The clubs PR/Media team

[Didsbury Dave]

I appreciate your analysis of the position. I'd like to think its spot on. Where I get uneasy is that the Club doesn't seem to control crisis situations very well now or as in the Tevez, balotelli , FFp cases. Keeping stum is one strategy but can also be perceived as 'head in the sand' rather than genius..

Funny you should mention Tevez as just out in the car and listening to Talksport and Murray was talking about Tevez "refusing to go on as a sub", which was wrong.

With Tevez, I'd lay a lot of the blame at Mancini's door. If he'd kept a bit calmer and let Vicky Kloss or someone else handle things, then it could have been easily sorted out behind closed doors. But the situation was inflamed precisely by him saying the wrong thing to the media ("he'll never play for me again" and telling him to go) before he'd calmed down and thought about it. Tevez then behaved like a kid with a slapped arse as well. So that was definitely a case where keeping shtum would have helped enormously.

With FFP, we were in a delicate situation. We thought we were right and UEFA didn't. In the end, we kept quiet and got a set of sanctions that have barely touched us. Had we railed in the media (and there were almost certainly confidentiality agreements in place which meant we couldn't) things could have been worse.

I've dealt with the press, almost on a daily basis at one point, a few years ago. You really have to think about what you say, or even if you say anything at all. The first time I dealt with them, I was asked to confirm whether I had spoken to Mr X. I said that my position was that I wouldn't comment as a matter of course but would if the individual concerned wanted to be named. So my on the record statement was "I'm not going to confirm or deny I met Mr X". Next day's headline was "A representative refused to deny he'd met Mr X" which of course made it look like I had. I could have denied it, which would have been srtrictly true but then if I'd refused to deny I'd met Mr Y next time, it would have been taken as confirmation that I had. So that's why, 9 times out of 10, it's easier to say nothing.

I quoted Tevezgate on the previous page of a classic example of premature statements causing huge damage.

 

[bluesimon]

Please hand in your resignations. A group of fucking chimps could do a better job with the clubs image than these lot have. This has been going on for years and it's the same old story time after time with the club just having the piss taken by all and sundry and them not doing a single thing about it. This Yaya agent situation is the straw that has broken the camels back. Have a mad agent chatting shit about the club and not a single thing being done. Obviously went for a fucking liquid lunch.

you clearly have less intelligence than rooney's armpit. but that is what is brilliant about these kind of forums. It allows the deluded, mentally challenged and awe-inspiringly simple human beings the chance of 15 minutes of fame. Blue Moon Forum appears to have its fair share of these types and long may it continue. This thread should appear on the Comedy Channel...............

 

[Tim of the Oak]

To posters like RandomJ and nellyonthewing, how do you think it works with the media? Do you think that someone like Neil Custis decides to write something negative and rings up the club to see if they mind? Obviously they don't, so the first we and they see it is when it appears in the media. Also, we don't know what the exact context is to this story. It could well be we've already been asked about a new contract and said no, or been non-committal. So this is Seluk's Plan B. Or it could be that this is the first we've heard if it.

Then you've got a number of choices.

1) You can respond to every story. But, as every club PR person will tell you, if you do that then you'll never be off the phone or get anything else done. Plus if you don't respond then it'll be taken as confirmation, so you've made a rod for your own back. And if you do make a comment it can easily get twisted and can make you look worse.
2) You can ignore it or refuse to comment publicly, knowing it will go away in a day or two when the next big story comes along.
3) You can do (2) but also quietly brief some reliable contacts off the record, who will put out the line you want without quoting you. That's probably what we did yesterday. There were a few comments in the media suggesting Yaya had a contract to 2017 and was going nowhere, plus the video and text were highlighted as well.
4) If the story is perceived to be so damaging to the club or an individual's reputation then you can get heavy and go, or threaten to go, down the legal route. Usually the source will back down and the matter settled quietly, with a donation to charity or something.

If this was Seluk's Plan B, after getting rebuffed, then they'll have been expecting it and (2) is probably the best option as you don't necessarily want to inflame the situation or play it out in the media and you know what the guy is like anyway. He made himself look a complete and utter cock yesterday so it's far better to let him be the story and stay out of it.

