Mediawatch: We never said Mata would leave!

Daniel Storey

Bright Sun
This past week has left Neil Custis awfully confused. The Sun‘s man has followed Manchester United as they slipped to a 4-0 defeat against Chelsea on Sunday, before they secured victory in the Manchester derby over City on Wednesday. It might only have been the EFL Cup, but still.

‘Juan Mata has emerged as the answer to one of Jose Mourinho’s big Manchester United questions,’ Custis begins. ‘The Special One is gathering more evidence as to what is his best United team.’

And it is there we must stop him. Because that is just very silly. Mourinho ‘is gathering more evidence as to what is his best United team’? This coming from a man who, on Tuesday, stated the following:

‘Jose Mourinho needs to make big changes to shake Manchester United out of their slumber. Because, right now, with Pep Guardiola and Manchester City visiting in the EFL Cup tomorrow, we are entering David Moyes territory.’

Oh, Neil.

The former fat man does continue in his Friday column, which discusses the emergence of Juan Mata as Mourinho’s saviour. He writes:

‘Pundits thought he would be first out the door when the new boss arrived – after Mourinho rejected him at Chelsea. Not so.’

Curse those bloody pundits, making grandiose claims with nothing to back them u… oh, what’s this?

‘Juan Mata linked with Barcelona move as Jose Mourinho likely to axe Spaniard again’ – The Sun, May 30.

‘Jose Mourinho to axe Juan Mata and Daley Blind as Special One attempts to reshape Manchester United squad’ – The Sun, May 31.

‘Jose Mourinho set to flog Mata again as Toffees launch £20m bid for Manchester United playmaker’ – The Sun, July 3.

‘Manchester United’s Paul Pogba transfer hinges on offering Juan Mata to Juventus as bait – with Villarreal also keen on Spaniard’ – The Sun, July 12.

‘Juan Mata could be sold by Jose Mourinho to free up funds for either Leonardo Bonucci or Raphael Varane’ – The Sun, August 12.

Bloody pundits.

 

Carrickature
Writes Custis:

‘Another who Mourinho now knows still has a lot to offer is Michael Carrick. His stats are even better than Mata’s – every time he has played this season United have won.’

To be fair, he’s absolutely right. To be pedantic – for that is what we do best – Carrick’s four appearances this season have come in a 4-1 victory over a poor Fenerbahce side, a 3-1 win over League One Northampton, a 1-0 win over a much-changed Manchester City and as a second-half substitute in the 4-1 win over Leicester.

He was brilliant for those 12 Premier League minutes, mind.

 

Take Zlat
It’s safe to say Paul Merson is rather unimpressed with one Manchester United player. The Magic Man delivers a withering assessment in his weekend predictions for Sky Sports.

“Zlatan Ibrahimovic was a world-class striker but he’s not anymore,” he says. “He is 35 and playing in the hardest league in the world so as the season goes on, I can’t see him getting better.”

It’s as fair an opinion as any. There is a clamour for Ibrahimovic to be rested after scoring just one goal in his last eight games. He is struggling.

But Mediawatch cannot help but notice that Merson might well have changed his mind on the Swede. As early as March last year, he said: “He is a winner. Everywhere he has gone he has won league trophies. I think he is priceless. He has that arrogance with him but he performs at the same time. He is not just arrogant and no good.”

That does not exactly sound like a striker who is no longer “world-class”, one who won’t get any better.

To be fair to Merson, that was when Ibrahimovic was at Paris Saint-Germain, and it was a fair few months ago. So we all have to be thankful that he graded every Premier League club’s transfer business in September. Here, he gave Manchester United an A+, and stated, on Ibrahimovic:

‘He is a dressing room leader and goalscorer…’

It’s been a long month and a bit.

 

Report in a storm
On Skysports.com, Alan McInally has given each Premier League club a rating for this season’s performance. You might think that there is already a table that does that – we call it the league table – but you’re an idiot. It’s half-term, you see. So we need half-term reports:

– Liverpool are level on points with top of the league; they get a ‘B’. Arsenal, who are level on points with them and finished considerably higher last season? ‘A-‘. Of course.

– Tottenham are one point from the top of the Premier League – they get a ‘C’. They’re level on points with Chelsea, who get a ‘B’. That league table really is misleading.

– “I’m going to go as low as ‘C’ for Tottenham because I thought this would be a big season for Spurs and I think they’ve struggled a little,” says McInally about the only unbeaten team in the country.

– Tottenham’s grade is the same as Manchester United’s, who they lead by five points. And Leicester, who have gone from top to 12th. That league table really is misleading.

– Watford and Bournemouth are both in their second season back. They’re level on points too. The marks? ‘C’ for Watford and ‘A’ for Bournemouth. Sure.

– “I want to give them an ‘A’ because of the position they’re in at the moment and the football they’ve played has been excellent,” says McInally on Southampton – they get a ‘B’. Sensational.

 

Give him the Gigg
Have you ever heard of Ryan Giggs? He’s Welsh, he’s hairy, and he used to play football. Oh, and he is linked with every single vacant coaching job in the top two divisions of English football.

The latest club to reportedly target the untested 42-year-old is Wigan. They are 23rd in the Championship, struggling, and in need of a manager after sacking Gary Caldwell. Stan Collymore feels this would be the perfect club for Giggs to ‘cut his teeth’.

‘By all accounts Ryan Giggs didn’t interview too well at Swansea and left them underwhelmed,’ writes Collymore in his column for the Daily Mirror. ‘To be honest, I never thought that was the right first managerial post for Giggsy anyway.’

