Manchester Evening News

[Bill]

Overreaction of the year this.

Shite article. Move on.

Yet another one that doesn't get it.

The article IS shite but the real issue here is why was it allowed to go to print?

Nobody from the muen has come out and answered that question.

What was their motive?

 

[Chris in London]

Overreaction of the year this.

Shite article. Move on.

Yet another one that doesn't get it.

The article IS shite but the real issue here is why was it allowed to go to print?

Nobody from the muen has come out and answered that question.

What was their motive?

In fairness Bill, Stewart Brennon did answer it. The answer seemed to be "any old shite written by half wits gets published in the MEN these days".

Not the best advert for the paper, perhaps, but there you go, fair play to him for coming on.

 

[lust overlord]

Overreaction of the year this.

Shite article. Move on.

Yet another one that doesn't get it.

The article IS shite but the real issue here is why was it allowed to go to print?

Nobody from the muen has come out and answered that question.

What was their motive?

There is no motive,apart from selling papers,or getting clicks.
Why would they openly admit to incompetence?
It's obvious,they can't even spell the club's stadium correctly.

 

[BringBackSwales]

Overreaction of the year this.

Shite article. Move on.

Yet another one that doesn't get it.

The article IS shite but the real issue here is why was it allowed to go to print?

Nobody from the muen has come out and answered that question.

What was their motive?

I don't get the bit about fair play to sb for coming on here. That is part of his job, and frankly I thought the tone of his posts was arrogant, there was no hint of an apology on behalf of the "newspaper" in which he is supposed to represent our club, and from the posts I saw not even an acceptance that his "newspaper" had done something very wrong here. I would not applaud him for this myself
In fairness Bill, Stewart Brennon did answer it. The answer seemed to be "any old shite written by half wits gets published in the MEN these days".

Not the best advert for the paper, perhaps, but there you go, fair play to him for coming on.

 

[gordondaviesmoustache]

Not just restricted to footballing matters, can anyone conceive of any local newspaper up and down the land printing an article trying to question the efficacy of a substantial investment in their local area and the creation of a significant number of jobs for people within their readership? Or even going as far as putting a case against such an investment?

It simply would never happen because of the way their journalists are conditioned to think about such things. The fact that an MEN reporter did not think along those lines in this instance seems to say a great deal about the prevailing culture within that publication towards City.

 

[tonea2003]

Not just restricted to footballing matters, can anyone conceive of any local newspaper up and down the land printing an article trying to question the efficacy of a substantial investment in their local area and the creation of a significant number of jobs for people within their readership? Or even going as far as putting a case against such an investment?

It simply would never happen because of the way their journalists are conditioned to think about such things. The fact that an MEN reporter did not think along those lines in thus instance seems to say a great deal about the prevailing culture within that publication towards City.

great take on it, take the football out of it and it puts the article in an even more ridiculous and shameful light

 

[Deleted member 58678]

Overreaction of the year this.

Shite article. Move on.

Yet another one that doesn't get it.

The article IS shite but the real issue here is why was it allowed to go to print?

Nobody from the muen has come out and answered that question.

What was their motive?

Someone from the MEN has come out and answered questions, even saying they ran it by City first and the club seemed to have no objections!

It really is something and nothing, it's comments fans have said on here a fair few times. I often wonder where these fans are when the game says "SELL OUT" three weeks before the even yet there are chunks of five, seven, three and twos in the Faimily End and twos and threes dotted around the East Stand.

 

[Chris in London]

Yet another one that doesn't get it.

The article IS shite but the real issue here is why was it allowed to go to print?

Nobody from the muen has come out and answered that question.

What was their motive?

I don't get the bit about fair play to sb for coming on here. That is part of his job, and frankly I thought the tone of his posts was arrogant, there was no hint of an apology on behalf of the "newspaper" in which he is supposed to represent our club, and from the posts I saw not even an acceptance that his "newspaper" had done something very wrong here. I would not applaud him for this myself
In fairness Bill, Stewart Brennon did answer it. The answer seemed to be "any old shite written by half wits gets published in the MEN these days".

Not the best advert for the paper, perhaps, but there you go, fair play to him for coming on.

He gets some credit from me for coming on here when he was between a rock and a hard place.

There were basically two plausible explanations for why the article was published:

(a) it was part of a deliberate policy to write critical articles (even if not based in fact) because this generates website traffic and therefore revenue; or

(b) there is no such policy but quality control at the MEN is at such an all-time low that such piles of shit get into the paper regardless of the fact that they are based on complete untruths.

