Interesting article about everyone's favourite winker...

[ReddOrDedd]

From Football365:

 

 

How Journalism Works At Manchester United

First of all, let's begin by recounting the tale that was the centrepiece of Daniel Taylor's latest column for The Guardian. Despite the length, it's worth a read, so cut Mediawatch a little slack:

 

'First of all a little story to tell you what kind of man we are talking about. It is January 9, 2008, and in an upstairs room at Manchester United's training ground five elderly men in smart blazers are struggling with their emotions in front of a hushed audience. It is the club's media day building up to the 50th anniversary of the Munich air disaster and Sir Bobby Charlton's polite smile does not hide the fact he is trembling as he takes his seat. Bill Foulkes is straight-backed and dignified but only a couple of questions have been asked before the tears appear in his eyes and he reaches for a glass of water.

 

'In an adjacent room Wayne Rooney has agreed to offer a modern-day perspective of that seminal day when 23 people, including eight members of Sir Matt Busby's team, were killed in the wreckage of the burnt-out BEA Elizabethan. It is not his specialist subject but he handles the occasion with dignity and more eloquence than some people might imagine. But then Cristiano Ronaldo comes through the double doors and the mood is broken.

 

'He is wearing a white suit jacket and ripped jeans, looking every bit the boy-band hunk, but it is very obvious he is in a bad mood. He begins by berating Karen Shotbolt, the club's press officer, because he is waiting for Rooney and the event has over-run. He is banging his watch with his hand, flapping his arms and gesturing in the way that Portuguese footballers usually reserve for fussy referees and, at first, he is so animated it appears as if it might be a wind-up.

 

'When he flounces back through the doors, cursing loudly, it is very obvious he is being deadly serious. Rooney is professional enough to carry on with his tribute but the attention is no longer exclusively on him. Thirty seconds later Ronaldo appears again, first rapping his forefinger against the glass in the door, then opening it by a fraction and starting to whistle at Rooney in the way that a farmer beckons his sheepdog.

 

'It was such an unpleasant scene the journalists decided not to write about it because we had been invited to the training ground to cover a far more important subject and, when you have sat with men as noble as Charlton, Foulkes, Albert Scanlon, Harry Gregg and Kenny Morgans and seen the hurt in their eyes, it felt incongruous to veer off-track.'

 

It is a riveting and fascinating tale and one that has prompted a great deal of comment since it appeared in Saturday's edition.

 

But from Mediawatch's perspective, the interest lies not with the story itself but the newspaper's refusal to tell it until six months after the event. Taking responsibility for the censorship, Taylor depicts the decision as the only honourable option given that the assembled hacks 'had been invited to the training ground to cover a far more important subject'.

 

Rather than merely revealing the secrets of Ronaldo's behaviour, Taylor has instead confirmed what has long been suspected - namely, that journalists tend to toe a party line agreed between themselves and only spill the beans at a moment that is convenient to them. There's nothing particularly surprising in the disclosure but - in a story that is intent on depicting Ronaldo as a man not to be admired or trusted - it is ironic.

 

Not, of course, that Mediawatch is buying this 'we didn't publish because it would have been hurtful' guff. Journalists are, after all, not renowned for their delicacy or sensitivity. The suspicion must be that Taylor - and his chums - didn't publish the story through fear of repercussions. As The Guardian's man on the beat in Manchester, Taylor is reliant on staying in the club's good books in order to maintain access to their star names - such as Rooney, who, as you might have noticed, is depicted as the hero of the story, and Charlton, with whom he subsequently held an exclusive interview to mark the 50th anniversary of Munich.

 

It's worth remembering, too, that Taylor wrote a warts-and-all book on Sir Alex last year. According to some, Ferguson was less than pleased. Was staying quiet on Ronaldo the equivalent of a favour being returned? In any case, the belated (and highly convenient) decision to publish now is the clearest indication yet from inside Old Trafford that Ronaldo will be leaving the club. If the story wasn't published in January or beyond because it would have upset Manchester United, it's a Tuesday-follows-Monday certainty that Taylor has only published now in the knowledge that ManYoo no longer care if Ronaldo's character is discredited. Why? Because he's off and no longer their problem.

