This morning, may we present conclusive evidence that nobody is listening to anybody when it comes to transfer rumours. Thank you for your co-operation (or lack of) in advance, The Sun and Manchester United:

It all begins here, when yesterday Neil Custis reporting from Philadelphia on Manchester United’s pre-season records the following:

Fergie: I’ve got all I need

But Fergie said: “I can’t speak for other clubs but we’re comfortable with the squad we’ve got.

“I’ve bought players at the right time of the season and we are quite happy with that.”

Then, apropos of nothing, The Sun also print the following story on the same day:

Alex lines up Ozil swoop

[...] Fergie is aware Ozil, 21, has only a year left on his deal with Werder Bremen, who want to cash in before the midfielder is available on a free.

The Bundesliga side did want £20million to let Ozil move on but have now dropped their asking price by £8m.

United’s transfer kitty is tight but if a deal can be struck Fergie will push hard to get the cash.

If you’re having a hard time reconciling those two stories, both printed happily as fact, then you’re obviously not an editor at The Sun - according to Football 365’s Mediawatch, not only did the stories appear in the same paper on the same day, but brilliantly they were on the same page.

Still (and infuriatingly) it’s hard not to have a measure of sympathy with The Sun here. Rewind to last season’s summer window, of course, and we witnessed the value of Ferguson’s word on transfer dealings first hand:

July 13th 2009 - BBC - Ferguson rules out more signings

“It is the end of our business,” he said. “Stories about who we are supposed to be getting - forget it.”

Which was promptly followed up by:

July 18th 2009 - The Independent - Manchester United sign Diouf from Molde

[...] Speaking at a press conference in Kuala Lumpur today, manager Sir Alex Ferguson said: “We’ve been looking at him for two years.

“We weren’t intending on signing anyone else after last week - we feel we have a full squad - but the situation accelerated to a point where other clubs started to make bids, so we had to decide whether we acted or didn’t act.”

So when Ferguson says he’s done in the transfer market, that may be what he means, it may not. And when The Sun publish on the same page that Ferguson is done spending and that he’s hot on the heels of another player, well, they’re going to be right and wrong - and we have no way of being sure which way round.

All we know for sure, however, is that it’s almost entirely pointless trying to glean any information from the press about transfers. Which, given the saturation levels of coverage they get, is a somewhat exploitative and unnecessary way of selling newspapers.

]]> http://www.sportwithoutspin.com/2010/07/21/what-good-are-words/feed/ http://www.sportwithoutspin.com/2010/07/16/luis-fabiano-rumours-conflicting-statements-and-mistranslations/ http://www.sportwithoutspin.com/2010/07/16/luis-fabiano-rumours-conflicting-statements-and-mistranslations/#comments Fri, 16 Jul 2010 09:53:14 +0000 Sport without Spin http://www.sportwithoutspin.com/?p=4054

How to explain the following two statements, both allegedly made by Luis Fabiano within the last month?

June 27th: “There would be no point in me joining Tottenham, I might as well stay at Sevilla, it’s the same thing.

“Sevilla are actually bigger when you look at how much we have been in the European Cup, so there would be no point me moving to a smaller team.”

July 16th: “I must admit it’s only in the last few weeks I have understood just how big Spurs’ ambition is.”

Hmmm.

An explanation for the naive: Luis Fabiano has sat down, read all about Spurs’ history online and noticing that they are a club on the up.

An explanation for the more cynical: It has become apparent that United and Milan have no interest in such a deal, and accordingly Luis Fabiano has to reconsider his options.

An explanation for the even-more-cynical: The origins of these two apposite quotes are (1) The Daily Star on Sunday and (2) The Sun. The Spanish only report the first quotes as coming via England, and the second quotes are yet to appear in the Spanish press at all. Portuguese-language outlets don’t carry the stories at all.

And something that needed to be ignored in all this? The bit where Luis Fabiano’s agent said that he was happy in Spain and they were in the middle of contract negotiations for an extension, as explained on local radio in Seville.

