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Gossip Folks – the Roundup
Throughout the month of January, I ran an experiment looking at transfer stories in the media regarding Birmingham City with a view to looking at how they panned out and how accurate they are. With the month now over, I thought I’d go through my thoughts on it.
I suppose it shows how artificial the hype of the transfer window is that the two players who left the club both left for teams that were understood to be long-term admirers of those players, and the only player who came in as it were was a loan extension. Yet it doesn’t seem that people see it that way – I only have to look at Nathan Redmond’s facebook page to see people begging him not to leave when the reports of Manchester City’s “interest” in him broke. It’s this hunger for stories and gossip that fuel the media printing them – after all, the media only prints stories that are going to sell newspapers, boost viewing ratings or raise website traffic levels – and in turn that fuels people’s hunger for gossip even more; in short it’s a vicious circle.
What complicates matters is the whole idea of accuracy of transfer speculation. One thing I’ve come to realize is that truth isn’t an absolute, it’s a perception and as such accuracy isn’t as clean-cut as you’d think. For example, a player’s agent may say that player is interesting club x and y, and could move to one of them. Yet his manager may say that the player isn’t for sale and he’s staying put. It’s quite possible that both stories are true, and that both are a report of the situation however people see them as being mutually exclusive when they’re not – they’re just the two sides of a coin. I guess it comes down to what a reporter should report – and my belief is that a good reporter should report both sides of the story – yet it’s entirely possible that space issues and editorial decisions preclude that.
Another thing I picked up on was that there were appeared to be much fewer stories about concerning Blues than say there were in the summer. I suspected that was because of our position in the second tier – the fact is that we’re not as much of a pull as maybe a Premiership team would be, and thus a media outlet’s finite resources have to be placed elsewhere from Blues. Obviously as a Blues fan it kinda hurts that the media don’t care about us as much any more – but I do wonder if not being so heavily speculated over is beneficial to the club.
What it comes down to is that the hysteria over deadline day with various reporters freezing their brass monkeys off hovering outside training grounds in the hope of getting a glimpse of a player coming in for a medical or maybe interview Harry Redknapp via his car door is exactly that – hysteria. Sky Sports can have all the fancy gizmos showing potential moves, three mobiles for each reporter to call agents on and Jim White orchestrating it all like a circus ringmaster but unless there is actual action it’s all turns out to be like a wonderbra. Full of promise but once you get into it potentially a little bit disappointing.
Tags: Sky Sports, The Media
26 Responses to “Gossip Folks – the Roundup”
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Not that I’ve read very many of your reports but that is definitely by far the worst. What are you going on about? Sometimes if you’ve got nothing to say, you’re better off leaving it that way.
Thanks for the support Fred, tis appreciated.
You just made my day. Comparing transfer-deadline-day to a wonderbra is a beautiful gem.
SKY are responsible for reducing every potentially newsworthy event to pure drivel. To be honest I found this year’s last day of the transfer window a total non event, but rather than tone down their reporting, SKY spent most of their air time telling us how wonderful they were and how they had umpteen reporters waiting pointlessly around the country. I for one will give it a big miss next year.
i for one am glad this window is now over- 2 reasons- we’ve come out of it ok – ridgewell going didnt bother me – jean could of helped us thru to the end of season – but we need the money- the other reason is i get sick of sky/ papers stirring up rumours over transfers- anyway roll on the 4th feb
I haven’t got Sky so thankfully i miss all the hype.
It’s a good job we’ve got the regional press, the Birmingham Mail do a good job reporting the facts and not the rumours. Instead of doing an interview with that creep Nursey why not interview Colin Tattum?
I would like to interview Tatts but I’m not sure he’s willing.
Bluenosesol’s last sentence explains why tabloids’ sales are falling. People are waking up to the fact that they’re cheap because they’re full of bullshit.
So, almajir, having carried out your exercise who do you trust most for informed speculation (which is the best that can be expected) on such football matters? Perhaps you could develop a hit parade of pundits.
I’m biased, and it would be unfair for me to make a comment because it would be based on personal preference etc.
TBH, I think it’s best to read what everyone has to say, and then for people to make their own judgement based on all the information.
I’m biased, and it would be unfair for me to make a comment because it would be based on personal preference etc.
TBH, I think it’s best to read what everyone has to say, and then for people to make their own judgement based on all the information.
