Spurs, Berbatov and speculation – is the press destroying English football?


When members of the Tottenham board went over to Spain to talk to Juande Ramos about his position at Sevilla, they were doing nothing wrong. If you are the chairman of a business and believe you can replace, say, your very decent marketing manager with someone better you wouldn’t fire them and then see what you can attract. You would sound out prospects that are, in your opinion, better and if one of them agrees to come on board you fire your current manager only once you have signed the replacement.The vilification of the Spurs board by the club’s fans is largely for their lying about the whole mess instead of being open and, by failing to immediately throw their unequivocal support behind Martin Jol, leaving the much-loved manager in an untenable position. Ultimately BMJ might have still had a chance of getting morale back into the Tottenham camp if not for the daily hounding and speculation of the press as to his demise.When England finally got rid of Sven Goran Eriksson for under-achieving, being dull and having sex with attractive women, their preferred new man was Luiz Felipe Scolari. He was tagged. He was bagged. He was on his way to London. Then he encountered the British press and the man immediately, and with some justification, made an about-turn. The British press were invasive and prone to writing popular fiction rather than the news.It was the British press which viciously tore apart a young England player for a single mistake. It might well have killed David Beckham’s love for the game and destroyed his career. He wasn’t even 21 at the time and England could have lost the young man who turned into one of their most important players in the following 10 years.According to the British press, Arsene Wenger’s career at Arsenal was over last year. He was done. How many times has Sir Alex Ferguson been “on his way?” Rafa Benitez and Big Sam Allardyce are the latest managers to be targeted. Yet there have been no noises from the Liverpool or Newcastle boards about dissatisfaction.Dimitar Berbatov has been the latest victim on the playing field. By all accounts a mild-mannered, quiet gentleman, he settled down and did great things in his first season in the England. He tried desperately to keep away from the press.In the pre-season transfer window, though, wild tales were spun of a transfer to Manchester United. Speculation increased as Ferguson said some complimentary things about him. Berbatov’s agent was sent out to deny these rumours. When speculation continued to increase, with papers quoting “close friends” who said he wanted to move and that the agent was just pushing up the price, Berbatov had to come out publicly with a personal statement of intent to stay.Speculation stopped for less than two weeks and he had to do it again. With Tottenham struggling at the bottom of the table the British press have started quoting, without substantiation, Berbatov’s father and brother forcing him to make the same statement a third time. Most footballers want to play football, not spend endless time facing off with the press about lies.It is quite possible that Berbatov will leave Spurs at the end of the season. It is feasible he will stay. The point is there is not a news story here, only speculation that destabilises players and teams and, this is important, stops certain managers and players wanting to have anything to do with the English game.Would it not be good if every British paper were required to carry, large, at the top of their sports page, a percentage rating of how many of their speculative stories came true? No avoiding liability with “it has been reported” in the story and trying to blame the rampant fiction on another body.They would have to move the Daily Mail over to the fiction section in the libraries.

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