Media discussion - 2025/26

[Micky Blue]

These are some direct quotes from the article, which the Fail tried to hide behind a paywall, as if anyone would pay to read the bile this **** comes out with. It's not journalism, just pure hate!

their success has been built on systematic financial deceit – cheating, to you or me

their success has been built on Abu Dhabi pumping in vast wads of petrol dollars disguised as sponsorship cash.

115 charges against them.

Puma... despite its largesse, the German sportswear company certainly needs all the help it can get, four months after a 23 per cent drop in its share price

hit with a punishment on those charges of financial chicanery.

(Puma) have been rewarded very handsomely by the Abu Dhabi state.

if City were found guilty of what would be one of the most significant episodes of financial deceit in football history

the spending goes merrily on and the printable version of the message from the club and their sponsors is: ‘Sod you.

Surely some of them quotes (especially the one about cheating) is libellous.

 

[Ribble73]

These are some direct quotes from the article, which the Fail tried to hide behind a paywall, as if anyone would pay to read the bile this **** comes out with. It's not journalism, just pure hate!

their success has been built on systematic financial deceit – cheating, to you or me

their success has been built on Abu Dhabi pumping in vast wads of petrol dollars disguised as sponsorship cash.

115 charges against them.

Puma... despite its largesse, the German sportswear company certainly needs all the help it can get, four months after a 23 per cent drop in its share price

hit with a punishment on those charges of financial chicanery.

(Puma) have been rewarded very handsomely by the Abu Dhabi state.

if City were found guilty of what would be one of the most significant episodes of financial deceit in football history

the spending goes merrily on and the printable version of the message from the club and their sponsors is: ‘Sod you.

The Guy should be sectioned

 

[r.soleofsalford]

These are some direct quotes from the article, which the Fail tried to hide behind a paywall, as if anyone would pay to read the bile this **** comes out with. It's not journalism, just pure hate!

their success has been built on systematic financial deceit – cheating, to you or me

their success has been built on Abu Dhabi pumping in vast wads of petrol dollars disguised as sponsorship cash.

115 charges against them.

Puma... despite its largesse, the German sportswear company certainly needs all the help it can get, four months after a 23 per cent drop in its share price

hit with a punishment on those charges of financial chicanery.

(Puma) have been rewarded very handsomely by the Abu Dhabi state.

if City were found guilty of what would be one of the most significant episodes of financial deceit in football history

the spending goes merrily on and the printable version of the message from the club and their sponsors is: ‘Sod you.

I’d love to put my fist down this gobshite throat

 

[Micky Blue]

And while one section of the media are out attacking us again, another section are putting up defences for the old cartel.

Can you imagine the BBC solely dedicating an article to defending our spending? And yet here they are......

Alexander Isak: How can Liverpool afford Newcastle striker?

Liverpool have spent more than £170m on players this summer and are rumoured to be interested in Newcastle striker Alexander Isak.

www.bbc.co.uk

I thought exactly the same mate.

It’s a complete disgrace.

 

[Blue Mist]

"We Hate It When Our Friends....." used for Manchester City fans video

The Manchester City fans group The 1894 have produced this video celebrating City winning the Premier League, FA Cup and Champions League last season using Morrissey's song as a humourous backing track with relevant pictures accompanying each line. Morrissey may (or may not) not be amused but...

www.morrissey-solo.com

I've never understood why that isn't sung at every match.
Full credit to @1894mancity for a brilliant video.

 

[Fat Larrys Band]

I thought,I would read 19 pages, just to bring me up to speed.
The missus doesn't like football but loves Haaland., so with all the ladies football, cricket, F1 to and Wimbledon on the telly she has been pissed off, to say the least.

So to keep the peace, I suggested the Vikings (at least one Haaland look a like, per episode.
We have just got to series 6, must be at least 70 episodes, so far.

At least once a night, I say who is that, even though they are a main character. The fuckers keep getting their haircut. They moved all over the place and now have dragged religion, into it, so far Viking gods, Christianity, Islam, Buddhism and a bog standard cult.

Series 6 will hopefully explain, who is Sam Lee and why people give a fuck about him?
Hopefully Haaland will put him to the sword.

No spoilers please...

 

[halfcenturyup]

Series 6 will hopefully explain, who is Sam Lee and why people give a fuck about him?
Hopefully Haaland will put him to the sword.

No spoilers please...

Sorry. Can't tell you right now. I'm fucking nuts.

I'll tell you when I'm finished, though.

 

[Marvin.]

And while one section of the media are out attacking us again, another section are putting up defences for the old cartel.

Can you imagine the BBC solely dedicating an article to defending our spending? And yet here they are......

