By Tony Attwood
It is generally accepted that footballers and managers do not criticise the media because they (the clubs) use the media to put out false stories, acting as cover for their real activities – particularly in the transfer market.
But they can, on occasion, say the exact opposite of what happens, knowing that by and large the media will let them get away with it – in return for more interviews. Unai Emery putting out the wholly false tale that he looked around to shake Arteta’s hand at the end of the match yesterday, but couldn’t find him, is utterly false, as the video of the end of the game shows. But some of the media accepted it, in the hope of a reciprocal interview in the near future.
Thus, managers and others will encourage the media to publish completely false tales of proposed transfer details in order to cover up the actual deal they are working on. Such a move can lead other clubs along the wrong track, and allow the two clubs involved in the deal to get on with their negotiations.
However, the media needs transfer stories, since that is what they primarily live on in terms of football – and indeed if you ever bother to look at a popular newspaper or blog a day or two after the window closes, you will usually see they are still publishing rumours, as the build-up to the next window starts at once. Such stories cost nothing to research (since they are mostly made up) and they fill up space between the adverts.
So what are we to make of the fact that Pep Guardiola became critical of Sky Sports during a recent press conference? The manager accused Sky of distorting his comments.
Unfortunately, such a statement doesn’t really get us much further in discovering the truth. Maybe the Sky statements were true, and Guardiola was trying to deflect them, maybe they were false, and he was saying just that, or maybe he was just trying to ensure that the scribblers kept well away from the real story about who he and his club were going to sign in January.
But behind this, we have the question: why get angry? ManC can buy pretty much anyone they want, and even if the media breaks the story, no other club can interfere because ManC can outbid anyone and everyone.
But we have to remember that the 100+ breaches of the rules of financing that the Mancs have been found guilty of are still on the table. The club has appealed, and since then we have heard nothing.
Indeed Bing’s comment on all this is still the one they published in September 2024, to the effect that the hearings will be concluded in December 2024 (ie one year ago) with the verdict to be announced by May 2025 if not sooner. (Just in case you have lost tract, we are on the edge of January 2026).
To build on this brick wall approach, Guardiola then told a Sky journalist that he always writes the opposite of what Guardiola says.
Now one can argue that the Manc manager is frustrated with journalists, but it is more logical to see each statement as a way of distracting them from the biggest story – the charges against Manc.
Guardiola is seemingly duty-bound to keep up the act, because that is what his paymasters appear to want, just as a while back ky were stopped from asking questions at a City media event briefing. And it seems ManC won that battle as the media appear willing to kowtow to the clubs restrictions on what can be talked about.
The media do regularly bow to the manager’s wishes for fear of being kicked out of briefings and thus letting their rivals have a free run of a story. But there are signs that a few journalists and editors are getting fed up with being told what is and what is not a story.
Obviously, thus the most likely explanation for all this little spat is to keep attention away from the charges of which the club has been found guilty. It is wholly outrageous and unacceptable that an appeal that began on 16 September 2024 is still without a resolution on 31 December 2025. But as long as they kowtow to the manager, that silence will continue.
Of course, the situation concerning Manc might be that there are detailed technical issues still be argued over concerning the charges against them, but that does seem increasingly unlikely. Much more likely is the fact that Manc has threatened to wind the Premier League up in so many court cases that the rest of the clubs will simply not be able to afford to fight the cases.
There is however, a way out of this – that the rest of the clubs hand in notice to leave the PL, and form a new super league to which Man C is not invited. The problem with that is that it seems possible that Uefa, under the influence of ManC and their financiers, have been told not to accept that move, and so that separate issue is being argued out, until one side or the other gives in. But we don’t know. The mess continues.
