Klopp The Grinch, Media Shills, BBC Madness & More -Weekly Thoughts Part 2

Klopp The Grinch

Having discussed the disdain Jurgen Klopp has showed towards domestic cup competitions in part 1 of my weekly thoughts, another thought occurred to me as I lay awake in the middle of the night. My life is really exciting. Anyway, the thought was that by not going all out to win domestic competitions, Klopp denies the club’s fans experiences, not just trophies. Like the experience 35,000 City fans experienced last Sunday. And many more who were not at Wembley. He denies them the day out at the national stadium, the chance to see their captain climb the famous steps and lift a trophy. He will of course provide many other great memories of course, so many will argue it is worth the trade-off. But not for me. As a fan, I want my manager, my team to always strive to reach Wembley, and to win competitions they enter. Otherwise, what is the point? Wembley is a unique experience, a unique thrill despite all the faults of the place. If my team’s existence was basically an annual fight to stay in the Premier League and the manager treated cup games as an inconvenience, then I’d rather he was sacked, and a manager installed who wanted to win something, even if that increased the risk of relegation. It’s a more fulfilling existence. That’s why the cup defeats to Spurs, West Ham and Blackburn in past years hurt City fans so much. We had, amongst the constant mediocrity, begun to dream of success, of a chance of glory. And then it was (repeatedly) snatched away. It would have meant so much to get to Wembley during the fallow years, even more to have won something. In the end it took ending third in the third tier of English football to fulfil that dream, and that was not quite what we had in mind.

Shills & Trolls

As the battle between City fans and certain football “journalists” for control of the INTERNET continues on Twitter, City fans took the key stronghold of Hypocrisy after a fierce 3 day battle with Rob Harris, which culminated in Harris being pushed back after a series of blockades. Delaney continued to defy circadian rhythms and body clocks by holding firm for a number of days without rest, ably supported by a totally independent wingman. City’s shills and trolls regrouped near Stamford Bridge, before outflanking Harris Snr in a dawn raid. Battles were won and lost, but the war continues.

Anyway, I digress. My thoughts turned once more to shills and trolls this week, as it often does, due to the underwhelming news that Mason Holgate had signed a new contract with Everton. So what, I hear many of you ask? (if anyone is reading this). Well, what this news demonstrates perfectly is the laughable hypocrisy of any football journalist accusing football fans of being shills, when many in their own industry are exactly that. They’d never accuse their own of that of course. For days before Holgate signed that contract, the Mirror, namely David McDonnell, had an exclusive story on how City were weighing up a £30m bid for him. Days later, he commits to Everton. What a coincidence, eh? It’s almost as if McDonnell was acting as little more than a shill for an agent looking for a new deal for his client. This has happened a thousand times down the years. And he’s far from alone. From Sun journalists taking pro-United stories from new PR guru Neil Ashton, to David Conn and Tariq Panja acting as little more than UEFA mouthpieces, the list goes on and on. They’re even setting up burner accounts to agree with their own delusions. Of course journalists must have sources, but I’d love to know how parroting much of what they’re told is much different from being a shill. And a paid shill at that – and we all know there’s no worse type than that.

BBC Coverage

In a weird week, watching City defeat Sheffield Wednesday on the BBC was the weirdest occasion of all. It was like a surreal dream. The match itself was no classic of course, but it would still have been nice to have seen it all. Unfortunately the match director denied us that opportunity. Numerous times whilst the match was in progress, we were provided with lingering shots of things that were most definitely not the match itself. For a good 10 seconds, we watched Garry Monk watch the match, a match we ourselves could not see. The director was more interested in Pep though, not surprisingly, especially as he was even more animated than usual in his technical area. So we got multiple cuts to him gesticulating – whilst the match was in progress. It seemed too that the BBC had splashed out a few hundred quid (OF LICENCE FEE PAYERS’ MONEY!!!! – OUTRAGED OF SLOUGH) to purchase a drone, so we were treated to externa aerial shots of the ground too – naturally whilst the game was in progress. Then we had gratuitous close ups of players after they had DONE A SHOT, naturally whilst the game had resumed and was thus in progress. Weirdest of all was a lingering crowd shot that slowly zoomed in on a row of supporters who were simply sat there doing nothing. This was of course whilst the game was in progress. This wasn’t even an example of a pervy cameraman picking out an attractive woman in the crowd, though the guy in the woollen onesie should seek help immediately. To cap it off, there was the annoyance of showing some action close up, so you had no idea of the wider picture on the pitch. It was a disaster. Add to that Chris Waddle’s barnet, which caused me to have some vivid dreams last night, and him appearing to follow through during the cup draw (see Twitter for the glorious details), and it was one hell of a night. The icing on the cake though was Martin Keown, who could send an insomniac into a coma, plus the desperation of the BBC and Keown to find an angle to prove the goal was offside. Let’s move on and never speak of that match again. The thing is though, the BBC has vast experience in broadcasting football matches, making this coverage all the weirder.  I can only assume they’d got a film studies graduate in to gain some work experience.

Still, it could have been worse. In 2009, with a Merseyside derby in the fourth round of the FA Cup delicately poised with two minutes of extra time to go, ITV cut to a scheduled commercial break, during which time Everton scored the winner. Viewers were greeted to the players celebrating as the ad break finished. I’m guessing someone was escorted off ITV premises the following morning.

A Week Is A Long Time In Football – A Fortnight Is Like A Lifetime

It was the day of the Leicester City game. I had a banging headache and a stubborn hangover. I was sipping a diet coke whilst eating my gammon and chips (post-Brexit food) as I geared up for getting back to drinking alcohol again, which I held off until 3pm. I was tired, of life and football. I wanted to go home and eat junk food, and the last thing I needed was a City match. The UEFA ban and the fallout online had drained me of all enthusiasm for the sport I love, and the team I love even more. The season could not have ended soon enough, despite a routine win over West Ham during the week. Let’s just get it over with, then I can try and enjoy warmer weather, a holiday in Turkey, the Euros and then the Olympics. But then later that day the players showed they were not done with this season just yet, and City secured an excellent victory at the King Power Stadium. And here we are two weeks later, and the mood is rather different. City won in Madrid, won a cup final too, then progressed to the quarter finals of another cup competition for good measure. Four away games (or three away and a neutral) in four competitions, and four victories. The season may still be a relatively damp squib, but it just goes to show that you should never give up on this team, or this manager. I did that after the loss to Newcastle last January – I should have learnt my lesson from that, as that would be the last time City would drop points in the league all season. Seems there’s plenty of life left in this season yet, but still a lot of work to be done too.

Part 1 of Howard’s weekly thoughts can be found here.