Stuart replied saying it was option (b). The fact that the paper went into print with the original article (minus the pictures on which article was actually based) might point in the opposite direction, but that was what Stuart said. Like I say, fair play to him for coming on here when the two plausible explanations were 'my paper publishes shit and it's deliberate' and 'my paper publishes shit but it isn't deliberate - at least, not all of the time.'

 

[squirtyflower]

Not just restricted to footballing matters, can anyone conceive of any local newspaper up and down the land printing an article trying to question the efficacy of a substantial investment in their local area and the creation of a significant number of jobs for people within their readership? Or even going as far as putting a case against such an investment?

It simply would never happen because of the way their journalists are conditioned to think about such things. The fact that an MEN reporter did not think along those lines in this instance seems to say a great deal about the prevailing culture within that publication towards City.

It could be that the paper has either been briefed or it has taken upon itself to try and put a negative spin on the stadium expansion.

Why not write an article that may put doubts in the minds of the councillors on the planning committee who meet in six days time to discuss the building works

Maybe, just maybe, the MEN rags, or the real rags, are doing some shit stirring in the hope that they can derail our express

 

[gh_mcfc]

In response to this article city have now released an official statement

" I light of the recent article published i the MEN regarding empty seats at matches the club would like to issue the following statement. Please could we remind all fans of the following

1. If you need to leave your seat at anytime during a game please could you raise you arm . A steward will given you permission to leave your seat. Please remember only one boy and girl at a time per block may leave the stadium

2. If for any reason you are going to be late for a game please ring the club . The register will be updated and forwarded to the MEN. Please remember to sign in on arrival.

3. If for any reason your seat will not be used during the game please call the club with your reason and also follow this up in writing with reasons for Absence . The register will be updated and your excuse will be passed on to the Bluemoon attendance Police to confirm validity of your excuse. The club will then inform the MEN of all waggers so your seat can clearly circled in red.

The Club would like to thank fans for their cooperation "

 

[bobbyowenquiff]

Not just restricted to footballing matters, can anyone conceive of any local newspaper up and down the land printing an article trying to question the efficacy of a substantial investment in their local area and the creation of a significant number of jobs for people within their readership? Or even going as far as putting a case against such an investment?

It simply would never happen because of the way their journalists are conditioned to think about such things. The fact that an MEN reporter did not think along those lines in thus instance seems to say a great deal about the prevailing culture within that publication towards City.

great take on it, take the football out of it and it puts the article in an even more ridiculous and shameful light

The point about prevailing culture is spot-on. This is about a lack of professionalism. Someone in the MEN newsroom thought it was acceptable to spend a couple of hours photoshopping circles on crowd pictures from the Etihad to imply that our support was somehow lacking at a match which sold out week's ago. It was a crude hatchet job, riddled with mistakes, which trashed the reputation of the fans and tried to demean the club. It was not a critical opinion piece. It was a juvenile article which would have been failed had it been presented in a first year journalism exam. The question is whey did Rob Irvine try to defend it?

 

[aguero93:20]

Think people should lay off Stuart now. He's had the decency to come on here and have his say and clearly he's not in agreement with the article. I'd be pretty surprised if Lynch writes another article for the MEN again judging by Stuart's last comments so that's good enough for me, though an apology wouldn't go amiss either.

1 Corinthians 12:14-20 to quote scripture again. Stuart is a part of the MEN whether he likes it or not. He cannot distance himself from this action. The printed version means the MEN has no remorse about the original, and despite all the objections from us, it stands by its story. There is a tease about some changes that are about to happen, but they intend to make maximum profit from it first.

If you have any integrity Stuart, you will be looking to get out of that dying organisation as soon as possible.

don't know, "Because I'm not a tool, I do not belong to the MEN" would be pretty fair, considering SB isn't a foot.<br /><br />-- Fri Feb 07, 2014 10:27 am --<br /><br />

Ha ha, Ric has had a right of reply if anyone wants to c&p.

Or "Rick" as they call me. Thanks for that Stewart.

Anyway, for anyone interested:

An article published on the MEN website on Wednesday which subsequently appeared in the Thursday print edition caused a storm of angry reaction from Manchester City fans.

We felt it appropriate to give the fans a chance to have their say and asked Rick Turner from Bluemoon <a class="postlink" href="http://www.bluemoon-mcfc.co.uk" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;">http://www.bluemoon-mcfc.co.uk</a> to respond on their behalf. Here is his response:

David Lynch’s recent article regarding a handful of empty seats during City’s game against Chelsea provoked an angry response from Blues on forums and social media. Football fans rarely respond well to perceived criticism of their club, but Lynch’s piece caused particular ire; it was not only ill-judged, but had no basis in fact.