 

And in a scrub-my-back-and-I'll-scrub-yours world, look out for a Guardian exclusive bylined by Daniel Taylor with Rooney in a couple of months' time.

[Anny Road]

Stop the press ronaldo is a cunt.

 

And this is a Liverpool site.

 

 

I dont care

[ReddOrDedd]

Stop the press ronaldo is a cunt.

 

And this is a Liverpool site.

 

 

I dont care

 

 

Fair enough. You don't have to read it if you don't want to. It is clear from the title what it's about.

 

Personally, I think the destination of our most hated rivals' best player is relevant to LFC, and as this journalist suggests, Daniel Taylor's piece underlines that MUFC don't give a monkey's about him any more.

[23_Carra_Gold]

Fuck me what a cunt.

 

I think this underlines the difference between our club and theirs. Yes we have had some whoppers down through the years but never on this level, no player would be allowed to behave in this way at Liverpool Football Club.

 

Its reading things like this that makes me love Nando even more, yes he's an amazing talent ON the field but OFF it he carries himself with such class and respect that it's hard to do anything but love the lad. Yet that other whopper shows such utter disrespect to the club and the cunts that support the club still worship him. Could you imagine Nando turning up at Anfield on the 15th of April and causing a scene like this? Me neither.

 

Form is temporary, class is permanent and this CUNT has no class at all.

[KevieG]

Daniel Taylor has been badly exposed as being yet another spineless Ferguson lackey who reports what he is told to report. The article works on 2 levels because of this and his, and other journos, admiting the cover up only serves to prove something that everyone already knows

Edited June 25, 2008 by KevieG
link already posted

[RedinSweden]

All of that was pretty much said by forumites on the gayboy thread. I seem to remember Monty quoting a very excellent comment on the Guardian site itself.

[Bourbon]

They've not allowed that article to be released for nothing.

 

That is acutally a really spiteful thing to do; trying to turn a lot of people against him in context with Utd's tragedy and key moment in their history.

 

The smear campaign takes a harder edge but I still thnik Fergie is being his ususal dramatic self about it all; brings over gifted teen, lad grows into a star and over 5 years wins the lot, feels he wants a new stage nearer home, at a Club he always wanted to join, which in turn brings the club a huge profit which he can go back into the market with.

 

Big deal.

[ManxRed]

Its obviously a complete load of bollocks:

 

"he (Rooney) handles the occasion with dignity and more eloquence

[aws]

Interesting article even though we already knew he was a little cunt and the press are in ferguson's pocket.

[Section_31]

Spoiled little prancer.

 

You can't really blame the footy reporters for towing the line though, if you make your living by having insights into football clubs you're not going to fuck that up - and possibly your career - just by having one quality story which will be read and forgotten about in a day.

I'd be no different.

[Sponky]

Great insight into Ronaldo the Twat off the pitch! Man U have to be the most censored club around. The fact that they keep everything closed doors by bribing the media is an insight into both them and football in general. After Slur Alex's son being named by the BBC as a dodgy agent and Slur now not doing interviews with thee BBC anymore, it must have almost all journo's spinning only good PR Spin for the Mancs in fear of being locked out of old toilet.

 

Looks like they will hang him out to dry now. Horrible club, horrible player!

[Eiler]

So the mancs are despicable cunts and Ronaldo is a spoiled twat.

 

I'm shocked.

[Magellan06]

I think it does indeed show the difference between our two clubs, if he had done that at our club; great player or not I like to think he would have been through the door. It shows what bunch of hypocrites man u are in my opinion

[Bourbon]

Fuck it.

 

 

Buy him.

[jackofdk]

So one journo saw Ronaldo act in a certain way that may or may not have been cuntish. Big fucking deal.

 

I'm so fucking tired reading about that ponces every move in the media and it doesn't make too much sense to me that I have to read about it on here.

 

Except when Alvaro tries to piss off Rednose, of course.

[RobbieOR]

If th had been a small player like fletcher he wouldnt have let it go but because its Ronaldo,also it anr be true because the press wont write it about Manchester united because ferguson has them under a spell that they cant write anything about them.

