Possibly because he was on the sauce!
Thinking, I had the impression that it was cost-cutting, and the Indie cut about 7 old hands as the paper struggles. It may well have been sudden. Even now they have a shockingly bad website (covered in rag propaganda), and while the smarmy Wallace has jumped ship to the Torygraph, the rag apologist Herbert is now Chief Sports Writer (heavenhelpus).
The best thing they have going for them is that they employ Jack Pitt-Brooke, who, when he was still a student, used to do the excellent City blog 'The Lonesome Death of Roy Carroll'. He seems to be quite highly rated in the industry - at least, he's won Young Sports Writer at the SJA awards:
http://www.pressgazette.co.uk/daily-mail-wins-top-prizes-sports-journalism-awards
He seems to have a little bit more prominence now, as well, now that Wallace has gone. He's on the London beat, though, so doesn't write much about us. Would be nice if that changed one day.
However, I'm sure any ideas of Rag bias through most of the Indy's football writers will be eased by this little gem Herbert tweeted just under a month ago:
ian herbert @ianherbs Sep 29
Delighted that
@MOgdenTelegraph is to be the new Chief Football Correspondent at The Independent. A brilliant appointment for us
On a personal level, that is a story I can identify with, having had to rebuild my life (in very different terms) a few years ago (of which I think you're aware) and I certainly wish him no ill, personally.
Professionally, however, he is a fucking disgrace. There were numerous journalists who wrote about us in entirely disrespectful terms in the years following the takeover. They described us as arriviste imposters who simply did not belong at the top of English football, and never would. This doesn't just disrespect Manchester City, but defames any club outside the established elite and those who follow them. James Lawton was the apotheosis of this. This was in no small part due to his pontificating tone, and was brought into much sharper relief by his nauseating obsequiousness towards the Govan bully, a man who managed a club that was, and is, the very embodiment of the naked corporatism within the modern game which Lawton professes to so despise. This makes Lawton a hypocrite, a snob and a toady in equal measure - among the very worst kind of people in my book.
I wish him every success in his recovery, but do not want his turgid offerings inflicted upon me, thank you very much.
I can't devote the time to answering this post that it deserves, but it's an interesting issue. I agree with you that some of the reporting that followed the takeover was shocking in its bilious intensity. One journalist, I remember, seemed to have an agenda against Mancini as well and produced a series of particularly nasty, sneering pieces. It was Mike Calvin of The Independent, then writing a column for the Sunday Mirror (I think). I remember being totally outraged. But he's written three boooks on football in the last few years and they're excellent and insightful. I bought the first based on reviews I'd seen but rather reluctantly; however, I'd now read any book he chose to publish. He still writes stuff about us now that make my hackles rise (not quite as vituperative), though he'll debate with you pleasantly and civilly enough on Twitter if you show those qualities when engaging him. (He thinks City fans are "thin-skinned" in terms of our attitude to criticism aimed at us post-takeover, as well.)
I thought Lawton, irrespective of anything else he's written, would be excellent on our team of the sixties and seventies. He was Malcolm Allison's ghostwriter, apart from anything else, so was very close to the action at Maine Road in those days and writes with genuine affection for that team. I bought the book on the strength of an assumption that this would be the case.
I guess what I'm saying is that if I think someone can produce stuff I'll find enriching, as both these guys have done with their books, I'm quite happy to set aside the fact that they wrote things that I didn't like, in a way that I didn't like, about City.
If you don't like Lawton's writing style, then that's fair enough. I know plenty of people who don't. But I do think it's a great fit for the book he's produced now, and I'm very glad I read it.