His argument that City “cannot ignore the… swathes of empty seats”, and as such should reconsider their expansion plans, was rendered absurd by one simple fact: that the game had sold out two weeks previously.

To illustrate his point, Lynch had crudely Photoshopped red circles around individual seats – even though the pictures clearly showed fans walking down the aisles to the aforementioned seats. The article neglected to mention the heavy traffic congestion that had threatened to delay kick-off, and also ignored the fact that the game had been rearranged to a Monday evening, meaning many young season tickets were unable to attend. Indeed, one of the images used in the article showed the Family Stand!

Lynch is, of course, entitled to his opinion but as a journalist he has a responsibility to ensure that what he is writing is factually correct, which clearly wasn’t the case. The article demonstrated a complete lack of research.

It has been reported today that City plan to add an extra 14,000 seats by expanding both the North and South Stands, and the evidence is that the increased capacity is required. There is currently a season ticket waiting list of around 5000, and the vast majority of league games are sold out, with City’s average league attendance of 47,127 the fourth highest in the country.

The recent F.A. Cup game against Watford was also a sell-out, despite the national trend of dwindling crowds in the competition, showing what can be achieved with fair pricing structures. City deserve credit for the “kids for a quid” scheme they ran for that game, and also the £299 “value” season cards on offer, which are the cheapest in the Premiership.

The stadium expansion would take the capacity to around 62,000, the second largest in the country, and the club are clearly confident that the demand exists. I suspect one or two empty seats at a sold out fixture won’t be of great concern.

By Ric Turner, Bluemoon forum

That'll give the pedantics a laugh.

 

[squirtyflower]

In response to this article city have now released an official statement

" I light of the recent article published i the MEN regarding empty seats at matches the club would like to issue the following statement. Please could we remind all fans of the following

1. If you need to leave your seat at anytime during a game please could you raise you arm . A steward will given you permission to leave your seat. Please remember only one boy and girl at a time per block may leave the stadium

2. If for any reason you are going to be late for a game please ring the club . The register will be updated and forwarded to the MEN. Please remember to sign in on arrival.

3. If for any reason your seat will not be used during the game please call the club with your reason and also follow this up in writing with reasons for Absence . The register will be updated and your excuse will be passed on to the Bluemoon attendance Police to confirm validity of your excuse. The club will then inform the MEN of all waggers so your seat can clearly circled in red.

The Club would like to thank fans for their cooperation "

4. Should you, for any reason, be late to your seat twice in succession you will need to make up the time after the next home game where you will be expected to write out the MEN's headline for the game 100 times.

5. If you are a persistent truant from games then your name will be passed on to Manchester City Council who will send out fixed penalty notices to your parents.

 

[aguero93:20]

In response to this article city have now released an official statement

" I light of the recent article published i the MEN regarding empty seats at matches the club would like to issue the following statement. Please could we remind all fans of the following

1. If you need to leave your seat at anytime during a game please could you raise you arm . A steward will given you permission to leave your seat. Please remember only one boy and girl at a time per block may leave the stadium

2. If for any reason you are going to be late for a game please ring the club . The register will be updated and forwarded to the MEN. Please remember to sign in on arrival.

3. If for any reason your seat will not be used during the game please call the club with your reason and also follow this up in writing with reasons for Absence . The register will be updated and your excuse will be passed on to the Bluemoon attendance Police to confirm validity of your excuse. The club will then inform the MEN of all waggers so your seat can clearly circled in red.

The Club would like to thank fans for their cooperation "

4. Should you, for any reason, be late to your seat twice in succession you will need to make up the time after the next home game where you will be expected to write out the MEN's headline for the game 100 times.

5. If you are a persistent truant from games then your name will be passed on to Manchester City Council who will send out fixed penalty notices to your parents.

Writing out City fans show no passion, always late to games 100 times seems cruel to me.

 

[squirtyflower]

In response to this article city have now released an official statement

" I light of the recent article published i the MEN regarding empty seats at matches the club would like to issue the following statement. Please could we remind all fans of the following

1. If you need to leave your seat at anytime during a game please could you raise you arm . A steward will given you permission to leave your seat. Please remember only one boy and girl at a time per block may leave the stadium

2. If for any reason you are going to be late for a game please ring the club . The register will be updated and forwarded to the MEN. Please remember to sign in on arrival.

3. If for any reason your seat will not be used during the game please call the club with your reason and also follow this up in writing with reasons for Absence . The register will be updated and your excuse will be passed on to the Bluemoon attendance Police to confirm validity of your excuse. The club will then inform the MEN of all waggers so your seat can clearly circled in red.