El representante de Luis Fabiano, José Fuentes, dejó claro en Punto Radio Sevilla que “la única propuesta que llegó fue el año pasado del Milán. El está en el escaparate, pero sólo hay rumores. No tiene ansiedad ninguna por irse. Si tiene que llegar una oferta, llegará, si no, pues seguirá tan feliz y alegre en Sevilla”.

[...] “El Milán sabe que si lo quieren tienen que llamar a José Fuentes y al Sevilla, al igual que pasaría con el Manchester”.

Fuentes insistió en que “si se queda, lo hará feliz y alegre. Si se va lo hará para irse a un grande de verdad, de los que solo hay cinco o seis equipos en el mundo”. Sin embargo, la renovación de su contrato sigue parada, y el representante de ‘O Fabuloso’ lo explicaba. “Esa idea de ampliar el contrato vino del Sevilla, nosotros le contestamos con lo que queríamos (algo accesible para ellos) pero a día de hoy aún no han contestado”, sentenció.

Translation - The representative of Luis Fabiano, Jose Fuentes, made clear on Punto Radio Sevilla that “the only offer that was made was the one from Milan last year. He is in the shop window, but there are only rumors. He has no anxiety to leave. If an offer has to arrive it will arrive, if not, then he will continue so happy and joyful in Seville. “

[...] “Milan know that if they want him they have to call Jose Fuentes and Sevilla, as would happen with Manchester.”

Fuentes insisted that “if he stays, it will make him happy and cheerful. If he goes it will have to be to go to a really big club, of which there are only five or six teams in the world. ” However, the renewal of his contract continues to stall, and the representative of ‘O Fabuloso’ explained. “The idea of extending the contract came from Sevilla, we reply with what we would like (something feasible to them) but up to now they have not responded,” he said.

Now, that sounds to us more like an encouragement to Seville to get the contract sorted out on improved terms because he’ll be happy that way, with a nod to the possibility of other deals to keep the club on their toes. But it’s barely a nod - half-hearted and not really the point of Fuentes’ message. Mind you, if you move things around, forget convenient bits and mistranslate, you come up with this Sun story:

Make your move for Fab, Fergie

Luis Fabiano’s agent has told Manchester United: It is time to make your move.

[...] Jose Fuentes said: “We have not received any offers from Manchester United or Milan.

“The only offer we have received is a contract extension from Sevilla. The rest are just rumours and speculation.

“We will analyse Sevilla’s offer in the coming days but we are not in a hurry.”

And with scrupulous translation efforts like that, you can decide how seriously to take the Luis Fabiano rumours doing the rounds in the British press this summer.

Manchester United wait in wings as Real Madrid ponder Raul release

Manchester United have been linked with a move for Real Madrid striker Raul should he be allowed to leave on a free transfer.

Real president Florentino Perez is believed to be ready to give the 32-year-old a golden handshake to leave the club this summer.

However, while he is admired by Sir Alex Ferguson, sources at Old Trafford believe Raul is too old to make a significant impact on the Premier League.

Steve Davis does… something he’s done before

Beating world number 1 and defending champion John Higgins over 25 frames was probably some achievement, but once again, we weren’t quite sure how to explain it. Enter the Daily Mail:

Steve Davis, at the age of 52, knocking out world champion and new world No 1 John Higgins. It really does represent an extraordinary story.

Davis has officially ‘rolled back the years’ before, notably in beating Ronnie O’Sullivan to win the Masters in 1997, and then again in reaching the UK Championship final in 2005.

That particular phrase is rolling back the years, too.

 —  —  —  — 

Carl Froch is… licking his wounds

Yes, Mikkel Kessler probably just about had the better of their fight in Denmark, and Froch has in the process surrendered his WBC title and his unbeaten record, but though he is hurting at the moment he can surely walk away with his head higher than he normally keeps his hands. Since he claimed the title he has proven himself a game champion, ready to face tough opponents here, there and everywhere. He has provided great entertainment, and the only shame is that it has all too rarely been easy to view. Tough questions follow for Froch in the wake of this defeat, but he still has much to give boxing and the Super Six competition.