If this came out of the blue however (although as I said we know his track-record) then I'd expect someone senior at the club, possibly KAM himself, to get on the phone and say "What's all this bullshit about? How about showing me and Sheikh Mansour some respect, not to mention the club, the fans, our commercial partners and your team-mates. We hold your contract until 2017 and you will be made to honour that. So if Mr Seluk is really acting on your behalf then you need to have a word, sharpish. Understood?"

I'm afraid these ranters haven't a clue how it works, PB. It's a simple, pavlovian world to them.

Remember how they spent two year's berating our media staff for not having any control over the media? Then the minute a bit of bad press came out about our ex-manager they became these big, evil puppet masters, pulling the strings of every media outlet?

Fans talk shite. It's what makes forums tick. And the most shite ever talked is about "the meedja", as though it's this great single-minded amorphous being.

Lol and thanks for the lesson in talking shite.

Any muppet can brief the press but managing the media is nigh on impossible in the long term - just ask Max Clifford.

I am afraid the Club's employees deviated from our PR long game by briefing against Mancini. Maybe he deserved it or maybe not - but we didn't deserve the Vicky Kloss Cup Final against Wigan.

I can understand our repeated media messages throughout the season of "unity in the camp" and "Together" have worked well in the main. However, this is red tag to a bull to some of our enemies in the media who would have been waiting eagerly for the first sign of a cock up. Micah's tweet, Milner's "threat to leave" and the Yaya shambles are all evidence of bringing us down a peg or two.

This is not a criticism of our PR/ Media Team who seem to have got their act together over theist 12 months.

 

[Prestwich_Blue]

Please hand in your resignations. A group of fucking chimps could do a better job with the clubs image than these lot have. This has been going on for years and it's the same old story time after time with the club just having the piss taken by all and sundry and them not doing a single thing about it. This Yaya agent situation is the straw that has broken the camels back. Have a mad agent chatting shit about the club and not a single thing being done. Obviously went for a fucking liquid lunch.

you clearly have less intelligence than rooney's armpit. but that is what is brilliant about these kind of forums. It allows the deluded, mentally challenged and awe-inspiringly simple human beings the chance of 15 minutes of fame. Blue Moon Forum appears to have its fair share of these types and long may it continue. This thread should appear on the Comedy Channel...............

No need for that mate. People genuinely don't understand how these things work and that sometimes it's easier to "take the pinch" (as the chairman would say). I prefer to try and educate people instead of running them down. If you don't like it here than feel free to find somewhere more to your liking.

 

[Prestwich_Blue]

Can we all calm down please. No need to spoil what's been a generally good thread with personal insults and sarcasm.

 

[nellyonthewing]

Can we all calm down please. No need to spoil what's been a generally good thread with personal insults and sarcasm.

Spot on PB.... Resorting to insulting fellow Blues just because they take a different point of view is the default setting of many on here..You know who you are............

 

[aguero93:20]

Can we all calm down please. No need to spoil what's been a generally good thread with personal insults and sarcasm.

Spot on PB.... Resorting to insulting fellow Blues just because they take a different point of view is the default setting of many on here..You know who you are............

Pair of mard arses. :)

 

[Worst Case Ontario]

Haha again some nobody thinks he knows better :D

 

[Tim of the Oak]

Anyway, there has been a decent share of good news this week for the Champions that our PR people have no doubt helped to share:

- David Silva is very happy with life at City
- we are going into Pot 2 in the next CL draw
- we are about to break even / be financially self-sustaining.

Yays's agent's outburst will soon be yesterday's chip paper, sorry cake wrapping

 

[kas_tippler]

Please hand in your resignations. A group of fucking chimps could do a better job with the clubs image than these lot have. This has been going on for years and it's the same old story time after time with the club just having the piss taken by all and sundry and them not doing a single thing about it. This Yaya agent situation is the straw that has broken the camels back. Have a mad agent chatting shit about the club and not a single thing being done. Obviously went for a fucking liquid lunch.

make it stop, please!