Media thread 2022/23

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petrusha said:
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.
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Exquisite post. A truly incredible finish.
 
Del_Bosque said:
Athletic cancelling their City podcast Why Always Us

Shame that was always worth a listen even if I didnt agree with parts/lots of it.

Must be getting much less City subscribers than the rest of the big 6
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Good.

Treat your audience and their club like shit and that crowd will slowly wilt away. They’ve only got themselves to blame for a lack of engagement.
 
petrusha said:
Thanks, Colin. I felt that he was looking down his nose at City fans a couple of times in the past, but what really finished me with him once and for all was his attitude on the Why Always Us? podcast in the summer. The Athletic hired a general football writer last May whose name I forget, but his first piece was a laughable alternative account of what could have happened the CL final in which, instead of Real winning 1-0, Liverpool romped to a 5-1 win. I'd never read anything as ridiculous in my life, let alone in a supposed quality publication.

The same guy produced a piece in July, after we signed Erling Haaland, claiming that Haaland was just as likely to fail as to succeed, and then setting out why in a lengthy article. Obviously, City fans thought it ridiculous, but it was the "just as likely to fail or succeed" line that was really to blame. If he'd said that no transfer is absolutely guaranteed to succeed, outlined how it could pay off but then explored reasons why it possibly might not, no one could have complained. People were riled the statement that implied there was a significant chance of Haaland being a flop before giddily trying to argue that he would.

This was symptomatic of The Athletic seeking clicks from other teams' fans when writing about City. But on the podcast, Sam sneered at us for objecting to the piece, claiming we couldn't take criticism of the club. Pure gaslighting. Well, Mr Lee, when you have a moment for reflection, you might care to wonder how you had a fantastic opportunity to write about the country's most successful club for a supposedly ground-breaking new quality publication, but have managed to royally fuck it up and make large numbers of their fans totally hostile to you.
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very good from you both Lee is the proof that City is not sportwashing tool for Abu Dhabi, there is no way they wouldn't have placed someone very positive about City all over the media and Lee isn't that guy
 
cookster said:
Excellent, hopefully that's Mooney's media career over.
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I hope so I stopped listening to Blue Moon when he stopped supporting the club. I gave him a pass when he slagged Pep off over the Bernardo/Mendy affair but his content and views on the Klanfield debacle was a pod cast too far me. Seems inconceivable that he thought City fans tuning in would want to hear a neutrals view.
As for the pathectic athletic who gives a fuck I can get anti City bollocks anywhere for free
 
Groke said:
I was at a wedding, not long after city had signed Grealish; i had been put on the same table as a sub-editor from the Athletic. Talk got onto football, and it transpires that this guy was a plastic utd fan from Leeds, never met the **** before, but when he found out me and my kids were city fans, he starts piping off about "i didn't know there were any city fans in manchester"and "city are just playing using a cheat code" etc etc. Put him back in his box verbally, but would have liked to put him in a box physically - but probably not the best thing to do at a family wedding! Point is that this snide **** is actually making editorial decisions / adjustments to Athletic articles, so yes, fuck the athletic.
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All good weddings should have a little scrap break out.
 
Groke said:
I was at a wedding, not long after city had signed Grealish; i had been put on the same table as a sub-editor from the Athletic. Talk got onto football, and it transpires that this guy was a plastic utd fan from Leeds, never met the **** before, but when he found out me and my kids were city fans, he starts piping off about "i didn't know there were any city fans in manchester"and "city are just playing using a cheat code" etc etc. Put him back in his box verbally, but would have liked to put him in a box physically - but probably not the best thing to do at a family wedding! Point is that this snide **** is actually making editorial decisions / adjustments to Athletic articles, so yes, fuck the athletic.
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Fair enough, fuck all wrong with accidentally spilling a glass of red all over someone though. Happens all the time at weddings, I'd imagine.
 
hammocity said:
Pep mentioning the Hateful 8 in his conference, "Pep, what do you think the reaction would be if you spent over 550m in one season?" Pep, " I know, 8 or 9 clubs send a letter to the Premier League to ban us"! He gets us 100%
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He proceeded that statement with "I haven't forgotten......."

Neither have we Pep, neither have we!
 
KS55 said:
Some expressions, habits, events etc are thought of as American, but they are actually British. We have moved on leaving such things behind, but the Americans being a bit slow, retain these old forms and re-export them to us.
—Halloween is Irish, not American.
—‘color’ and similar forms are English originally. Not sure when or why we started adding the u to everything.(French influence?)
—Not doubling the last consonant when declining a verb, e.g. ‘travelling‘ vs ‘traveling’ is American English, but came from here I think.
Similarly, the French habit of kissing both cheeks in greeting was copied from the English court where it died out and they’ve sent it back to us.
Sure there are plenty more examples but it’s too early in the morning for my brain
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This is it. Whether through import or commerce, Language has to evolve o it will wither.
The reason Irish isn't as widely spoken as we would all like has as much to do with commerce, forced emigration and popular entertainment as the Penal Laws. (Although, the Penal Laws were definitely the first death knell).

Worth saying too that many of the constructs that are seen as Americanisms would be influenced by the constructs of the native languages of immigrants.
Case in point, anyone with a smattering of Irish could see a close affinity to the previously maligned, 'taking the stand'). I'm sure speakers of other languages could pont to similar phrases.
Many of these languages would predate English. It's actually a very healthy thing that even though they have been displaced, they still manage to influence and add colour to the dominant tongue.
Your man Melvyn Bragg wrote a book about this very topic, that's worth reading in places (if one can wade through some pretty nauseating jongoism).
 
KS55 said:
Some expressions, habits, events etc are thought of as American, but they are actually British. We have moved on leaving such things behind, but the Americans being a bit slow, retain these old forms and re-export them to us.
—Halloween is Irish, not American.
—‘color’ and similar forms are English originally. Not sure when or why we started adding the u to everything.(French influence?)
—Not doubling the last consonant when declining a verb, e.g. ‘travelling‘ vs ‘traveling’ is American English, but came from here I think.
Similarly, the French habit of kissing both cheeks in greeting was copied from the English court where it died out and they’ve sent it back to us.
Sure there are plenty more examples but it’s too early in the morning for my brain.
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Completely agree - and on your 'o' vs 'ou' example you are correct. Latin was 'o', Old French added the 'u' and then I think both variants were fine for use in American and British English. From memory, it was the Americans who then decided to stick with just the 'o' and that caused the current division. They removed quite a few compound vowels & ligatures (ae is quite a common difference as well) as well. Probably because some of them are unnecessary and English has far too many silent letters.
 
Ajm1985 said:
Completely agree - and on your 'o' vs 'ou' example you are correct. Latin was 'o', Old French added the 'u' and then I think both variants were fine for use in American and British English. From memory, it was the Americans who then decided to stick with just the 'o' and that caused the current division. They removed quite a few compound vowels & ligatures (ae is quite a common difference as well) as well. Probably because some of them are unnecessary and English has far too many silent letters.
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That's right. The English are known for it. Apparently, the Etihad has too many silent sitters for example.

Oh, you said letters .....
 
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