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The Sun getting self-righteous over Sheffield United/Wednesday
Headline from The Sun this morning – “What hope is there for football? Sheffield shamed by finger yobs”
I always afford myself a wry smile when I see one of the tabloids print this type of story – the whole article laden with mock incredulity and despair at humanity.
“Two fans, who are old enough to know better, showed the ugly side of the beautiful game by making obscene hand gestures during the Steel City clash which ended 2-2 at Bramall Lane.”
So a local derby produced some colourful language and some distinct gestures? Really? I would’ve never predicted that happening. No way, not from a football crowd surely?
This is the domestic version of the ‘night that shamed football’ story that the Sun/Mirror/Mail publish after English fans indulge in a bit of pissed-up over indulgence during a World Cup. It’s nauseating that a tabloid can print this story without even a shred of irony.
After all, the two fans ‘that were old enough to know better’ are actually just a microcosm of The Sun’s readership. The manner in which the press absolve themselves of any blame for the state of society is revolting.
It’s TV, it’s over-paid celebrities, it’s schoolchildren eating the wrong things – no, no, no, it’s your badly-written, hate-spewing comic of a newspaper that helped create what so disgusts you.
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Thoughts on The Sun’s England reaction
Are the press ever capable of a proportional response to an England performance? The coverage is always boom or bust, and the national side seems stuck in a perpetual fluctuation between hopelessness and invincibility.
There’s no fluctuation with Rob Beasley though, he’s always a tool. For those who don’t watch Sky Sports’ Sunday Supplement, Beasley is shouty little mockney who works for The Sun. Ah ‘Beas’, you are such a massive, massive prick.
‘TYPICAL England — they promise us so much but deliver so little.’
Except for a point in a hostile environment and qualification for the European Championships? Beasley is one of those hacks that genuinely believes that England should be walking off with a trophy at every tournament – ‘who needs a Messi, Xavi, or Iniesta when you have a super Frankie Lampard’ etc.
“It was a night when we should have been cracking open the champagne to toast making it to next year’s finals in Poland and Ukraine.
Instead, we cracked up and it turned into yet another drown-your-sorrows debacle.
Let’s get it right, this always should have been a formality.
After all, what were we up against in this so-called do-or-die qualifier?
A country that is just five years old, boasts less than 700,000 people and is named after a black mountain.”
Debacle? Sorry, did I miss something? On Friday night I saw a slightly above-average team qualify with from their group with a point in torrential conditions against a spirited opposition with more quality than they’re being given credit for. Jovetic and Vucinic Rob? No? No idea? Sorry, nothing exists outside of the Premier League does it?
The ‘black mountain’ comment Beasley makes is shameful too, because it’s that kind of arrogance that makes the rest of the world crave our failure – arrogant, patronising, and dismissive. Like everything else in The Sun, it reeks of Xenophobia. Does anybody else see a correlation between how far above the rest of the world we think we are, and our failure to ever justify that sentiment?
Maybe it’s time to accept that our football team is in fact – wait for it – not quite as good as we think it is. Please, because the melodrama that greets anything less than an England rout has become so tedious.
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‘The Sun is the most disliked newspaper’ – Poll Result & Comment
‘It’s The Sun Wot Won It’
No surprises there then, as the dirty little tabloid scoops 62% of your votes.
Whether it’s the Murdoch factor, the forced pun in every headline, or general crimes against literacy; there are just so many reasons to detest The Sun.
At its very best it’s cheeky, but at its very worst it’s an appallingly manipulative and borderline fascist hate-rag – and its offices are crammed with some of the most dislikable sports writers in the country.
‘Writers’ is perhaps flattering, because most of the columns read like transcripts of shouty conversations that have been had in a pub, and are all riddled with whatever agenda the journalist happens to be carrying at the time. Rob Beasley, Shaun Custis? The embodiments of the old-fashioned football hack that substitutes ‘BIG OPINIONS’ and ‘EXCLUSIVES’ for craft in their work.
The Sun’s readership figures are just a shocking indictment of us as a nation. A national embarrassment.
West Ham relegation not our fault – Karen Brady
Well, that’s basically what she’s saying.
As we said a couple of days ago, West Ham would benefit greatly if their Owners and Chief Executive were a little less-fond of seeing their own names in the newspapers – especially in the ‘it’s everybody else fault but ours’ way in which they appear morning.
Karen Brady hasn’t been shy in apportioning the blame away from herself, David Gold and David Sullivan, and is quoted in The Sun today as saying;
‘Avram was given the best possible conditions to do the job. There were no silly targets set, no talk of Europe. We just said: ‘Keep us up’. He was given extra training-ground staff and his personal needs met – including a driver, a new office and an upgraded expensive football analysis system. When things got tough, we backed him again. January signings like Wayne Bridge, Robbie Keane and Demba Ba saw us put our money where our mouth is. Again, no big names left the Boleyn. A good man, Avram was given every chance but he was sadly unable to deliver.’
