Media Thread 2020/21

[Mike Cledford]

Ah, the co-op!
Where I lived in the 50s, the co-op dominated our high street with a butcher, a grocer, a greengrocer, a furniture store and a shoe shop. They even ran the local sub post office. Not to mention the many locals who had funeral plans with them. What an opportnity they had and let it slip through their fingers. Some people still remember their divi number; ours started 126, but I've forgotten the rest.

Can you remember your army number though? This particular Coop was only a small local one one but every town seemed to have one of the small department store types. I worked for a fortnight for an undertakers who eventually got taken over by the Coop but the original family name is still being used.
My gran always used to say we were making more noise than the stores horse peeing on a dustbin lid. I think the Coop horse had gone before my time but the local corner shop had deliveries by a horse pulled van so we always used to put a dustbin lid underneath it to try and hear this famous noise.

 

[bobbyowenquiff]

Last night scrolling through TV channels looking for something to watch... on Sky One - "The United Way", a few channels down "Busby" and just now, Talkshite advertising a new documentary on Sky tonight about George Best... ffs - it's like a constant PR campaign for them!

Sky is like "Yesterday" channel. It is embarrassing actually. I suspect even United fans get fed up with it. United have become a sort of "costume drama club." When I was growing up in Manchester in the 60s and 70s the football press was not dominated by stories about the great Huddersfield side of the 1920s, and the Arsenal team of the 1930s, nor even by coverage of the great 1950s Wolves team. Even Ferguson's teams date back 25 years.
No wonder SKY is struggling as a broadcaster. There is limited audience for the sort of propaganda they are serving up. When you look at the listings for their Premier League retro programme it is dominated by MUFC and LFC. Vastly more people don't support these two teams and won't watch it so they should be targeting a bigger and a younger audience. Even I am not interested in watching another programme about Matt Busby....and I knew him quite well when I was younger!

 

[Blue Til Death]

I sometimes wonder what planet these people live on.

Can you imagine saying the same thing about people at the top of any other profession?

"That Gordon Ramsay, it's no wonder he gets michelin stars when he's got a state of the art kitchen, sous chefs to prepare everything and gets the best quality ingredients money can buy. Anyone with those resources could turn out top quality meals. I'd like to see how well he did running a transport cafe on the East Lancs Road getting all his supplies from Costco. Then we'd see if he can cook or not."

Quite right mate, if it was that easy, the rags, dippers and chavs would be right there with us,
Truth is they are nowhere near us, everyone knows why but won’t say, too busy spinning positive vibes for the other teams while we play the greatest football the world has ever seen

 

[johnevans]

I sometimes wonder what planet these people live on.

Can you imagine saying the same thing about people at the top of any other profession?

"That Gordon Ramsay, it's no wonder he gets michelin stars when he's got a state of the art kitchen, sous chefs to prepare everything and gets the best quality ingredients money can buy. Anyone with those resources could turn out top quality meals. I'd like to see how well he did running a transport cafe on the East Lancs Road getting all his supplies from Costco. Then we'd see if he can cook or not."

Never mind the East Lancs Road eateries.. can that Ramsey do it on the Potteries 'D' Road on a wet Tuesday night in Stoke..?

And as Percy Sugden put it in 'Coronation Street'.. 'Pressure? Unless you've had to cook Christmas dinner for a battalion of men under enemy shellfire, you've no idea what pressure is..'

 

[laserblue]

Last night scrolling through TV channels looking for something to watch... on Sky One - "The United Way", a few channels down "Busby" and just now, Talkshite advertising a new documentary on Sky tonight about George Best... ffs - it's like a constant PR campaign for them!

It was just a predictable arse licking PR boost for them on the eve of their massivest game in the Europeless League final, a competition they qualified for simply by being shite in the Champions League.

We can all await the multiple documentaries on City on Friday.

 

[mad4city]

Last night scrolling through TV channels looking for something to watch... on Sky One - "The United Way", a few channels down "Busby" and just now, Talkshite advertising a new documentary on Sky tonight about George Best... ffs - it's like a constant PR campaign for them!

The George Best thing is weird. A wonderful footballer who pretty much blew it (that talk show anecdote notwithstanding).
It's difficult to imagine what new angle they can have come up with (and I can't be arsed watching it to find out).
As an Irishman, I do think there's a certain amount of perpetuating the flawed (read: drunken) genius stereotype that many successful Irish people get (and often play up to, it must be admitted). People like Behan, McGowan, Hurricane Higgins and obviously, Best too.
Tiresome bollocks really. Especially when it's applied to people like Luke Kelly (ask yet da) who didn't quite deserve it - and a bit disturbing when you see the likes of Sinead O'Connor dismissed as a crackpot but her contemporary Shane McGowan lauded as a genius (blatant sexism and nothing more, that).
Thing is when you look into these so-called "geniuses" (and not just Irishmen, include Keith Richards and Gazza and Keith Floyd too, if you want). Often it's been a code word for a talented arsehole whom others can feed off of.

