Clickbaiting death is latest low from online football media as newspapers show respect

The newspapers are rightly dominated by the scenes in Paris while websites merrily clickbait the death of a young woman…

Oh Carroll
Two days after the Champions League final and one day after the Championship play-off final, what’s the biggest story in football according to The Sun football homepage?

‘Andy Carroll’s fiancée Billi Mucklow wipes footballer from WhatsApp profile over stag do antics after ‘crisis talks’’

Yes, that’s right; the biggest story in football on Monday morning is that the partner of Andy Carroll – out of contract with rank Championship side West Brom at the end of next month – has changed her WhatsApp profile picture. Which apparently constitutes ‘wiping’. It turns out Mediawatch regularly and unwittingly ‘wipes’ their wife.

On a day when The Sun newspaper dedicates page after page to what happened to Liverpool fans in Paris, we can only imagine what their army of reporters thinks when they open the website to see Carroll’s gurning mug and a headline about a sodding WhatsApp profile picture.

Shameless
It’s a seriously grim day as elsewhere on The Sun website, they shamelessly clickbait the death of a young woman who happened to be married to an obscure Mexican footballer.

This is genuinely one of the worst headlines we have ever seen:

‘Mystery as former Chelsea star’s young wife dies leaving behind two-year-old son and sending football community in shock’

Where to start? With ‘former Chelsea star’ being used to describe a footballer who literally never played for Chelsea?

Or with the use of the word ‘mystery’ to suggest something controversial or salacious when all it really means is that Macarthur FC – for whom the largely unknown Ulises Dávila now plays – did not announce how she died. Mostly because that would be a gross invasion of privacy.

Mystery? The real mystery here is how anybody waved that shameless shite through.

And of course they’re not alone. Here comes the Mail:

‘Mystery as award-winning former Chelsea soccer star’s young wife dies – leaving behind their two-year-old son and sending Australian football into shock’

Four words for you: F*** the f*** off.

Shock tactics
‘Man Utd star James Garner wanted by Leicester and Everton in shock transfer after Nottingham Forest loan’ – The Sun.

Hands up anybody who is ‘shocked’ that a young midfielder who excelled in the Championship but is untested in the Premier League would be wanted by likely mid-table clubs?

None of you? Not a one? Congratulations for you are not absolute numpties.

Sad songs say so much
Over at the Mirror website, they tasked one of their many ‘Sports Agenda Writers’ (still difficult to believe that is actually somebody’s job title) to bring them a Sadio Mane update, so this is where we find ourselves on Monday morning:

‘Liverpool have leverage in Sadio Mane talks after Bayern chief’s transfer declaration’

Has a Bayern chief made a transfer declaration about Sadio Mane? Has he balls.

But what did happen – on April 25, over a month ago – is that Bayern Munich’s sporting director Hasan Salihamidzic made a ‘transfer declaration’ about Robert Lewandowski.

And in Mirror agenda land, that means that ‘Liverpool have leverage in Sadio Mane talks after Bayern chief’s transfer declaration’. On May 29. Because Sadio Mane is a trending topic.

Hard to decide whether that’s better or worse than claiming that Andy Carroll’s partner’s WhatsApp profile picture is football news.

Not quite on the same page
Ian Ladyman, Daily Mail, p71: ‘There have been some strange observations since Real somehow found a way to beat Liverpool in the Stade de France. Some have said Klopp was ‘out-coached’ by Ancelotti. Others have made much of Liverpool’s failure to score in each of the three finals they have played in this season. They beat Chelsea on penalties in the Carabao Cup and FA Cup finals, of course.’

Martin Samuel, Daily Mail, p72: ‘In three cup finals this season, Liverpool have played five-and-a-half hours of football and haven’t scored a goal. Plus, in nine matches against the top four clubs in all competitions – Manchester City, Chelsea and Tottenham – they have won a single game, against an under-par, exhausted City in an FA Cup semi-final. They haven’t lost, either, but a record of P9 W1 D8, suggests the elite managers – Pep Guardiola, Thomas Tuchel, Antonio Conte – have worked out what Liverpool do and how to set up not to lose against them, more often than not.’

Fight, fight, fight.

But Ladyman is not for giving up on the idea that Liverpool and Klopp did nothing wrong in Paris, though he begrudgingly writes that ‘it would be wrong to say Real did not deserve their final victory’ and concedes that Real ‘prevented Liverpool from scoring, only the second team to do that this calendar year’.

Which kind of glosses over the fact that Chelsea did it twice – in two finals – and also that Arsenal did it in their Carabao Cup semi-final first leg. So this is the fourth time this calendar year, which nicely cuts out Leicester doing it on December 28. So Liverpool have actually been prevented from scoring five times in five months, which does not sound quite so impressive really.

Pot luck
Those of you a little bored of watching Liverpool play Real Madrid should beware because the Liverpool Echo are here with an update:

‘Liverpool could face Real Madrid rematch as Champions League route becomes clearer’

They could. But they could also face Eintracht Frankfurt, AC Milan, Bayern Munich, Paris Saint-German, Porto or Ajax. That’s how a draw works.

Over at the Manchester Evening News they got the same Reach memo…

‘Man City’s Champions League group seeding and potential opponents set after Liverpool FC lose final’

There follows a whole lot of words to explain that essentially, Manchester City cannot now face Ajax.