not for sale!”(more…)
Grayson: "Furious" and "fuming" say the Mail.Yesterday, Goal.com claimed that 26 year old Toon hitman target, Jermaine Beckford, had “exclusively” revealed to them that:
“I’m off to Newcastle United.”
Beckford, 26, whose profile has soared since jabbing in an FA Cup goal to knock the mighty Manchester United out of the FA Cup, has allegedly been the subject of much horsetrading as Leeds United chairman, Ken Bates, seeks to raise as much money as he possibly can for the soon out of contract assassin, with Newcastle United seeming to be his most ardent suitors. Bates and Leeds will also have to divvy out a significant proportion of the agreed fee to Beckford’s previous club, Isthsmian League colossus, Wealdstone FC.
The situation has also been complicated, and the profile of the story raised further by Beckford announcing he had handed in a transfer request, with the Daily Mail helpfully using two of their favourite words, “furious” and “fuming” to describe Grayson’s state of mind on both indiscretions. (more…)
