it doesn't excuse the misrepresentation of us though, for example in terms of our spending, wage bill and FFP etc.
Why doesn't DT come out tomorrow and write a positive article, saying that actually we've been responsible financially for the past several seasons, that FFP is complete bollocks and look how clubs like United are completely battering the market and outspending us?
It's alright for him to say it to you, but until he has the balls to put it in a national paper regularly and force the standards of the press up by aligning with the fairer journalists to put pressure on the gutter press, like the guy who put a back page of us as cheats the other week despite it being proved otherwise 2 days later, until the big crap stops being spouted, and the huge lies printed about us, then all the slight criticisms are going to rile us as well, because if you're going to allow people to lie about us in the national press, and not being strong in defending us when we deserve to be, then we're going to take the stance that you want to do us down, and that will manifest itself in people picking on every little detail, because they don't trust you anymore.
So Daniel Taylor, if you truly believe what you told Ric, take a leaf out of Martin Samuel's book and write about it, and set a fair press standard that puts pressure on those who call us cheats and lie about us, and force them through peer pressure to at least be fair. If you want to criticise the club over the handling of Lampard, or over the Mangala fee, fine, if you have the evidence to support you. But for us to be labelled "FFP dodgers", is inexcusable and a leading journalist like yourself should not accept your peers damaging your industry's reputation by it. So print about us fairly, defend us when your disreputable colleagues lie about us and not only may your industry change for the better, but you'll get a lot more respect for it.
We don't want to see you slag off United either, and be biased in the other way. I think simply, the main bone of contention is that if you're going to criticise us for things, then you should equally do so when United do it worse (i.e. excessive spending, high wage bills, based in the Cayman Islands, lots of debt). It's the complete unfairness of slamming City for something, then not clubs who have done it worse, or just plain lying about us (not a claim against you personally) that riles City fans, and you and your peers who claim, as you do in the interview, to be fair and honest and have those views, should do more to make sure your profession is, well professionally, in its reporting towards all teams, including City.