Yes. He refers to him as ‘Giggsy’. Three years separate these two men. ‘Giggsy’.

Anyway…

‘They went for American coach Bob Bradley instead and I’ve no problems with that. A job much more suited to Giggs and his current level of experience is Wigan. They may be a struggling Championship side, lacking the glamour and gravitas of a big club, but I think they would be a perfect project for Giggs.’

So far, so good. Mediawatch cannot disagree with an awful lot of what Collymore writes there, and even if anyone believes the Championship is still too high a league at which to earn your first job in management, it’s clearly a better alternative than being linked to every Premier League job.

The problem is that Collymore does not stop there. And his following sentence – ‘I’ve listened to Ryan doing punditry and analysis on TV and he’s good’ – isn’t even his worst.

‘He talks sense and clearly has the tactical tools necessary to manage. He just needs the right club to allow his own personality to come through.

‘And after being tarnished by Louis van Gaal’s infamous philosophy, it’s vital we see the real Ryan when he lands a job.’

It feels like last season all over again. Giggs was ‘tarnished’ by Van Gaal’s ‘infamous philosophy’? Can you really completely absolve the man who served as his assistant manager throughout his two-year spell of any blame whatsoever? What was Giggs doing for those two years, just putting out cones and smiling while Van Gaal waved a clipboard at him?

As the man himself said last week: “It would be wrong to say that was all Louis’ fault. We must all take our share of the blame.”

 

Oh-zil
The Sun‘s website have some massive transfer news for us, which is mightily handy on a quiet Friday in late October. What are the chances?

‘Arsenal transfer news: Mesut Ozil held secret talks with Turkish giants Fenerbahce,’ reads the headline to a piece by Gary Stonehouse. This is huge.

‘ARSENAL star Mesut Ozil held secret transfer talks with Fenerbahce last summer,’ it says. ‘That is the shock claim for Turkish media outlet Hurriyet, who claim the forward travelled to Istanbul for discussions over a potential switch to the Super Lig giants.

‘The meeting, which reportedly took place within the 17 hours Ozil was in the capital city, was kept secret.’

For starters, the meeting clearly was not ‘kept secret’; it’s one of the leading stories at the top of your website, guys. Come on.

That is not even close to the biggest problem, however. Mediawatch cannot decide whether The Sun wilfully ignored the part of the original story on the Hurriyet website which clearly states that Ozil was discussing a potential move ‘in the coming years’. A man whose ancestors are Turkish is contemplating moving to Turkey towards the end of his career? Surely not?

Then you consider that the Hurriyet article itself is three days old, and the whole thing just makes you a little bit unhappy. But those clicks. Those delicious, lovely (and deceitful) clicks.

 

Comeback to reality
‘Why Premier League leads are becoming harder to turn over: will comebacks ever come back?’ reads the definitely not hyperbolic headline on the Daily Telegraph website.

‘Are comebacks a thing of the past?’ the piece begins. ‘Once the hallmark of the Premier League and Sir Alex Ferguson’s Manchester United, particularly in his final season, victories from losing positions have become something of a rarity.’

‘Of the 90 games so far this season, only eight have seen a team win after going behind – a proportion of just 8.9 per cent. And none of the last 28 matches have witnessed a comeback win – since Liverpool’s 2-1 triumph at Swansea.

‘This is the second lowest proportion in a Premier League season, after the 2004/05 campaign, and is also some way down on the average prior to this season of 10.9 per cent.’

A rarity? A thing of the past? Shall we look at the evidence?

We’ve had 90 games, and had eight comeback victories, hence the 8.9%. The previous average, as noted in the piece at 10.9%, would mean an expectation of 9.8 comeback victories by this stage (let’s call it ten). So we’re only 1.8 (let’s say two) behind the average. ‘Are comebacks a thing of the past?’ No, we’ve just had slightly fewer than normal. You’ve also ignored comebacks ending in draws, for a reason Mediawatch can’t quite fathom.

Also, as the piece says: ‘This is the second lowest proportion in a Premier League season, after the 2004/05 campaign.’ So if it didn’t mean ‘comebacks were thing of the past’ in 2004/05, why would it suddenly mean that now?

‘Sunday’s game [Southampton vs Chelsea] may – more than any other – be the best litmus test for whether comebacks are going to make a comeback this season,’ the piece concludes.

Erm, no it won’t. The number of comeback victories over the course of the season might, provided the pattern then continues over the next few years to mark a clear pattern. Then we’ll talk.

Instead, you noticed a slight anomaly, made a headline out of it and added a sensational line just to grab the readers’ attention.

 

Dark arts
Props to former West Brom manager Steve Clarke for tipping his old side Chelsea as ‘a potential dark horse’ in The Sun.

They ‘could come from nowhere’, he writes. Who could possibly have foreseen the champions from two years ago not being quite as sh*t as last season after changing managers and spending over £100m?

 

Slight difference of opinion
‘Manchester United reserve team manager Warren Joyce is set to become the new manager of Wigan Athletic’ – Daily Mail.

‘Manchester United have not received any approach from Wigan for permission to talk to Warren Joyce’ – Sky Sports.

Cheers for clearing that one up.

 

Weird headline of the day
’10 reasons to feel curious about this weekend’s Premier League football’ – Daily Telegraph.

What?

 

Recommended reading of the day
Gregg Bakowski on that Esteban Cambiasso goal.

Daniel Williamson on the legend of Carlos Roa.

Ian Darke on Pep Guardiola.