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Is the 66-year-old Fabio Capello 'a young coach who can remain in the job long-term'? Oh and Spurs fans should be relieved...
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Nando's happy, but not according to Auntie, the old tease Hazard, WE TOLD YOU SO and more...
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Foxy Knoxy/Harry
After Harry Redknapp was found not guilty of all charges in Southwark this morning, Mediawatch is hearing unconfirmed reports that The Daily Mail announced 'Redknapp looked stunned after he dramatically lost his case.
'As Redknapp realized the enormity of what the jury was saying he sank into his chair sobbing uncontrollably while his family and friends hugged each other in tears.
'Prosecutors were delighted with the verdict and said that 'justice has been done'.
Possibly.
Best Friends
Mediawatch is in a good mood this morning, so we're going to choose to believe Sir Alex Ferguson's commendable 'racism is rubbish, isn't it?' interview represented his real beliefs, rather than an attempt to look a bit better than Liverpool.
However, it would be remiss of us not to note this bit from his statement:
"I have had some fantastic black players, absolutely magnificent black players, and with every one of them I have enjoyed my working relationship with them."
Hang on, is he saying some of his best friends are black?
Oh Paddy
Twitter. Home of all that is amusing, stupid, entertaining, remarkable, despicable, heart-warming and offensive.
Usually, the ridiculous and despicable stuff come from unhinged message board posters, sexually frustrated 15-year-olds who can only let out their pent-up emotions by calling someone a douche, or a combination of both.
As far as we're aware, Fleet Street veteran and Ming the Merciless lookalike Patrick Barclay is neither of those things, but he certainly dropped something of a 140-character b*llock on Tuesday evening.
In response to a fairly standard jibe from a fan asking if one can get 'any lower' than taking the Murdoch coin, Barclay replied:
'Yes, you can. For example, you can be in a crowd that crushes 39 people to death.'
Oh boy. Despite rather rapidly deleting the tweet, he didn't stop there, claiming the chap in question 'asked for it' and asking 'Does anyone seriously disagree?'
Mediawatch put our head in our hands, primarily because of the obvious crass, immature and despicable nature of the comment, but because we knew what was coming next.
See, this is how these things on Twitter work: Person A says something awful, Persons B-Z say even more awful things should happen to Person A, everybody ends up looking like d*cks and we all die a little inside.
And so it came to pass. The responses to Barclay's tweet ranged from the relatively mild calls for him to lose his job at the Evening Standard, to the rather more extreme wishes that he and his entire family died of cancer, he dies in a car crash and/or hoping he gets hit by a bus.
It's a never-ending cycle of awfulness, and we'd like it to stop please, for all our sakes.
Like That Bit In Casino
Of course, the papers are once again full of stuff about Fabio Capello and why the FA should use his head to open the door at Wembley and chuck him out onto the cold, snow-laden streets, after his apparently act of gross insubordination by disagreeing with what his bosses said.
One of those joining the clamour was Paul McCarthy, formerly of The News of the World, who was on Sky Sports News this morning to comment on the situation.
Of Capello's meeting with the FA, he frowned: "There's a real stand-off and an element of brinksmanship. There's a sense of betrayal at the FA."
We don't wish to give advice willy-nilly here, but if we were McCarthy we wouldn't be too vocal in our criticism of anyone for not doing as their superiors tell them. After all, McCarthy's current gig is as PR advisor to Kia Joorabchian and Carlos Tevez.
Parasites
More Twitter fun now, and Daily Mirror journalist Dan Silver didn't take kindly to having one of the paper's stories mocked by the chaps over at 101GreatGoals.
If you want to read the whole exchange you can see it on either Silver or 101GG's Twitter feeds, but the Mirror's man did call them 'parasites' on a number of occasions, claiming that nicking and then mocking stories from the press simply isn't cricket.
You can decide if he has a point, but as a watch who has been called a 'parasite' by one of Silver's colleagues, this does give Mediawatch a chance to point out a wee bugbear that we've had for a fair while now.
A parasite is something that lives off another being. Without that host, the parasite would not survive. It is utterly dependent on the host. So Silver is saying 101GG is living off another industry.
Dan Silver is a football journalist. Without football, and all of the people involved in it, his job would not exist. Football journalists live off the industry that is football.
If 101GG are parasites, then Silver and The Daily Mirror are too.
Scouting
Top knowledge from The Daily Star, who report: 'CHELSEA are lining up a mega-money swoop for Atletico Madrid striker Falcao.'
Interesting. What do they have to back their theory up?
'Starsport can reveal Chelsea have had representatives at virtually every Atletico Madrid game for the last three months watching Falcao, who is 26 on Friday.'
Mediawatch did think it a little odd that Chelsea were so keenly scouting a player who Andre Villas-Boas managed to a bucketload of trophies and a skipload of goals at Porto last season.
Of course, they could have had representatives at virtually every Atletico Madrid game for the last three months to watch Falcao. Or, they could have had representatives at virtually every Atletico Madrid game for the last three months to watch Thibaut Courtois, the Atletico keeper currently on a season-long loan from Chelsea.
A Peaceful Showdown
Headline from The Guardian website: 'Capello increasingly isolated ahead of showdown talks.'
Headline just below that from The Guardian website: 'FA to hold peace talks with Capello.'
Press Release Intro Of The Day
'Legendary cardsman Graham Poll launches the Carlsberg Pub Cup Green Card initiative at Wembley Stadium.'
Insert own 'Carlsberg don't do press releases...' gag here.
Equality Story Of The Day
'World football's governing body (FIFA) has appointed Human Settlements Minister Tokyo Sexwale to its media committee, his department said on Tuesday. The committee - chaired by Algerian Mohamed Raouraoua - deals with working conditions of the media at FIFA events, said spokesperson Isaac Skhosana. It was also responsible for maintaining relationships with the international media. "Sexwale... says he is humbled by the appointment, which should be seen as a continued recognition of South Africa's successful hosting of the 2010 World Cup," Skhosana said' - News24.com.
Non-Football Story Of The Day
'An undercover policeman 'chased himself' around the streets for more than 20 minutes after a bungling CCTV operator mistook him for a suspect. The rookie officer was staking out an area in Sussex hit by a spate of burglaries when he was radioed about someone 'acting suspiciously' in the area. The CCTV operator directed the policeman in pursuit, telling him he was 'hot on his heels' of the suspect - not realising the person he was watching on camera was the plain-clothed officer himself. The policeman spent around 20 minutes 'giving chase' before a sergeant came into the CCTV control room and recognised that the 'suspect' was in fact a member of his team. The error was revealed in police federation magazine Police this week by a senior officer' - The Daily Mail.
Runner-Up
'Three BJP ministers in Karnataka, who were caught on camera watching porn on mobile phone during assembly proceedings, resigned on Wednesday following orders from an embarrassed party leadership. Going into a swift damage control mode, the party asked minister for cooperation Laxman Savadi and minister for women and child development C C Patil, to quit, while minister for ports, science and technology, Krishna Palemar was axed for allegedly providing the blue film to his colleagues to watch. "We don't want the party and the government to face further embarrassment. All of us have decided to resign. We have handed over our resignation letters to Chief Minister with a request to accept it," Savadi, Patil and Palemar told reporters' - The Hindustan Times.
Thanks to today's Mediawatch spotters Philip Holland, Ian Childs and Dr D Tickner. If you spot anything that belongs on this page, mail us at theeditor@football365.com, putting 'Mediawatch' in the subject field.
