I one day want to be defended so passionately, the way Damocles has defended a man he's never met.
Because this whole thing is utter madness. Listen, in the last two pages we've had several people say "I don't read Sam but he's a **** for what he writes" and even more insane, "Sam is a **** because he didn't write something".
Can you imagine this in any other form of journalism? Are there people out there who going into blistering seething rants because the Economics Editor didn't present the latest BoE rates change through the Austrian lens enough and are "secretly Keynesian cabal who sit in a WhatsApp group to further their media agenda". I imagine you would think that to be a totally ridiculous idea.
What you're seeing and what I'm rallying against is how everybody complains about modern football but you're playing it out, right now, without a hint of irony. People have turned meta-football into a morality play, where there's heroes and villains on social media who you should boo and cheer and there's secret conspiracies and backroom deals. And it REALLY REALLY matters who people supported 30 years ago as a kid because this creates this "bias" that MUST constantly be in effect secretly and they're leaving hidden clues in their articles. Cole Palmer was a United fan growing up as are/were many of our youth team, did you lot question his professionalism because of that though? Was he on a go slow for City because he hated us secretly?
It's this total lack of humanity in it all. Sam Lee, Jack Gaughan, et al, they're not people to you, they're characters or caricatures in this 24 hour media cycle around football. They're no different to Phil Mitchell or Mike Baldwin, they're the bestest guy ever or a **** based on some half remembered lore you might have because ultimately you're involved in a fictional show.
Now listen, there's people like Nick Harris, Miguel Delaney, James Corbett etc and some social media accounts like The Magic Hat who very clearly have some extremely partisan views and should be mocked and called out for. There's a line that they've crossed that I accept. But how fucking mental have you go to be where someone like Sam Lee is on the other side of that line? Who is on the good side then? Would you like to see some of the shit that you guys have written about City in the past because I might started editing this stuff into tweets from journalists and watch you want to burn them to death.
These media threads are full of the worst type of ultra conspiratorial things that often border on paranoid delusions. I was hoping with a new season then we might get away from that but alas on the first page we go straight back to it.