Absurd coverage of Pereira as Ronaldo is ‘snubbed’
The situation at Everton is truly bizarre. Why are the media so dead-set against Vitor Pereira? They feel stronger than the fans, it seems.
Hit back to where you once belonged
We’ll start with the back page of The Sun, who tell us that ‘VITOR PEREIRA hit back at furious fans with an extraordinary TV interview on why he should be given the Everton job’.
Except he didn’t, did he? He hit back at nobody at all. He said – quite rightly – that “critics are not reacting to me, it is the environment” and though he was “hurt” by the backlash, he “didn’t take it personally”. That’s pretty much the opposite of hitting back at furious fans.
And for the record, what he was said was not ‘extraordinary’; it was simply unusual that he said anything at all.
To the Vitor the blame
In The Sun they write that ‘hundred of fans protested over a Pereira appointment’ while the Daily Mirror report on ‘protests’ and a ‘massive backlash’ despite there actually being no mention of Vitor Pereira on any of the placards and signs in Liverpool on Wednesday night as some fans vocally protested against the running of the club.
David Maddock writes that Pereira ‘faced up to the fury of Everton’s suffering supporters’ as if that fury was actually about his potential appointment, which is nonsense. His potential appointment – which now seems unlikely – is simply a symptom of the many issues at the club, and that’s what is clearly motivating the fans.
Indeed, the Mirror run a piece by the #27Years campaign that does not mention Pereira even once. He is not the problem here, so don’t tell us that ‘EVERTON ARE AT WAR OVER HUNT FOR NEW BOSS’. Any war at Everton is between the fans and the owners; Pereira is just getting caught in the crossfire.
Mind you, Maddock had clearly already made up his mind, writing that the appointment of Pereira ‘is sure to anger and frustrate long suffering Blues supporters’ and ‘will dismay Everton fans’ long before anybody got out their spray can.
More shite
Chris Bascombe – fresh from calling yesterday’s Mediawatch ‘shite’, which he is perfectly entitled to do – writes of Pereira’s TV interview that he ‘effectively recited his Everton job interview’ and ‘at times, it sounded like Pereira was reading from a prepared script’. Which makes the Telegraph‘s headline of ‘Frank Lampard set for second Everton interview after Vitor Pereira’s Sky Sports outburst’ look particularly odd.
Can you ‘recite’ an ‘outburst’?
Polishing an absurd
Even before Pereira’s unusual TV interview, Sam Wallace of the Daily Telegraph was getting quite confusingly angry about the possible appointment of the Portuguese. The strength of feeling about this potential appointment really is quite extraordinary.
‘Tumult is what they have now. Appointing Pereira in the face of this opposition would be absurd.’
‘Absurd’? It would not have been the most spectacular appointment, but ‘wildly unreasonable, illogical, or inappropriate’?
‘What little Everton have in their favour is a home ground that can be a difficult place for opponents to play. No club of any ambition wants to rely upon being carried aloft by their home support, but that does not feel like an asset Everton can afford to lose. Duncan Ferguson may have lost his first game back as caretaker manager, against Aston Villa last Saturday, but it was by no means an abject performance.’
Well that’s not what Telegraph colleague Chris Bascombe watched on Saturday, when he wrote: ‘This was as dismal a day as there has been for Everton in the grimmest of seasons in this arena, any hope that Benitez’s dismissal earlier this week would lead to instant upturn wrecked’.
Wallace of course has ideas for alternatives.
‘Lampard is available and comes with Premier League experience. Rooney has battled admirably at Derby County, the boy who has been famous his whole adult life demonstrating a maturity that had looked beyond him at times. Even Ferguson could galvanise something. All of them are better options than Pereira.’
No wonder the poor man was befuddled into appearing on Sky Sports News; the noise around his appointment is nothing short of baffling. Some might say it was absurd…
Frankly my dear…
Obviously, everybody is more comfortable with the possible appointment of Frank Lampard because we all know so much more about Frank Lampard, which is how we arrive at these headlines:
‘Frank Lampard has already revealed what Everton could expect in dugout and dressing room’ (Mirror)
‘Frank Lampard has already made feelings clear on Dele Alli amid possible Everton link-up’ (Express)
Already: Now the byword for ‘he said some stuff ages ago that could be seen as vaguely relevant to the current situation’.
Mediawatch has already made its feelings clear on that particular nonsense.
Do Ron, Ron, Ron
Having hoovered up all the clicks by pretending that one Ronaldo is much the same as any other Ronaldo with headlines of ‘Anthony Martial close to tears as Ronaldo sends message during Sevilla unveiling’ and ‘Man Utd news: Ronaldo’s message to Anthony Martial as Bruno Fernandes problem emerges’ (the second part of that headline is as pure bollocks as you might expect), the Mirror put all their eggs in the actual Cristiano basket with this ‘news’:
‘NO ROOM FOR RON: Haaland names three best players in the world with Messi in and Ronaldo out’
The story begins:
‘Borussia Dortmund star Erling Haaland has given his verdict on the three best players in the world – with Cristiano Ronaldo snubbed from the Norwegian hotshot’s list.’
Yes, he ‘snubbed’ the player who is clearly nowhere near the three best players in the world right now. Instead, he named three of the four players who led The Best FIFA Men’s Player voting. Perhaps the more accurate headline would have been ‘Borussia Dortmund star Erling Haaland has given his verdict on the three best players in the world – with Mo Salah snubbed from the Norwegian hotshot’s list’, but then that would not have fitted the Daily Ronaldo agenda.