Keep up the good work almajir,ignore Fed.worrying news about the accounts(how much longer can this go on!).What are your thought’s about Collin Calderwood.we are scoring loads of goals since his arrival.
I don’t think it’s purely down to Colin Calderwood; I think it’s been coming since the start of the season and stuff is now starting to click.
I’m really excited by this team, I genuinely think we are playing some of the best football for decades
Just imagine if CH had some money to spend,HA HA.
don’t buy biased, half truth political biased newspapers , don’t watch BBC bias nor will i ever have sky.
just mainly rely on the internet and get different views on the same story which you don’t get via our tv or print media run by the rich or the state with their own agenda of which there are many.
tv shows with the scams and robbery of phone in competitions etc leads me to sky spouting football transfer rumours then ask you to use ‘sky bet’ on the rumours they release.
if that isn’t a conflict of interest i don’t know what is.
Exactly. Question everything.
The only signing i want to see is ch on a long term contract as he has got to be the best manager in the long term for b.c.f.c. how can you convince the board to sort this out sooner rather than later.
Absolutely right get Chris Hughton signed up to a proper long term contract now.
Apart form the cloud hanging over the head of Blues called BIH accounts I agree that the feelgood factor from the pitch must have lifted everyone supporting Blues this year. It’s almost too good to be true! The Calderwood comment is interesting. When he first came on board, Blues couldn’t score for love nor money and we started to play a style of football that was more defensive than pre his arrival and I feared we were going the wrong way particularly when playing away from St Andrews. That’s changed of course and now we are not only solid defensively but clinical in front of goal and also streets better in midfield than early season. Hopefully a defender, a left mid and a forward can be got on loan to give CH a few more options and then its just up to the boys to keep going for another 19 league games and perhaps 4 more cup games!
One of the problems of football speculation in the media is that the sports-journalism world is relatively small. Most journalists in the field know (and get judged relative to) each other, which means that there’s a desperate fear from journalist x not to be scooped by journalist y or to have missed a story that everyone else has reported on. Would you want to be the muppett who failed to report that Tevez was going to Macclesfield or wherever when the story had been discussed everywhere else?
Unfortunately, none of the speculation matters at all – but only if it doesn’t concern your own club that is. I’m as guilty as any of lapping up the latest nonsense about other teams — and it’s that hunger that the journalists are feeding.
Keep up the good work Almajir, your articles get me through a long day at work, best blues blog going.
As regards sports reporting, just watch 5 minutes of Sky’s Sunday Supplement (if you can last 5 minutes) and you can see how far sports journalists have got their heads up their own rears. They are so full of themselves and so self important it makes you sick.
One watch of that and you wouldn’t trust anything they said, they would write anything just so long as they have their name in print. As someone once said never let a good story be spoiled by facts.
When Mr Calderwood arrived at Blues, the teams results for several of the ensuing matches were not particularly good. Since then, things have improved immeasurably so kudos to him and the others of the staff – and, of course, players also.
Did not the arrival of Mr Calderwood coincide with Mr Hughton’s Manager of the Month award?
As is well known, the gaining of the M.O.M award is the kiss of death for the next few games, and this seems to apply to most managers who ‘win’ it.
Thus, let’s hope Mr Hughton does not gain said award for January!!!
It could be argued that awards such as the above mentioned and Man of the Match award…etc.
could be viewed as devisive and possibly cause some ‘dissatisfaction to other staff and players.
Finally, I have to thank you yourself Mr Almajir for your superb blogs – You should get an award!!!
am i the only one who thinks tatts is a seriously bad reporter and socially inept……….
Probably
What a bizarrely contradictory statement from the esteemed Fred McTedd. ‘Not that I’ve read very many of your reports but that is definitely by far the worst’ I am a tad confused to how he has ascertained the article to be the ‘worst’ when by his own admission he hasn’t read many of the reports on here?
What drives some people to espouse such negative diatribe without adding anything constructive is rather bewildering and a sad indictment of some peoples outlook on life.
For what it’s worth, as an expat living in Australia, I find the blog to be well written, imaginative and a positive addition to the news stream relating to our beloved football team.
It’s free, it’s an opinion, if you don’t like it don’t read it.
I often wonder why some people bother to get out of bed in the morning!
Just my opinion!
has always good stuff alm.