 

[LongsightM13]

Last night scrolling through TV channels looking for something to watch... on Sky One - "The United Way", a few channels down "Busby" and just now, Talkshite advertising a new documentary on Sky tonight about George Best... ffs - it's like a constant PR campaign for them!

Don’t forget the Pisscan propaganda film on Amazon

 

[Mike Cledford]

Last night scrolling through TV channels looking for something to watch... on Sky One - "The United Way", a few channels down "Busby" and just now, Talkshite advertising a new documentary on Sky tonight about George Best... ffs - it's like a constant PR campaign for them!

That's why they are listed as a media company on Wall Street, famous for being famous, which in turn encourages noodle companies to pay to use their name for even more advertising.

 

[r.soleofsalford]

It was just a predictable arse licking PR boost for them on the eve of their massivest game in the Europeless League final, a competition they qualified for simply by being shite in the Champions League.

We can all await the multiple documentaries on City on Friday.

I couldn`t of put it better myself

 

[StillBluessinceHydeRoad]

Conn has a problem. He's a few years younger than me but I suspect our experiences growing up, him in Prestwich and me in Crumpsall, were similar.

He may have gone shopping on Cheetham Hill with his grandma, probably on the bus. If she wanted chicken or a piece brisket, she went to the butcher. If she wanted bread, she went to the baker. Veg, to the greengrocer. Vimto, to the grocer. Milk or cheese, to the dairy shop. Etc. When she'd got everything they would have gone home, she'd have made a cup of tea with tea leaves in a pot, poured through a strainer and, at 5pm, the first programmes would start on the TV they rented. If it was cold, she might have put sme coal on the fire or put the gas heater on. There were 4 or 5 cinemas in walking distance of the house I grew up in, and she might have taken him to one of those. Polio and diptheria were real fears and catching measles, mumps and rubella was expected

If it was a Saturday, they might have watched the football results, of clubs owned by local small businessmen made good, like butcher Bob Lord, our own TV supplier, or a purveyor of bribes and rotten meat to councils. For these people, it elevated them into loal dignitaries, like modern days squires of the manor. One or two, like Liverpool and Arsenal, might have been owned by seriously rich families, who saw it as their civic duty to provide entertainment for the masses who worked for them and provided their riches.

Gradually the world changed. Supermarkets, where you could get everything under one roof, and there was at least one in every town. Central heating, mass car ownership, multiplex cinemas, where you had a choice of ten or more films. Not needing to wait for the results of matches, because you could watch or stream them live.

Football moved out of the realm of the local boy made good and became big business. Conn probably shops in supermarkets or online, owns more than one TV and car and has central heating. His kids will have been vaccinated and don't fear the childhood diseases he and I did.

He accepts this as part of modern life but he's never accepted football changing.

This is a splendid post, PB, partly because it evokes memories of a whole flood of shopping trips to Cheetham Hill with my grandmother, who lived in Crumpsall, in the mid '50s but also because it nails Conn's problem. He is a golden ageist but, I suspect, only in the area of football, as you assert, correctly in my opinion. I first took issue with him in 2014, just before the League Cup final between two "grand old clubs" (though Conn never referred to either as such on that occasion), City and Sunderland. Conn had written an article bewailing many of the trends in football since he had first been a City supporter and, without saying so, he seemed to lay much of the blame exclusively at Sheikh Mansour's door. I don't remember a single mention of the Glazers or FSG or any of the impetus to change which had come from European competition. It was the determination of certain clubs to become or remain "European royalty" which had led to many of the changes he objected to most. But his view seemed to be the vey simplistic one that change had destroyed an idyllic, Corinthian world. My reply was based on the theme that time and change are never to be plotted on a straight line graph of progress or regression and that in the years since the 1970s (I think Conn's article took our "previous" League Cup final in 1976 as his starting point) there had been some massive improvements in football in England and that success for City was not necessarily a sign of decline and decay. I argued that where the football public had been let down and betrayed it was usually by UEFA, the FA and certain clubs not including City. It was not let down by Abu Dhabi or Sheikh Mansour, who had to operate in a context over which he had limited control. I'm afraid Conn has a blinkered vision which doesn't allow too much room for complexity and this is nowhere more clear that in his hiding behind the term "sports washing". So, thank you for a thought provoking (as usual!) contribution. And for stirring the memories!

 

[Mike Cledford]

Yeah, the "unlimited resources" bollocks get's on my thrupennies too...

They always fail to mention that under FFP, regardless of how rich our owners are, we are limited what we can spend - they also fail to mention, that due to their turnovers, the Rags and Dippers could easily outspend us - and often do!!!

Don't forget their Cayman Island Bank Accounts.

And my favourite the dippers £50m for the new ground that never was.
Detailed breakdown of the invoices for that would make interesting reading.

 

[KS55]

I think our owner has had much more racial abuse than any of us and in his day job he invests AD dollars world wide in most countries and most sectors of commerce and industry.

