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If There Is Hope It Lies In PR
As a fellow PR professional, the optimism of the Newcastle United Press Officer during Joe Kinnear's sweary tirade warmed my heart!
Newcastle Press Officer: What has been said in here is off the record and doesn't go outside.
Brilliant!
Matt (Off the record) Coy
Mental
For a brief couple of moments, I thought maybe, just maybe Joe Kinnear was attempting to create an 'us against them, everyone hates us, everyone's laughing at us' mentality to create some unity and spirit amongst the players. Which would be very clever, very Mourinho - take the heat off the players.
Then the more I read, the more I thought, no stop being silly, he's actually just insane.
God speed Newcastle!
Matt G, Bristol
Go Joe!
Hats off to Joe Kinnear, an old time man amongst soft modern boys, what a legend. I didn't particularly care what happened to Newcastle, the club has reaped what it sowed and the deserves everything it gets though I admit I have felt for their fans because misery like what they're feeling now is none of their fault (despite the stupid accusations leveled at them in this mailbox) and could happen to any of us fans in some shape or form.
Though now, now I am going to forget the clubs past indiscretions and for the few weeks that Big Joe is at the reigns I'll be shouting for them all the way. That club is a mess, but its none of his doing, he's taking a punt and sticking his head on the block in a move that could reignite his career or put him back firmly in the past, and I for one, after reading the following article and his attitude to the smarmy press who hopped on him from the beginning, hope he win's every game he's lucky enough to manage them in.
Austin Maguire, Dublin
...I'm sure this morning you'll get a load of emails about Joe Kinnears behaviour. Although what he did was extremely unprofessional, I'm sure there are managers out there past and present who are saying fair play to him. Joe Kinnear is in a no lose situation. Hes only got five games in charge and then his career is pretty much over. Hes been given a hard time by the press and he wants to retaliate. How often managers are given abuse in the press, in some cases unjustly, and bite their tongue because a) they could lose their job and b) they wouldn't find a lot of clubs willing to employ them in future if they did what JK did.
The press have started witchhunts against managers in the past and in many cases gotten them the sack. The Sun wanted Bobby Robson out of the England job because he got a player's name wrong. The press wanted Avram Grant out of Chelsea regardless of him taking the club within a whisker of a historic double. His crime? He wasn't Jose Mourinho and he didn't give them witty soundbites that they could use to sell papers. Thats not his job. He did a good job at Chelsea but all he got was negative press. Then we have Mirror "expert" Oliver Holt who said three years ago that Alex Ferguson was finished as a manager and it was time for him to retire! This sounds laughable now but at the time there were some Utd fans who started to believe it.
While some of what the press print is laughable, there are consequences. Such as the death threats sent to referee Urs Meier because The Sun printed his home address. What would have happened if some lunatic had made good on his word? Then theres the venom directed at Graham Taylor, yes he deserved the sack but the level of abuse he received was disgraceful. There's countless cases where the press have overblown a crisis at a club in order to create a frenzy of speculation and sell papers. This often results in the fans turning against the manager who eventually gets sacked, and of course the press gets itself another story. I'm sure many managers secretly dispise the press and would ditch press conferences altogether if it wasn't in their contracts. Although Joe Kinnears rant at the press was unsavoury to say the least, I doubt you'll find many managers who feel any sympathy for the press.
Dave, (Sir Rantsalot) Dublin
...Is it me or does Joe Kinnear sound like Terry Tibbs from Fonejacker?
Stokie Julian
Our Pleasure
I wrote to you last week asking if you could continue publishing things as funny as the 'Joe Kinnear becomes Newcastle manager' story every Friday.
With the mediawatch special about the Joe Kinnear press conference you have excelled yourselves. Absolutely brilliant. Thanks.
Adam (wondering how they'll top this next week) Graham
Speaking Too Soon
Loved reading Josh Hull's mail about the "media-friendly" "media whore"
that is Joe Kinnear. This would be the same Joe Kinnear who spat out 52 swear words at reporters yesterday, starting his press conference with the following chummy exchange with The Mirror's Simon Bird:
Kinnear: "Which one is Simon Bird?"
Simon Bird: "Me."
Kinnear: "You're a c***!"
That's Kinnear for you; always up a journalist's ar*e.
Steve Smith
Probably
Having just read Real Madrid making statements about signing Daniel Agger, can we expect a mailbox of Liverpool fans complaining about Real's attempts to tap him up, followed by a mailbox of Aston Villa fans exclaiming "Pot. Kettle. Black" and a never ending spiral thereafter?
Andy [Liverpool fan hoping to avoid the obvious] in London
And Here's The First!
Another day, another player tapped up by Real Madrid - they really do just say what they want, when they want, in order to acquire the players they want! How are they able to get away with it with such impunity? Aren't there rules against tapping up players who are at other clubs? If so, why aren't they being applied?
Agger is a quality player, but Skrtel and Carra have started the season in imperious form, which is why Agger's been benched (that, and the fact he sucked balls against Standard Liege). However, after Skrtel fell asleep for PSV's goal on Wednesday, I suspect Agger will get another chance to prove his quality. Agger's said he's happy to stay and fight for his place, and Rafa's said he wants to keep him, so what the bloody hell do Real think they are doing?!
Then again, can we really blame them? The rules seem to be a guideline for best practice rather than any kind of enforceable statutes with sanctions for breaking them. Liverpool are guilty of flaunting the rules as well. Let's look at the evidence; Keane left Spurs against their wishes, as did Berbatov. Real tapping up Ronaldo, along with pretty much every other decent player in the world. There isn't enough space in the whole of the Interweb to go on - the list is endless.