Alexander Isak: How can Liverpool afford Newcastle striker?

Liverpool have spent more than £170m on players this summer and are rumoured to be interested in Newcastle striker Alexander Isak.

www.bbc.co.uk

This is what you expect from a party political broadcast.

I suspect they've used gross spending to portray Liverpool's spending in the best possible light because the natural metric to compare transfer spending is net.

 

[halfcenturyup]

This is what you expect from a party political broadcast.

I suspect they've used gross spending to portray Liverpool's spending in the best possible light because the natural metric to compare transfer spending is net.

It simply depends on what you are trying to prove.

 

[moomba]

The Herbert blinking back the tears over the Puma deal, behind a pay wall in the Fail. If anyone fancies delving deeper in respect of the content, crack on, cos I'm fecked if I'm going to......

It's funny, almost identical to the one he wrote when Haaland signed his extension.

To paraphrase the content.

Waaaaaaaaaaaaah waaaaaaaah, it's not fair.

 

[Marvin.]

It simply depends on what you are trying to prove.

Through the article they use a net basis to consider Liverpool's recent transfer spending, and then when they move from considering Liverpool's spending over time to Liverpool's spending vs other clubs, they change the basis to gross, so any reader who reads this, will ask the question why they did that. A review asking 'How Liverpool can afford Isak after spending so much?' should be objective. This looks sneaky.

We all know that Liverpool's transfer spending and their profitability allows them to be profligate in one window and the BBC can simply say this, and evidence it, but I don't like the way they report other clubs, and the way they report MCFC. It's inconsistent.

 

[johnny crossan]

I thought exactly the same mate.

It’s a complete disgrace.

I'm asking Radio 4 More or Less to have a look at BBC Sport stats manipulation in that puff piece and the obscene volume of their articles overtly chasing Red shirt clicks including the negative ones about us.

 

[Heath Park]

And while one section of the media are out attacking us again, another section are putting up defences for the old cartel.

Can you imagine the BBC solely dedicating an article to defending our spending? And yet here they are......

Alexander Isak: How can Liverpool afford Newcastle striker?

Liverpool have spent more than £170m on players this summer and are rumoured to be interested in Newcastle striker Alexander Isak.

www.bbc.co.uk

Saw that...
Completely bonkers!

 

[Centurions]

I haven't seen the whole article but that quote (if accurate) is certainly defamatory. If City or Puma sued then the publisher would have to prove it was true. I suspect, even if it was true, it would be impossible to prove. A bit of a slam dunk case actually.

Not read it yet myself but the archived version is here:-

https://archive.ph/6unFX

 

[manimanc]

OK here's a draft - suggestions for improvement and other comments welcome

Hi Tim,

Probably a tricky subject but an old chestnut for football fans like me who don't happen to support those two redshirt clubs who get such overwhelming coverage on the BBC Sport website and via its contributions shown in the wider network. This includes an overwhelmingly negative coverage of their PL rivals - which also generate lots of clicks by the same target audience. Nothing new really, the US-owned client media of the US-owned clubs controlling the PL (now an increased majority) have been doing the same for over a decade. Ever since the nouveau rich started to challenge their revenue streams - which is of course the whole point of the exercise.

The surprise is that our public broadcaster has joined in with such increasing enthusiasm and some suggest the long tern banning by Man City of its Sports editor Dan Roan back in 2018 could be a major factor!

Anyway my request is that maybe you can look at their article yesterday seeking to justify Liverpool's current splurge in the transfer market. It's exactly the opposite of their standard reaction to any lavish spending by the likes of Chelsea, Man City or Newcastle. The authors switch between timeframes and net/gross spending stats to produce a very misleading picture and this is reflected in the many critical comments. I believe an accurate table showing the true position they are trying to explain away is given here.

If you could do a simple count of the huge volume of articles about Liverpool & Manchester United (Simon Stone is both their United correspondent & also their Chief Football Writer btw) I'm pretty sure it would demonstrate the unbalanced coverage these two teams get.

Best Wishes,

That was good to read, good luck getting a proper response that actually relates to your query.

Just one little detail to change. You spelt 'term' ending with an n.

:)

 

[Big mals fedora]

That was good to read, good luck getting a proper response that actually relates to your query.

Just one little detail to change. You spelt 'term' ending with an n.

:)

My mate , Blue Jay, would agree
(Bit deep that one, well done to anyone who gets it( :-)

 

[chesterbells]

These are some direct quotes from the article, which the Fail tried to hide behind a paywall, as if anyone would pay to read the bile this **** comes out with. It's not journalism, just pure hate!

their success has been built on systematic financial deceit – cheating, to you or me

their success has been built on Abu Dhabi pumping in vast wads of petrol dollars disguised as sponsorship cash.

