Ten Hag ‘bites’/’hits’/’snaps’/’pops’ back at Ronaldo but Arsenal (not 115 charges) threaten ‘integrity’

There is some nonsense about Arsenal threatening the ‘integrity’ of the Premier League, but first is the Cristiano Ronaldo-Erik ten Hag ‘war of words’.

1, 2, 3, 4, I declare a dumb war
The news cycle never really stops but it is always a perverse pleasure to watch it work in real time: person says thing, usually on a podcast or YouTube show, thing is blown massively out of proportion and becomes A Thing, different person is asked about Thing, usually with a quote delivered completely out of context by a slightly mischievous journalist during a press conference, and Thing eventually becomes far too big and eats itself, then everyone forgets about it all once some football is played.

And so we move to Cristiano Ronaldo versus Erik ten Hag, and the ‘war of words’ only actually being fought by one man clinging to his final shreds of mainstream relevance in a career slowly fading towards retirement.

Just to be clear, we mean Ronaldo there, and the ‘fresh swipe’ he aimed at his former manager recently.

Quite inevitably, that led to Ten Hag being asked about Ronaldo’s quotes on Thursday, to which he replied:

“He said that Manchester United can’t win the Premier League. No, he said this if you read the article very well. So he’s far away in Saudi, far from Manchester. Everyone is entitled to have an opinion. It’s OK.”

And, well, yeah. Ronaldo did say that, suggesting Manchester United could win the Carabao but would find any other trophy “difficult” to secure this season as they “have to rebuild from the bottom”. Ten Hag himself said that they are “a long way away” from winning titles in July, but added before the season that their aim is to “win every competition in which we are taking part, definitely also the Premier League”.

Ronaldo is also far away in Saudi, far from Manchester, and entitled to have his opinion. Lovely. Simple. Except…

‘Ten Hag bites back at Ronaldo,’ screams a Daily Mirror back page which reduces/upgrades (genuinely not sure) that to ‘has hit back’ in the first paragraph.

Even better, here is the website headline:

‘Erik ten Hag snaps back at old foe Cristiano Ronaldo’s Man Utd ‘ambition’ claim with Saudi dig’

It would be great if the Mirror could clarify how stating an actual fact qualifies as a ‘dig’? He is in Saudi and that is far away. And while you’re at it, please explain how saying someone is entitled to their opinion equates to a ‘snap’, ‘bite’, ‘hit’ or any other variation of ‘back’, including sexy.

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The Daily Mail throw another option into the hat with their back-page headline of: ‘Ten Hag’s pop back at ‘far away’ Ronaldo’. But again, Chris Wheeler reverts to the ‘has hit back’ tabloidisaton in his first paragraph, before referring to this ‘war of words’ in which one man discussed another for about ten seconds and concluded by saying he is “entitled to have an opinion”.

But leave it to The Sun website to just make a mess of the whole thing. It is the easiest story in the world to sell – almost everyone has gone for ‘hits back’ or something close – yet they cannot help unnecessarily complicating the whole thing.

‘Erik ten Hag breaks silence on Cristiano Ronaldo’s latest fierce criticism of Man Utd with spiky response to club legend’

It was literally his first press conference since. And if he wanted a ‘spiky response’ then Ten Hag should have pointed out Ronaldo has scored zero goals for Portugal.

Hold on…
‘Ten Hag drops blunt Ronaldo response after fresh slam with ‘far away in Saudi’ verdict’ – Football365.

Oh for fu…

Loan survivor
Andy Dunn makes some points in his Daily Mirror column about Arsenal loaning Raheem Sterling. It is not on Mediawatch to suggest whether those points are good or bad, but they are most certainly points and Dunn has made them.

He argues that it damages the Premier League’s ‘integrity’ – a reminder that their four-time consecutive champions face a litany of charges for alleged financial rule-breaking – and is ‘fundamentally wrong’.

‘It is a blot on the Premier League’s copybook,’ Dunn adds, arguing how unfair it is that Sterling can, for example, make his debut against Spurs this weekend but will not be available for either of Arsenal’s Premier League game against Chelsea.

A reminder that Sterling’s last appearance in a match between Arsenal and Chelsea ended in a 5-0 victory for the former; it doesn’t feel like Sterling not being able to feature in such a fixture affects the ‘integrity’ of the Premier League all that much in a material sense.

Premier League clubs have also been loaning players from other Premier League clubs for actual decades. Leaving aside obvious Arsenal media conspiracies which definitely exist, seems a bit weird to raise it as this massive ‘fundamentally wrong’ problem all of a sudden.

Cooper trooper
With his latest exclusive for The Sun, Matt Hughes has underlined how difficult and precarious football management can be.

The juxtaposition between the first three paragraphs…

‘STEVE COOPER is battling to keep some of Leicester’s senior players on board after just three games in charge.

‘SunSport has learnt a number of the squad have found it hard to adjust to the manager’s hands-off approach.

‘That is because they were used to being told exactly what to do in almost every aspect of the game by his predecessor Enzo Maresca.’

…and the eighth and ninth…

‘Cooper is relaxed about the situation and accepts it takes time for a new boss to earn the trust of players – particularly given the big differences in style between him and Maresca.

‘The Italian was not universally popular either despite leading Leicester into the Premier League last season – some players feeling he was too bossy and demanding.’

…really is quite something.

Unnecessary clarification of the day
‘Why FA should NOT be targeting Pep Guardiola or Jurgen Klopp to be the next England manager (and it has nothing to do with them being foreign), writes IAN LADYMAN’ – MailOnline.

Way to make it sound like it has specifically everything to do with them being foreign. Only at the sodding Mail would those parentheses be deemed necessary.

Your biggest fan, this is Stam
‘Former Premier League star goes on trial accused of smuggling two TONS of cocaine and is also being investigated for alleged money laundering as he’s branded ‘major player in the drugs world” – MailOnline.

Fair play because they acknowledge and embrace the rules of the ‘former Premier League star’ headline game fully: he is not named and only increasingly vaguely alluded to until the sixth paragraph, and his reveals absolutely fits the bill of being massively and inevitably underwhelming.

In fact, Ronnie Stam’s 62 Premier League appearances for Wigan between 2010 and 2013 might make him overqualified.

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