Every transfer seems to involve the selling manager complaining, or the selling club demanding compensation, and this is the nub of the problem - that you can buy your way out of trouble. People talk about football being ruined by money, and when you consider that rich clubs can do exactly as they please, safe in the knowledge that they can buy their way out of any punishment for breaking the rules, then it's hard to argue against them having an unfair advantage over everybody else.
Morgan (enforce the rules, or make it a completely free market) Goford
The Top-Heavy Prem
After watching Everton get rightfully knocked out and Portsmouth scrape through in the UEFA Cup last night, along with Tottenham's mediocre performance earlier in the day, can it be deduced that the Premiership isn't 'the strongest league', but rather an extremely top-heavy one? Aston Villa and Man City hardly breezed through their ties either, despite a wage bill that I imagine trumps their opponents ten-fold at least. That no English team has won the UEFA Cup since Liverpool in 2001 speaks volumes to me - and the only finalists since were Middlesbrough in 2006 following something of a freakish streak; ended when they actually played someone good. It took a big-four team for an English club to triumph in Europe's secondary competition, and if you took them out of the equation then you'd need to go all the way back to 1984 when Tottenham(!) triumphed. Granted, there was the Euro ban for English clubs, and Arsenal and Chelsea had success in the Cup Winners Cup, but to me this still shows a distinct lack of depth in our league and it's only the big-four starting to dominate the Champions League that is covering this up.
In the other two big leagues, Spain and Italy, you still get you usual suspects compete in the Champions League year on year - but they're not a monopoly like it's become over here. In Spain, clubs like Villarreal, Sevilla, Atletico Madrid, Deportivo, Celta Vigo and Real Sociedad have all experienced playing in it in recent years, while Italy have put forward a couple of surprises of their own in the form of Lazio, Fiorentina and Udinese. The only teams outside of the big-four to make shock appearances in recent years have been Newcastle and Everton, and neither made it that far and they certainly don't look like making a return any time soon. There isn't necessarily that much wrong with having a distinct hierarchy of teams, but it seems to have suffocated our mid-table clubs and made them weaker than their continental counterparts.
The mass influx of money into the Premiership in recent times was supposed to allow these clubs to close the gap with the top four teams, but it seems all they're doing is paying more money for the same standard of player (£15m for Maroune Fellaini anyone?). Our failings in the UEFA Cup could also be down to the fact that it's simply not that highly regarded here. For example, Bolton last season who played a weakened side against Sporting Lisbon so they could rest players for their match with Wigan (which they lost of course). Maybe this attitude will change when it's rebranded the Europa League next season, but I doubt it. I think its profile would be helped a great deal if the winners were given a Champions League spot for the next season (it would seem the only way for Everton/Villa/Tottenham to ever get there), but again I don't think that would happen, if only because of Michel Platini.
Nick (Bristol City supporter) Hamblin
Refs
It's a shame that Moyes isn't confident enough in his own men to win the game fair and square 11 on 11 and he needs a referee to send off an opposing player in order for his team to win. If that's the case they should never have been in the competition in the first place.
Anne-Marie Towell
Laughing
In response to the first point made by Euros (Slightly Bitter) Rees in yesterdays mailbox, it's fair to say everyone has to listen to that pre-season nonsense from Spurs fans
In fact just insert a name from the brackets below and i've had this same pre-season conversation with Spurs fans every year since the late nineties.
"We're gonna be great this year, (Santini / Jol / Ramos) is a really good manager, he's gonna take us places. (Rebrov, Davids, Berbatov, Bentley) is a great buy for us and we have this youngster called (etherington / king / davies / lennon / huddlestone / bale) coming through too ... we'll be challenging for the top 4"
When this conversation starts, just not your head in agreement (it's best not to engage them in conversation). Then have a right old laugh a couple of months later when it all goes horribly wrong.
Chris Nixon, Hong Kong
Moaning
I don't understand the current thinking by managers, fans and the UEFA cup. They always aim to play in Europe and then they moan about it when they in there. All Harry Redknapp could say is the competition takes a lot of out the players. Its the first time Portsmouth have qualified for Europe and in their second match the manager is already complaining!
Man City couldn't even sell out Eastlands so why do people always aspire to play in Europe and when they actually get there they are not interested? Rebranding the UEFA cup the Europa league is not going to make a difference.The only way to make a difference is to get managers more positive about it and use their energy positively about it, creating more interest about it and then hopefully attracting more fans. Both Harry Redknapp and Mark Hughes should be publicy stating that the UEFA cup is a trophy they are aiming for and can win. Portsmouth to build on their FA Cup win and City to start the new era. If not they may as well stop giving so many entries to English teams in the UEFA cup.
Ben
Gerrard
As a sidenote to Liverpool's pretty impressive CL trouncing, did anyone notice that when Gerrard sold Riera a nasty hospital pass (not his first of the game), and Riera, spinning out and losing the ball to avoid getting hammered, gave him a what-the-f**k look, Gerrard stared him down and mouthed off at him like it wasn't his fault. In fact I don't think I've ever seen him apologize for anything he's done wrong, including those studs-up and stamping tackles of yesteryear. As captain and idol of many kids he should set a better example and own up, raised hand, like most classy players do, when they screw up. I personally think he's a brilliantly talented but spoiled and lazy minded player who hinders the team's play as often as he helps it. I often wonder what would have happened if he had indeed gone to Chelsea.
Mark Trotsky
Etymology
Everton - Derived from the Saxon term "The ref was a bit dodgy".
Shaun Wright-Phillips - From the old Woolwich adage, "Never take advice from your dad, especially when hes a numb nut".
Spurs - Modern term from Manchester meaning "to put the squeak back into the bum".
Carlton, Cambridge