115 charges against them.

Puma... despite its largesse, the German sportswear company certainly needs all the help it can get, four months after a 23 per cent drop in its share price

hit with a punishment on those charges of financial chicanery.

(Puma) have been rewarded very handsomely by the Abu Dhabi state.

if City were found guilty of what would be one of the most significant episodes of financial deceit in football history

the spending goes merrily on and the printable version of the message from the club and their sponsors is: ‘Sod you.

Perhaps bizarrely, it’s always the references to petrol or petrol dollar, or oil money that trigger me slightly rather than anything else they write.
I mean what is that about? It’s not an article from Greenpeace or from some climate change organisation. I don’t recall references to gas money about Chelsea in the past. Oil, petrol, gas, nuclear, chemical it’s of zero relevance. Isn’t it?

I’m now annoyed I’ve been significantly triggered to spend my time writing this (!)

 

[mayo31]

Herbert wants City to go after him

It would be his last day in the sun, he would attempt to come across as the lonely journalist just doing his job

Fuck him and let him fester in his shite excuse of a life. Just look at him, he looks like he does crack

 

[johnny crossan]

I'm asking Radio 4 More or Less to have a look at BBC Sport stats manipulation in that puff piece and the obscene volume of their articles overtly chasing Red shirt clicks including the negative ones about us.

letter sent as below - not much chance, he's probably a dipper or a rag. (EDIT probably not)

Hi Tim,

Probably a tricky subject but an old chestnut for football fans like me who don't happen to support those two huge northern redshirt clubs who get such overwhelming coverage on the BBC website and via its contributions shown in the wider network. This includes the overwhelmingly negative coverage of their PL rivals - which also generate lots of clicks from the same target audience. Nothing new really, the US-owned client media of the US-owned clubs controlling the PL (now an increased majority) have been doing the same for over a decade. Ever since the nouveau rich started to challenge for the established top 4's revenue streams - which is of course the whole point of the exercise.

The surprise is that our public broadcaster has joined in over that period with increasing enthusiasm and some suggest the long-term banning by Man City of its Sports Editor Dan Roan back in 2018 could be a major factor!

Anyway, my request is that your programme could look at their article yesterday which seeks to justify Liverpool's current splurge in the transfer market. It's exactly the opposite of their standard reaction to any lavish spending by the likes of Chelsea, Man City or Newcastle. The authors switch between timeframes and net/gross spending stats to produce a wholly misleading picture and this is reflected in many of the critical comments at the end of the piece. I believe an accurate table showing the true position they're trying to explain away is given here but there are many other independent sources too.

If you calculate the % of articles written over recent years about Liverpool & Manchester United (Simon Stone is both their United correspondent & also their Chief Football Writer btw) I'm pretty sure it would also demonstrate the blatantly unbalanced coverage these two teams get.

Best Wishes,

 

[Bodicoteblue]

letter sent as below - not much chance, he's probably a dipper or a rag. (EDIT probably not)

Hi Tim,

Probably a tricky subject but an old chestnut for football fans like me who don't happen to support those two huge northern redshirt clubs who get such overwhelming coverage on the BBC website and via its contributions shown in the wider network. This includes the overwhelmingly negative coverage of their PL rivals - which also generate lots of clicks from the same target audience. Nothing new really, the US-owned client media of the US-owned clubs controlling the PL (now an increased majority) have been doing the same for over a decade. Ever since the nouveau rich started to challenge for the established top 4's revenue streams - which is of course the whole point of the exercise.

The surprise is that our public broadcaster has joined in over that period with increasing enthusiasm and some suggest the long-term banning by Man City of its Sports Editor Dan Roan back in 2018 could be a major factor!

Anyway, my request is that your programme could look at their article yesterday which seeks to justify Liverpool's current splurge in the transfer market. It's exactly the opposite of their standard reaction to any lavish spending by the likes of Chelsea, Man City or Newcastle. The authors switch between timeframes and net/gross spending stats to produce a wholly misleading picture and this is reflected in many of the critical comments at the end of the piece. I believe an accurate table showing the true position they're trying to explain away is given here but there are many other independent sources too.

If you calculate the % of articles written over recent years about Liverpool & Manchester United (Simon Stone is both their United correspondent & also their Chief Football Writer btw) I'm pretty sure it would also demonstrate the blatantly unbalanced coverage these two teams get.

Best Wishes,

This is grossly inaccurate.
I don’t believe for one second that your wishes for them are the best!