Certainly we as City supporters want those who hate and write lies etc. against us sorting out good and quick but our owners prefer a different approach.

You may be right but do you honestly think our owners are not capable of handling the abuse they continue to suffer in the way they prefer to do it?

Oh, they can handle it, but can the name of Manchester City?

 

[manimanc]

Last night scrolling through TV channels looking for something to watch... on Sky One - "The United Way", a few channels down "Busby" and just now, Talkshite advertising a new documentary on Sky tonight about George Best... ffs - it's like a constant PR campaign for them!

Uncanny it's an overkill of them red mardarses all over the TV in the week we're in the champions league final.
I'll say it again that they are the bitterest fickle set of cunts ever.

 

[dadnlad]

Great post.

A great deal of fans of these Redshirt clubs are only fans because they attach themselves to the glory aspect of the club they’ve chosen to support. Especially the out of towners.

This is usually from being insecure from the outset as individuals.

They’re too insecure to support Lincoln, Plymouth, or Shamrock Rovers, so they attach themselves to United and Liverpool. They live it up in some sort of weird reflected glory… but as soon as that glory wanes or disappears as their clubs aren’t top dogs anymore, their insecurities come to the fore. They can’t handle that a club they once made banners about their trophy drought and had more songs mocking them than they had about themselves, have started to win trophies like they once did but at the same time smashing all-time English football records in the process.

This is where all this fear and belittling comes in, they’re just insecure little boys who can’t deal with their reflected glory being taken away from them. But in a social media age, it’s not just the out of towners with this attitude, it’s the entire fanbases plus their hangers on from the media. It becomes a culture of insecurity and fear across the lot of them!

heres one just had some electrical work carried out at work 3 Geordies turn up so for a laugh i said i just been on twitter voted steve bruce as manager of the season got no reaction so time for another dig at newcastle to which i got reply were liverpool fans mate ha ha ha so i asked what part of newcastle is liverpool all transpires one of them his dad supports newcastle and mum sunderland and are both disgusted with him lol

 

[Didsbury Dave]

Got some Chelsea fan friends. They are all furious that the media are fawning all over City and Pep and ignoring them in the build up to this game. I have to say I've noticed that we are very much "the" story thy is time around, like in 2012.

 

[Bluechipblue]

Last night scrolling through TV channels looking for something to watch... on Sky One - "The United Way", a few channels down "Busby" and just now, Talkshite advertising a new documentary on Sky tonight about George Best... ffs - it's like a constant PR campaign for them!

A bit like the week after we became the first team to win the domestic treble (quadruple), they chose to run a documentary 'special' about the rags treble 20 years previous. And for good measure, and if you missed it first time round, repeated the fucking thing a few days later. Still waiting for our 'special' programme, unless I've missed it.

 

[Spurs quarter 69]

Entertained by the fawning over the rags on North West news this lunchtime. They are giddy over the second rate cup final they are in ignoring the fact it didn't save Marino's job even when accompanied by tha league cup. They hailed a great season of progress under Ole, depends how you define progress finishing twelve points behind the champions in a non vintage year doesn't suggest anything to get over excited about. If they win avoid the media tomorrow or keep a sick bag handy.

 

[SilverFox2]

Oh, they can handle it, but can the name of Manchester City?

Without our current owners we would not be in such a dominant position and let's be fair previous owners have not exactly covered themselves in glory.
Not sure on this but are you asking if our owners are fit to be so if they do not defend themselves against press accusations?

 

[Onholiday(somemightsay)]

From The Ringer :

"The Premier League is a manager’s league. We probably haven’t seen a depth of talent like the whip-smart minds in charge of teams all the way down the table. This season, amid unusually challenging circumstances, several of them distinguished themselves. Marcelo Bielsa was typically thrilling and strikingly effective at Leeds United. Scott Parker coached far beyond his means at relegated Fulham. Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, through shrewd man management and some brave tactical tweaks, has converted many doubters with Manchester United’s second-place finish, especially given their advance to the Europa League final. Dean Smith, before injuries to key players derailed his Aston Villa team, led a joyously irreverent side to an early surge up the table. Brendan Rodgers has been excellent at Leicester City, bringing the best from their superbly recruited playing staff. Given the abundance of resources at Pep Guardiola’s disposal, it is sometimes difficult to assess the quality of his work: Limitless wealth should, in theory, mean that you win the league each year. Yet he has still managed to make his team evolve, and the game along with it. Most managers would not have regularly and successfully fielded İlkay Gündoğan as a central forward ahead of the club’s record goalscorer Sergio Agüero, but Guardiola is not most men. Yet the manager of the year, by a narrow margin, is David Moyes."

Fucking laughable.

'through shrewd man management and some brave tactical tweaks'

It's a damn good job he named who he was writing about with this extract or I would have been left guessing all day..........

 

[Fordyboy46]

I'm expecting the negative slanderous stories to ramp up in these next 48 hours. There will be at least one, believe you me