Salah ‘shock’ announcement over contract as accurate as ‘bizarre’ Neville and ‘remarkable’ Ten Hag
Liverpool thrashed Manchester United but that was not enough. We have to pretend Gary Neville and Erik ten Hag said ‘bizarre’ and ‘remarkable’ things.
Hint condition
It will be a fun ten months of Mo Salah stating the actual simple fact that this is the final year remaining on his Liverpool contract every time he is asked about his future. The best bit, as ever, is where elements of the media wilfully lose their minds in reporting on it.
Fair play to BBC Sport – ”This is my last year’ – Salah says no talks over new Liverpool deal’ – and especially the Daily Telegraph – ‘Mohamed Salah: This is my last season at Liverpool’ – for playing it absolutely right. Salah, a player in the last year of a contract which is yet to be renegotiated by his club, said he was a player in the last year of a contract which is yet to be renegotiated by his club. It might have been a tactic to put pressure on Liverpool. It might not. But that is all Salah said and not everything needs to be put through a sensationalised clickbait machine. Sometimes simply regurgitating the key quote is fine.
But that is never going to be enough for some.
‘Salah drops biggest Liverpool exit hint yet live on Sky Sports’
Nope, the Sun website. A player in the final year of his contract said his club had not opened negotiations over that deal yet so he was going to enjoy said “final year”.
‘Mohamed Salah drops Liverpool exit hint after thrashing Man Utd – “This is my last year”‘
Almost, Daily Mirror website. There were no ‘hints’ in a player acknowledging the upcoming expiration of their contract.
‘Mohamed Salah makes shock Liverpool announcement after Man Utd win’
Not quite, Metro. At least not unless it somehow completely escaped you that Salah’s deal expires at the end of the season. Only then could that possibly have come as a ‘shock’.
But good lord, leave it for Reach publications to lower the bar.
‘Mohamed Salah ‘confirms he’s leaving Liverpool’ minutes after Man Utd victory’ – Daily Express website.
‘Mohamed Salah confirms he’s ‘leaving’ Liverpool at the end of the season after Man Utd win’ – Daily Star website.
The goldest of coins to anyone who can guess precisely how many times the words in quote marks are actually quoted in either story.
Slot machine
‘Gary Neville makes bizarre Arne Slot Liverpool claim in Jamie Carragher clash after Man Utd win’ is an intriguing headline from the Liverpool Echo. Has he called him the new Roberto Martinez?
Senior Football Writer Stephen Killen lets us in on the secret. As early as the first paragraph the ‘bizarre Arne Slot Liverpool claim’ is laid bare.
‘Liverpool icon Jamie Carragher and Gary Neville were embroiled in a heated exchange following the Reds’ 3-0 win over the Red Devils. The former Manchester United defender has claimed that Arne Slot was the Reds’ third choice successor to Jurgen Klopp as pressure mounts on Erik ten Hag.’
But…he was? And that is absolutely fine; neither Jurgen Klopp nor Rafa Benitez were Liverpool’s first-choice appointments and they both went well enough.
At the very least Xabi Alonso and Ruben Amorim were ahead of Slot in the pecking order at one stage of Liverpool’s manager search, with Roberto De Zerbi among others who were prominent in their thinking for a time.
Neville’s claim was so ‘bizarre’ that Jamie Carragher didn’t challenge it. Just because Slot has had a phenomenal start, doesn’t mean we have to pretend he was the only person ever considered to replace Klopp.
Hag knock life
The hyperbole bug has obviously spread among the Liverpool Echo headline writers because this is Ian Doyle’s piece:
‘Erik ten Hag makes remarkable Manchester United claim in bizarre exchange after Liverpool humiliation’
And the contents of said ‘remarkable Manchester United claim’ are not immediately clear, but there are only two possibilities:
1) Erik ten Hag saying he is “not Harry Potter,” which he isn’t.
2) Erik ten Hag saying “I think we won after [Manchester] City the most trophies in English football in the last two years,” which they have.
It seems to be the latter, and any sympathy for Doyle at being stitched up by a headline he presumably did not concoct is eradicated by this line:
‘And the Dutchman has launched a passionate defence of his methods in which he reiterated United are the most successful team after neighbours Manchester City in the current era.’
‘The current era’ is a wild way of saying ‘the last two years’, which is obviously the timeframe Ten Hag was discussing as he was speaking about his tenure. And ‘remarkable’ as it is, Manchester United’s Carabao and FA Cup outstrips Liverpool’s League Cup since his appointment.
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Stuck in the admire
‘You have to admire United for sticking with Ten Hag and rewarding him for lifting the FA Cup last season’
Erm, do you, John Cross of the Daily Mirror?
You with the sad eyes
‘Martin Odegaard shows true colours as Arsenal star’s behaviour on bench comes to light’ – Daily Mirror website.
This just in: the captain of actual Arsenal rubbed his face and held his head in his hands out of possible frustration during a frustrating game. The mask has slipped and Odegaard’s ‘true colours’ are clear to see.
Silence treatment
‘Declan Rice breaks his silence after controversial Arsenal red card vs Brighton’ – Daily Mirror website.
It was literally a post-match interview. As far as monastic vows go, it wasn’t particularly powerful.
Area code
‘Paul Scholes slams Erik ten Hag and highlights area Man Utd are ‘miles behind’ Liverpool’ – Daily Mirror website.
He somehow does not say ‘the pitch’.
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