Ratcliffe decision ‘speaks volumes’ as Ten Hag backed by ‘major’ Man Utd figure
The aftermath of a day of CRISIS TALKS at Manchester United dominates the news, with Sir Jim Ratcliffe’s media-dodging antics apparently the single most important part of it all, in the eyes of said media at least if not any other human on earth.
Volume control
A 2024 Mediawatch favourite here from the Mirror:
Sir Jim Ratcliffe’s decision immediately after Man Utd crisis meeting speaks volumes
We absolutely love things that speak volumes. Especially if they have the added bonus of also showing the most truthful of colours.
So what was this decision immediately after seven hours of talks and meetings? Did he sack Erik Ten Hag? Call people who work from home workshy scum who will bring capitalism to its knees? Complain that the office was untidy? Openly state he doesn’t care about Man United’s women’s team?
What could this volume-speaking act be?
Sir Jim Ratcliffe chose to leave out the back door, and in doing so dodged the media, after a seven-hour crisis meeting with senior figures at Manchester United.
Oh. Right. Fancy not wanting to deal with a media scrum after a long day. Mediawatch is not, as you might have guessed, a signed-up member of the Sir Jim Fan Club, but we are desperately struggling to muster anything other than a ‘Yeah, that is exactly what anyone would do’ to this. There is no volume being spoken here, no colours – no matter how very true – being shown.
As for the Mirror, there are obviously two things going on here, both very on brand. The first and most obviously is the badging of that volume-speaking act as a ‘decision’ with its obvious implication that it is a decision with some pertinence to the current situation at Manchester United rather than deciding whether or not to pick your way through a scrum of hacks.
Second and more generally, it’s another small instalment in the never-ending and always entertaining media tendency to wildly overestimate their own importance in the eyes of regular folk.
Quite literally not one human soul outside the media bubble gives the tiniest of shiny sh*tes whether Sir Jim Ratcliffe spoke to the media or not. Behave yourselves.
Major Misunderstanding
Good news has been in short supply for Erik Ten Hag, but this from the Daily Star sounds faintly encouraging at least.
Erik ten Hag receives backing from major club figure as Man Utd crisis meeting concludes
Who’s that major figure? Ratcliffe? Jason Wilcox? Key member of the current playing staff?
Old Trafford icon Wayne Rooney has thrown his support behind Erik ten Hag as bosses meet to decide if the Manchester United manager will be sacked.
Oh. Quite how significant the backing of Plymouth’s manager might be, we’re not too sure.
Still, take what you can get in Ten Hag’s position, I suppose. Let’s look at the precise nature of that support that has been so whole-heartedly thrown.
“Well that’s obviously down to the owners of the football club to look at that. I’m sure Erik ten Hag is a fantastic manager,” he told Sky Sports at the Legends of Football awards. “He’s won trophies wherever he’s been and won trophies at Manchester United as well.
“So yes, he’s going through a difficult period, and I think he’d probably say that himself. But you hope he can turn it around because too often managers lose their jobs, and then it’s another rebuild with a different manager. So you just hope he can get through this period and start moving Manchester United up the table.”
Hmm. Not sure we’d be ordering the Man United Christmas jumper just yet entirely on the back of that backing, Erik.
MORE MANCHESTER UNITED COVERAGE FROM F365
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Tone of contention
A real shame for this industry that, alas, there is very often simply no room in headlines to allow all the relevant information to be included. That surely can be the only reason such things are omitted, because the alternative would be that journalists these days have so little care for their readers that they actively seek to deceive and mislead them, and it definitely can’t be that.
Take this one from The Sun, for instance.
Jadon Sancho told he’s ‘too easy to play against’ and warned he could be dropped
It can surely only possibly be for reasons of space that words ‘by Tony Cascarino’ have been left out there.
Owen goal
A particularly grim element to modern football journalism is just how very often even for the very largest media houses to get quotes from big-name figures in the game is via recycling quotes they’ve given obscure betting companies for money.
Just one among the great many things that point to the overriding health of the industry as a whole when every story that isn’t quotes from a talkSPORT gobsh*te instead includes the words ‘told BetBastards’ or ‘in a column on OddsAndSods’ or ‘on the GambleBanter podcast’ or whatever.
Anyway, we’re absolutely in no position to turn our own noses up at that content here, so here’s Michael Owen talking to something called AceOdds about England caretaker manager Lee Carsley.
Put it this way, in the two games I’ve seen so far, I’ve not thought, wow that’s a big difference from Gareth Southgate. I’ve not seen anything to think this guy is on to something. We found the missing ingredient and now we’re a team that is going to win the World Cup. I’ve not seen that yet but I suppose I’ll give him a chance.
Fascinated to know what, precisely, Owen hoped or expected to see in wins over Ireland and/or Finland that might convince him it would lead inexorably to World Cup glory.
There’s a star man
Really we’re just disappointed this isn’t the triumphant return of AceWatch, but this one gives StarWatch a double meaning thanks to its source. (Which is the Daily Star, you see. That’s why we said that.)
Ex-Arsenal star caught in 99mph chase with nearly £3k of cocaine is jailed
The streets will certainly never forget his one Arsenal appearance as an 88th-minute substitute in a 3-0 League Cup win over Sunderland.
We honestly, and frankly adorably, didn’t think that even in big 2024 there would be anyone brazen enough to go with that particular headline style about such a player on a story that is already really quite newsworthy on its actual merits.
So hats off to the Star really, we guess. Our expectations for you were low but HOLY F*CK.
