23 Jul 2017 17:54:04
Found this on the Gooners page, Hope you won't mind me posting this Ed, so fellow blues could read as i found it rather interesting.
It's with regards to the influence of social media and football journalism during season.
{Ed002's Note - It is a good question to ask and perhaps I can offer an example of "unsubstantiated journalism" this morning.
The true sports journalist is still out there - they will have good relationships with certain clubs and with many of the intermediaries (agents/ representatives) that there are out there. Often they will get on well with certain players. These folks will not always get it right, but they should be able to more often than not confirm where there is interest in players and broadly what progress is being made toward agreeing any sort of contract that can see a transfer happen. However, with the world changing due to social media, Twitter, Blogs, Facebook and a whole host of new and often transient web sites that provide up to the minute and blow-by-blow accounts. The true sports journalist will take this with a pinch of salt, but others (I would never use the term but oft referred to as the writers of “lazy journalism†do) . And the example is indeed Arsenal related (well sort of) . A player who Arsenal were expected to make an offer for this summer, Naby Keita, has been reported as being subject to an agreement to join Liverpool for £74.5M overnight Friday/ Saturday with the news breaking last night. The report has been picked up and is being repeated from the original source (Winner Sports) with compelling headlines from the Star and the Express. I am not a reader of the papers, well not the English press, and I had not heard of Winner Sports. So a quick check of their web site and it seems to provide links to gambling we sites, which seemed odd - just as odd as providing a price in GBP as opposed to Euros. So, where are they based? A quick check of their address of "22 Fleet St London EC4Y 1AA" (ignoring their @gmail. com" contact address) and suddenly there is a hint: Ye Olde Cock Tavern on Fleet Street – how apt. As an aside Arsenal don’t see the value in Naby Keita at anything like the figures being thrown around.
So as you suggest, there is a blight out there and this blight exists with the new style of reporting that is coming out of social media – the purpose of which really seems to be a place where you can keep in contact with old school chums, chaps you were incarcerated with and sharing photographs of your breakfast. Many football supporters are desperate for transfer news and will follow the slightest hint of their club buying a player like lemmings, believing every word they read. Where rumours persist of a player potentially leaving the club we get screams of “unsellableâ€, “he’s worth £100M†and “let him rot in the reservesâ€.
So what you need to do is find the remaining true sports journalists who won’t give blow-by-blow accounts but will be able to tell you, in most cases, where there is interest in a player. They won’t always be right, they won’t always have the sensational headlines; but they do offer up decent information. }.
23 Jul 2017 18:51:32
Saw that reply. Excellent write up by Ed.