stratopedia said:
Stupid office Internet not allowing 'typepad' in the URL... could somebody please be a 'darl and copy paste the whole article.
Lovely work I bet, Ric.
Thankfully, another transfer window slams shut. The past 33 days have seen Manchester City become one of the most reviled institutions in Britain, loathed even more than City bankers or local council gritting departments. In a perverse way I relished the contempt of the nation's media, as it made a refreshing change from the coverage we have become accustomed to (at best somewhat pitiful and patronising, at worst complete indifference). There is only one thing worse than being talked about, and that's not being talked about.
Journalists from virtually every publication lined up to take a sideswipe at the club for the heinous crime of investing heavily in order to achieve success, something the top four have been guilty of since the inception of the Premier League and, indeed, long before. Sure, £100m for Kaka would've been an obscene amount of money, but football is merely an extension of showbusiness. It's no different to, say, the sums a film studio will pay to the leading actor of the day. Football hasn't lived in the real world for a long time. Contrary to Shankly's observations, it's not more important than life or death.
Not that they'd have you believe that on Jimmy Hill's Sunday Supplement on Sky television, of course. It's a faintly absurd concept, indicative of the channel's sensationalist coverage of the national game; reasonably intelligent men sat po-faced around a table, talking about football as though it is the single most important thing in the world. Never mind the ecological or economic crises facing our planet, what about the possible introduction of video technology or the transfer of Jimmy Bullard to Hull City. Brian Woolnough, Paul Hayward, Neil Custis - it's hard to think of a more dour, miserable bunch of, well, bastards (I'm not sure if that's the correct collective noun for journalists, but it seems apt). It's like a Who's Who of people you'd never want to get stranded with at a party.
To make matters worse, it's not even Jimmy Hill's Sunday Supplement any more, it's just called Sunday Supplement. In a rewriting of history eerily reminiscent of Nazi Germany, Jimmy has been erased from living memory. It's as though he was never there. Brian Woolnough has moved into his "house", and for all we know, is now sleeping with his wife. In Sky's defence he had become like a senile elderly relative at Christmas, sat quietly in the corner occasionally blurting out random, incomprehensible nonsense, no doubt smelling faintly of Brussels sprouts and urine. But at least he was entertaining and, more importantly, qualified to talk with some authority about the subject (having played and managed at the top level, as well as chairing the PFA) which is more than can be said for the hacks on the show. They know little more than you or I! They only see the same game we see, yet preach and condescend as though their views are the gospel truth. Pah.
Anyway, I digress. As the final hours of the transfer window approached, there was still speculation amongst supporters that City could make a dramatic late swoop in the market, for Blackburn striker Roque Santa Cruz, so I reluctantly subjected myself to the living hell that is Sky Sports News. It's a fate worse than death, watching the same, mundane stories recycled on a seemingly infinite loop. It should have been used as a torture technique at pre-Obama Guantanamo Bay. "We will tell you everything, just no more Jim White! I BEG YOU!"
The sensationalist coverage is patently absurd, yet is seemingly delivered without the slightest trace of irony by White and his colleagues. "Hold it right there...", White demands, working himself into a frenzy, "...we have quite extraordinary news reaching us here at Sky Sports - Newcastle and Wigan are in discussion over a proposed swap deal involving Charles N'Zogbia and Ryan Taylor!". I suspect the last minute transfer of Callum Davenport from West Ham to Sunderland won't be one of those JFK or 9/11 "where were you" moments, despite Jim's protests to the contrary.
Fortunately the Cruz deal never materialised, as City baulked at Blackburn's £25m valuation of a striker who has only managed three league goals this season. Given the tidal wave of negative publicity the club received over the failed Kaka bid, you might have expected us to receive some credit for refusing to pay such an inflated fee. Just, y'know, in the interests of fair, balanced reporting. Right? Wrong.
Instead SSN were straight on the phone to the odious Sam Allardyce, sycophantically praising him for heroically "holding on" to the very player he spent all month trying to extort as much money as possible for. I despair. On the bright side, we ended up £25m better off, whilst Allardyce retains an unhappy player whose value will plummet every week until the summer transfer window opens. The fact that Craig Allardyce misses out on his customary 5% "sweetener" is the icing of the cake. Allegedly.