Couple of things, by ‘we backed him again’ do you mean ‘made a very public and clumsy approach for Martin O’Neil’? Really, because we’re not sure that sends the most supportive message to the incumbent manager. Does it also include the owners speaking publicly about which players would be sold after the club was relegated – before they’d gone down. Does it involve publicly questioning the fitness of first-team players? How about writing this in your Sun column about another Premier League club:
‘It’s obvious Blackburn’s new owners want to make a splash by linking their name with big stars such as Ronaldinho and Beckham. Such publicity comes cheap and can turn out to be expensive in terms of future credibility.’
Be careful with those stones in that glass house. Glossing over insignificant details like West Ham’s own tactical association with David Beckham, Ruud Van Nistelrooy and Thierry Henry – why does Paul Peschisolido’s WAG have a column in The Sun anyway? Who does that benefit more – West Ham or Karen Brady?
As a parting thought, given that Sullivan, Gold, and Brady made the decision to replace Gianfranco Zola with Avram Grant, maybe they should be taking a little bit of responsibility for what happened while he was in charge. But keep blaming everyone but yourselves – Bjorgolfur Gudmundsson, Gianfranco Zola, Avram Grant, Kieron Dyer, etc – and see how long the West Ham fans tolerate that for.
‘Arsenal’s Fabregas & Tottenham’s Bale wanted by Chelsea’ – The Sun
Epic nonsense in The Sun today, as in amongst the usual offering of general fascism they have their ‘Rom plans £80m Chelsea spree’ story – that’s Cesc Fabregas and Gareth Bale heading to Stamford Bridge in case you’re asking.
Reporter Rob Beasley – and viewers of Sky’s Sunday Supplement will know what a horrible little p**ck ‘Beas’ is – must have been up all night inventing sources to back this up. Talking of which, that murky ‘club insider’ makes a reappearance to let us know that:
‘Roman has always wanted to see a Chelsea side that played what he calls ‘sexy football’. He’d rather see a match where they win 4-3 in swashbuckling style than grind out a 1-0 result.’
Mentions of Cesc Fabregas – none, mentions of Gareth Bale – oh, you get the picture. It’s also worth knowing that Beasley is actually a Chelsea fan, so at what point is the use of the country’s highest-circulating paper to spread fictitious rumours about players you’d like to see your club sign an abuse of power? And it gets worse…
‘Wesley Sneijder, Thomas Muller, Adam Johnson, Matt Jarvis, Ashley Young, Jack Rodwell, Marouane Fellaini, Luka Modric and Andrey Arshavin are other possibilities – all of who can inject pace into an ageing squad.’
Actually ‘Beas’, what you’ve done there is just invent a list of youngish Premiership players, none of whom are in any way being targeted by Chelsea. It’s not the best bit of journalism is it.
As with any story that appears on The Sun’s website, a search of the comments below will never leave you feeling short-changed. GoldDigga360 insightfully added this little snippet of genius:
‘Judging by his ugly mug i can’t see how he can make Chelsea sexy. The players they have at the moment don’t exactly have sex apeal, well unless you’re a wanabe wag or non-celeb who will sleep with anything that can fund your champange lifestyle.’
Nice one – LOL!!!! etcetc
Just when you were starting to feel proud of being English again…
EPL News 24/7
The Sun embellishing on some Gareth Bale quotes
Oct 3
Posted by thepremierleagueowl
‘Gareth Bale: Arsenal Should Have Kept Star Names!’ – ‘Bale in dig at Gunners’.
Really? What did he say? Did he make comparisons between the sale of Samir Nasri and Cesc Fabregas and Tottenham’s refusal to budge of Luka Mordric? Did he accuse Arsene Wenger of turning Arsenal into a selling club?
No? But look at the headline, whatever he said must have been fairly damning surely?
Um…no…
“Arsenal have lost a few players, which makes them more beatable I think as that has damaged the way they play.
We exposed that. I think keeping your best players is a massive thing.
They are used to how you play and what you do. It is vitally important to do that and build your team around them.
It is important that we have Modric and Arsenal were unlucky not to keep theirs.
They are still a great team. They haven’t had the best of starts but I am sure they will improve.
They have a lot of young players who are going to grow up in the next season or two and learn a lot. I am sure they will be fine.”
Yeah, that was savage.
Why can the tabloids not just report information? Why must everything be artificially inflated by salaciousness?
Posted in General, Tabloid Lying
2 Comments
Tags: Arsenal, Arsene Wenger, Comments, Gareth Bale, The Sun, Tottenham