Conn's joined the race to the bottom in football journalism. In fact, he's become the Usain Bolt of football journalists in that respect.
He used to be one of the very few who did dig out uncomfortable facts that the mainstream either couldn't be bothered to look for, or knew and wilfully ignored. He did more than any other journalist to highlight the lies and cover-ups over Hillsborough.
Back in 2012, when united were about to float on the NYSE, I came across some information that suggested they'd pulled a fast one, and were using accounts that shouldn't have been used to provide potentially misleading financial information to investors. The accounts they should've used wouldn't have been quite as flattering.
I spoke to him about it and we spent the best part of a day pulling it together. He ran it, and united had to issue a statement saying their next accounts would show a worse position, plus the float price had to be dropped by $2. No one else would have taken on and run that story; only him.
(Here it is:
https://www.theguardian.com/football/2012/jul/10/manchester-united-accounts-share-offer?CMP=gu_com)
Then he got our FFP case hopelessly wrong and I started to suspect he was acting under instructions. That was (for me) proven beyond doubt when he picked up my tweet about the key evidence presented in the New York court, to support the Open Skies case against the three Gulf Airlines. I was miffed that he didn't contact me but at least it finally got aired.
The next day he'd changed his story completely and I can only imagine he'd been told, in no uncertain terms, that the truth, based on actual documentary evidence, didn't fit the media narrative. After all, we know the Guardian, for all their liberal credentials, are closet racists where Muslim Arabs involved in football are concerned.
Had Conn come out in respect of Saturday's events and said that everyone involved - UEFA, the clubs and the fans - needed to have a good look at themselves then I'd have regained some respect for him. But UEFA, who were their allies during the CAS case, are now the enemy. It's so Orwellian.