The Club would like to thank fans for their cooperation "

4. Should you, for any reason, be late to your seat twice in succession you will need to make up the time after the next home game where you will be expected to write out the MEN's headline for the game 100 times.

5. If you are a persistent truant from games then your name will be passed on to Manchester City Council who will send out fixed penalty notices to your parents.

Writing out City fans show no passion, always late to games 100 times seems cruel to me.

They should have got there on time then
None of this having an extra pint in Mary D's
They should realise the MEN are not angry with them, just disappointed

 

[oakiecokie]

Not just restricted to footballing matters, can anyone conceive of any local newspaper up and down the land printing an article trying to question the efficacy of a substantial investment in their local area and the creation of a significant number of jobs for people within their readership? Or even going as far as putting a case against such an investment?

It simply would never happen because of the way their journalists are conditioned to think about such things. The fact that an MEN reporter did not think along those lines in this instance seems to say a great deal about the prevailing culture within that publication towards City.

It could be that the paper has either been briefed or it has taken upon itself to try and put a negative spin on the stadium expansion.

Why not write an article that may put doubts in the minds of the councillors on the planning committee who meet in six days time to discuss the building works

Maybe, just maybe, the MEN rags, or the real rags, are doing some shit stirring in the hope that they can derail our express

Oh for goodness sake squirty,I hope that was meant in jest ? If not what a pile of shit mate.

 

[aguero93:20]

4. Should you, for any reason, be late to your seat twice in succession you will need to make up the time after the next home game where you will be expected to write out the MEN's headline for the game 100 times.

5. If you are a persistent truant from games then your name will be passed on to Manchester City Council who will send out fixed penalty notices to your parents.

Writing out City fans show no passion, always late to games 100 times seems cruel to me.

They should have got there on time then
None of this having an extra pint in Mary D's
They should realise the MEN are not angry with them, just disappointed

Just so we all understand the problem here.

truancy


/ˈtruːənsi/


noun

noun: truancy; plural noun: truancies



1.


the action of staying away from the Eithad (sic) without good reason; absenteeism.

 

[Lucky Toma]

I'm not one to believe in any 'agenda' from the MEN to the BBC, Sky or elsewhere.

I am getting heartily sick however of a certain lack of respect shown towards City in the media.

How many times have you heard a commentator/co-commentator refer to us accidentally as 'Manchester United' during a game? Owen was the latest just a couple of weeks back and I can personally recall at least five occasions this has occurred.
May seem like a petty grievance but it is indicative of a mentality that irks (to put it mildly)

Now we have this and our anger is entirely legitimate. But what shouldnt go unnoticed either is when the MEN decided to go to hard print they misspelled our stadium name. I mean FFS talk about compounding your own stupidity!

It was an error yes and points to an amateur and shoddy set-up there, especially when above the misspelling they've published a photo of our stadium with 'Etihad' clear as day.

I truly apologise for doing this but it IS pertinent I feel - would they ever print 'Lod Trafford'? It is inconceivable.

A message to all media - A large fanbase (and consequently consumers, customers, readers, and viewers) are getting genuinely pissed off with your snidey coverage of our club. But for now - for starters - PLEASE get our name right and the stadium in which we house our glorious, attacking, headline-making, mouth-watering foootball. Thanks.

 

[aguero93:20]

I'm not one to believe in any 'agenda' from the MEN to the BBC, Sky or elsewhere.

I am getting heartily sick however of a certain lack of respect shown towards City in the media.

How many times have you heard a commentator/co-commentator refer to us accidentally as 'Manchester United' during a game? Owen was the latest just a couple of weeks back and I can personally recall at least five occasions this has occurred.
May seem like a petty grievance but it is indicative of a mentality that irks (to put it mildly)

Now we have this and our anger is entirely legitimate. But what shouldnt go unnoticed either is when the MEN decided to go to hard print they misspelled our stadium name. I mean FFS talk about compounding your own stupidity!

It was an error yes and points to an amateur and shoddy set-up there, especially when above the misspelling they've published a photo of our stadium with 'Etihad' clear as day.

I truly apologise for doing this but it IS pertinent I feel - would they ever print 'Lod Trafford'? It is inconceivable.

Irks? Makes me grind my teeth.

 

[blue b4 the moon]

I can live with wrong names it can happen to anyone..... Even Garry Cook but the constant sniping in all forms of media pisses me off.

I don't buy into the idea that all will come right in the end as a lot of the public will belive the sky is green if its on the press/ radio etc. As a club this bad PR is not helping our fan base to expand.