[Guest Ulysses Everett McGill]

I think it does indeed show the difference between our two clubs, if he had done that at our club; great player or not I like to think he would have been through the door. It shows what bunch of hypocrites man u are in my opinion

 

Don't kid yourself

 

Just because something similar hasn't happened at Liverpool doesn't mean it couldn't happen.

 

We've had our fair share of cunts.

 

United can hush things up because they, like us, are one of the biggest clubs in England and Europe, and for a journalist not to toe the party line would be career suicide.

[elvis]

Don't kid yourself

 

Just because something similar hasn't happened at Liverpool doesn't mean it couldn't happen.

 

We've had our fair share of cunts.

 

United can hush things up because they, like us, are one of the biggest clubs in England and Europe, and for a journalist not to toe the party line would be career suicide.

 

They aren't really journos anymore though are they , i mean not writing about a subject due to fear of repurcussions is pretty pathetic.

[Kopite]

Daniel Taylor has been badly exposed as being yet another spineless Ferguson lackey who reports what he is told to report. The article works on 2 levels because of this and his, and other journos, admiting the cover up only serves to prove something that everyone already knows

 

Precisely. He's the one who monitors Liverpool forum's before we meet the Mancs and then tells his readers that evil Liverpool fans want to kill Gary Neville.

 

Seriously, he picked up on a joke comment on TTWAR and made a huge deal of it before the FA Cup tie 2 seasons ago. One of the posters joked about hanging Gary Neville. In Taylor's piece he used this as evidence of how vile & sick Liverpool fans are when it was a clearly joke.

[Guest Ulysses Everett McGill]

[/b]

 

They aren't really journos anymore though are they , i mean not writing about a subject due to fear of repurcussions is pretty pathetic.

 

Agreed

 

But it's been the case for years

 

Hence the reason no one ever pulled Mourinho whenever he trotted out the "ghost goal" line about Cech being sent off and a penalty awarded, that and a myraid of other things, like when he told a complete fucking lie about the Ambulance service when Cech had his bad injury.

 

Look at the behaviour of Ferguson over Real Madrid with Ronaldo, "No Morals" don't make me laugh you two faced, champagne socialite, bitter, horrible, duplicitous old Twat.

 

Never tapped a player up yourself have you?

 

And yet, no one pull's him on it.

[redrosetints]

And coincidentally, it suits Uniteds agenda again, that this is released now, since it looks like he wants to Foxtrot oscar. Even Footie 365 are playing the game....

[bossy]

Covering wars is brave, covering a football club and not reporting something relevant is cowardice.

[navbasi]

Spoiled little prancer.

 

You can't really blame the footy reporters for towing the line though, if you make your living by having insights into football clubs you're not going to fuck that up - and possibly your career - just by having one quality story which will be read and forgotten about in a day.

I'd be no different.

 

That's right... just ask Bascombe what happenes when you don't toe the line...

[Catch22]

Unfortunately it's what people want or at least show that they want thru their buying preferences.

 

Easily the best articles on sports in UK are in the Racing Post which does independent research on a sporting topic & then reports it.

It doesn't generally cover celebrity style interviews & so doesn't need to play the PR game.

 

Moreover it is looking for value in a market, which most obviously comes when a perceived wisdom (& hence betting pattern) is incorrect.

 

Good example was during all the nonsense about rotation led by Sky & reported religously by the broadsheets, Kevin Pullein actually went & did independant research to show Rafa didn't rotate any more than Chavs or Mancs at all.

Another is bothering to analyise European results (either forever or over a more recent timeframe) to see which 1st leg scores are actually better than others with respect to the quirks of the away goals rule (what percentage of the time does a team go thru after its 1st leg result being 0-0,1-0,1-1, etc)

 

Football is less easily anaylised statistically than US sports or cricket but it is this analyitical approach the broadsheets (& BBC) should be following (given that the Racing Post is not primarilly concerned with football), not relying on stupid ex-pros nor the PR crap Daniel Taylor has written above

(I know Pullein does now do a weekly Guardian piece but is still dwarfed by shite like above).

[Scouse_Datcha]

Shrek on holliday :