Media Thread - 2021/22

[BeerIsTheBest]

Barmy Barney Dissects Haaland - Was it the "Private Zoo" ?

Here`s yet another pretentious diatribe from Barney.

https://www.theguardian.com/footbal...nd-and-the-300m-question-how-much-is-too-much

It would be laughable if not for the fact that he takes himself so seriously, and unfortunately there are far too many others who lap up this bias in a national newspaper.

Once proud and respected, The Guardian`s fall from grace is concerning. Its Sportblog is now an example of little more than a fabricated, skewed, space filler.

Just maybe the Barmy one knows where Haaland might end up and is beginning to do his inner Clough and equalise before the other team score.

 

[The Future’s Blue!]

Al Jazeera - Assad Visit to UAE

• A key motive for some of the Arab countries of the Gulf, such as the UAE and Saudi Arabia, is to blunt the involvement of their foe, Iran, which saw its influence expand rapidly in the chaos of Syria’s war.

 

[BlueMoonday]

If this was a City player, the press would be having a field day. Or is it more that the journalists don't take issue with homophobia. I don't care it was from a few years a go.

Mohamed Salah ‘honoured’ with gift of citizenship from Chechen leader

The Egypt and Liverpool forward Mohamed Salah was given official citizenship by the Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov at a gala dinner during the national team’s stay in the republic for the World Cup

www.google.com

 

[KS55]

It doesn't look like Assad is going anywhere, so what is the problem engaging in some diplomacy? If they were arming him, then we would have something to talk about. Let them take care of their own regional politics without some smartarse football journalist sending emoji tweets.

Look, we can't get away from the fact that Mansour is part of the royal family and involved in some capacity as a government representative. It only matters in two situations: i) he owns us as a proxy for the state. He doesn't and, imho, that will never be challenged where it actually matters, or ii) the UAE detaches itself from a policy of what we call modernisation, and starts working against western foreign policy and then he becomes the UAE's Abramovich to the UAE's Putin. That won't happen, either.

I would relax a little.

Yes. Plus if he was ever tempted to get us state funding as opposed to his own rather large pocket. That won't happen either.
Footy journos segueing to international politics is just so naff. Gets the clicks though. Calling Simon Jorden....tells us about the situation in Belize.

 

[KS55]

That's before 350,000 people were killed in Syria which include chemical weapons and bombing of hospitals. How anyone can make light of this is beyond me.

I've defended SM and UAE pretty much since the takeover in 2008, this is not defendable and the timing is horrific.

Lots of scenarios where this meeting might be helpful to Ukraine and is defensible . We don't know what the agenda was.

 

[Bonzo Nododo]

Barmy Barney Dissects Haaland - Was it the "Private Zoo" ?

Here`s yet another pretentious diatribe from Barney.

https://www.theguardian.com/footbal...nd-and-the-300m-question-how-much-is-too-much

It would be laughable if not for the fact that he takes himself so seriously, and unfortunately there are far too many others who lap up this bias in a national newspaper.
Dy
Once proud and respected, The Guardian`s fall from grace is concerning. Its Sportblog is now an example of little more than a fabricated, skewed, space filler

So far up his own arse that he has two heads on his weedy shoulders, neither head having much in them.

 

[KS55]

I agree about the timing. However I think it confirms that Sheikh Mansour didn't buy City for "sportswashing" purposes. It seems clear there is no link between UAE policy and the business side of CFG. The UAE just ploughs on with its foreign policy. Don't forget they upset a lot of people in their region when they normalised relations with Israel. To be honest Sheikh Mansour has never seemed the slightest bit bothered about his reputation. I have always believed his motivation was purely to make money (nothing wrong with that) and he has done pretty well so far.

Khaldoon is on record as saying the Abu Dhabi connection is not helpful to CFG. Maybe that is why ADUG changed their name.

 

[IrishBlueSince92]

If it was Liverpool getting Haaland for a transfer fee of the reported £68m which is his release clause, that would be being lauded as great business

 

[halfcenturyup]

I’m not sure what gotcha you’re trying to make here but there’s an ocean of difference between the admittedly authoritarian figure Assad was in 2002 and the chemical weapons-using genocidist of 2010 onwards. Pretending otherwise in order to defend the UAE for meeting with him is pretty desperate stuff

Really, I wasn't judging the 2002 visit and I am not judging the 2022 visit either. Then again, I am not offended by the current visit. It's diplomacy. You know as well as I do that often you have to do things you rather wouldn't to get the outcome you want, and if the current meeting reduces Russian and Iranian influence in Syria in any small way, then it's probably a good thing for the UAE and the West.

 

[bluenova]

I hate his pretentious and flowery writing style. He epitomises everything that is bad about modern sports writers, especially those at the Guardian. They like to show off with words but never reveal anything significant. Opinion has no value unless it is based on facts. People like Ronay don't do any research. It is obvious Ronay knows Jack Shit about football. He doesn't tell people anything new.

He seems to have started doing a few more serious pieces and, while the subject matter is fair game, he's just not very good at it. I used to listen to the Guardian football podcast, and he always came across as reasonably thoughtful, but mostly a bit laissez faire on stuff. As in, the world is a complicated place, and anyone looking for the moral highground is wasting their time.

Last week he was writing about Shearer being a hypocrite as he hadn't condemned Saudi Arabia over the Yemen, as this was exactly the same as the Ukraine. On twitter, he admitted that he tried to write a little about the war in Yemen, but it was too complicated, so decided that he may as well make the point that all war is complicated, but ultimately it's all the same, which is clearly simplistic nonsense masquerading as profundity.

If I'm honest, I think the guy is simply struggling for content, now that Andy Carroll is no longer in the Premier League.