I stopped listening to it at the start of this year after Pol Ballus stopped appearing on it, having become one of the Barcelona correspondents of The Athletic. He at least still seemed to have some kind of access to information from within the club, whereas Sam Lee has sounded to me for quite a while as though he no longer does.
The various City aggregators on Twitter were posting Lee's views yesterday from the latest podcast about who'll be getting regular game time as this season goes forward and who might leave in summer. It all had a ring of guesswork and there's plenty of that along with many more insightful views on here.
I know several Blues who've ceased subscribing to The Athletic, so it wouldn't surprise me if the figures for engagement from City fans are pitifully low. I originally took up their half-price offer to subscribe when they started out. I've been lured back twice by offers that allowed me to pay twelve quid a year, but the current one expires a week from today and I wouldn't go back if they offered me an extension free of charge. Despite having the right to view it for the last 51 weeks, I've barely done so at all for about 9 months. I haven't missed it.
They only have themselves to blame for the disdain in which City fans hold their publication. Despite all the fine words at the outset, it quickly became just another outlet that mindlessly panders to the red ugly sisters at either end of the East Lancs Road. A while back, I used to think it worth my time nonetheless as there were some interesting articles about clubs lower down in or even outside the Premier League but these have now become discernibly far fewer in number.
Meanwhile, for City coverage, we get an out-of-town plastic rag who quite deliberately writes about our club from an outsider's perspective. In contrast with correspondents for the majority of other teams, I perceive no sign of him having the slightest interest in ever conveying what we, as fans, feel about our club. The difference is stark, and I can suppose only that The Athletic's coverage of MCFC is often aimed squarely at opposing fans.
Looking back, they probably reached the point of no return with the debacle of their FFP reporting. City took an implacable stance that we'd be exonerated of UEFA's charges, and anyone in Sam Lee's position with any gumption whatsoever in would have been exploring in depth what arguments could be underpinning the club's position. That he failed to do so would have been truly lamentable even if he hadn't embarrassed himself with a proclaimed journalistic scoop that fell risibly wide of the mark.
If they'd engaged a second dedicated City journalist at the outset (Spurs, Everton and Newcastle all had two), maybe it might have been different. Hiring someone like Simon Curtis, who's steeped in City, on an freelance basis to produce intermittent pieces supplementing Lee's might have mitigated the problem. But as it was, when Ballus and now his replacement arrived, they're billed as United and City correspondents, that lot always named first. This says it all.
So fuck The Athletic. I started out with plenty of good will towards them and have paid for three years of access to their output (albeit at an aggregate price of less than the full rate for a year's subscription). It's therefore an informed view when I say that they deserve to have zero City fans subscribing, and I'm glad that Blues appear already to have voted with their feet just as I'm now doing.