 —  —  —  — 

United and Chelsea are… determined to drag title race out

The only way that this unpredictable race cannot go to the final day is if Manchester United are beaten away at Sunderland on Sunday - and as topsy-turvy as the league has been this year, one cannot help but feel that the twists will continue to the very end. United found a way past the rejuvenated Spurs, and then Chelsea delivered an almighty thumping to Stoke, which was as impressive as it was ultimately meaningless. And just when you think you can take your eyes away from the action, there’s the small matter of Tottenham facing Manchester City to determine fourth - unless Liverpool or Villa sneak in instead. And then in the summer there’s a nice, inconsequential friendly tournament in South Africa to think of…

GARY NEVILLE claims Wayne Rooney has been the Premier League’s top player this season.

The England striker returned from an ankle injury to lead the line for 65 minutes at Manchester City on Saturday.

“He has been fantastic with his goals and general level of performance, as well as helping England.”

Didier Drogba seems like a very decent alternative candidate, even if he doesn’t win. Given he’s scored the same sort of number of goals, laid on assists, and all for the side a point ahead in the Championship, it doesn’t seem entirely unreasonable to talk about him in the same breath as Rooney. Not that we’d expect Neville to credit that, mind, and that’s fair enough. In fact, that’s the point. If you were to hide Neville in a bunker ten feet underground and give the media those quotes saying what you think he would say, you’d probably write what’s above. Verbatim.

And then you probably wouldn’t publish it as news.

Jenson Button

The man who was giving up a title-winning car and joining a team where he might be considered the second driver is currently leading the Formula One World Championship. Sure, rain has helped, but it should not be forgotten that Hamilton, Button’s team mate, was supposed to be the master of the wet race. Whatever else you can say about Jenson, and wherever his season goes from here, he’s certainly fared better than many of his critics suggested he would. Now we await the arrival of F1 for the European summer, volcano fallout pending (did you think we’d ever have to write that?)

 —  —  —  — 

Title race

Remember when the title race was over? Four point lead, four games remaining - Chelsea were home again. And it was a whisker away from being three points and a game in hand, but it wasn’t to be. United won their derby, and Chelsea lost theirs. Who knew? Then Arsenal finally confirmed that they weren’t a factor in the Championship race by spurning the chance to close to three points with inexplicable defeat at Wigan. The volcano wouldn’t have affected United or Chelsea this week even if they had qualified for the semi-finals of the Champions League which take place this week, but at least the race has erupted back into life. (OK, we’re already running low on sport and volcano material).

 —  —  —  — 

Snooker time

Sheffield in April is one of our favourite stops of the sporting year, and the first weekend was a hint at what was to come. Confident opening games from the likes of John Higgins and Mark Selby, the tension of Stephen Hendry finding a way to the second round, and Ronnie O’Sullivan, Mark Williams and Neil Robertson still to come. They may make changes to the game with the arrival of Barry Hearns, but just as it is with Test cricket, there is something special about the the length and the flow of the World Championships. Make changes elsewhere. And no, snooker at Sheffield is one event which we’re very unlikely to ever see threatened by the fallout of an erupting volcano in Iceland.

 —  —  —  — 

Oh - and…

Rafa Nadal’s had a lean time of things, but he’s not terrible on clay courts, is he?

Be afraid, fans of all things English (and, um, Italian) - the Real Madrid bogeyman is coming in the night and he’s going to take everything you hold dear away from you. The Sun knows, you see, and two of their brightest minds have brought you a world exclusive to chill you to your bones:

REAL MADRID are plotting a spectacular double swoop for England’s crown jewels, Wayne Rooney AND Fabio Capello.

Hang on, haven’t we read this somewhere before?

The Spanish giants will make a staggering £150MILLION raid for Rooney, offering Manchester United £90m for their prize asset and the player £250,000 a week for five years.

Firstly, allow yourself a moment to get over that tedious tactic of including the wages they’ll pay in the big number - The Sun say Rooney will cost £90m. And where they found this world exclusive - who can say? Perhaps, of all places, it was in a Daily Mail story:

Real Madrid ‘obsessed’ with signing £90m Wayne Rooney, claims former president Ramon Calderon

And as for the Capello part? Here’s another story that appeared in the Daily Mail from another story last month:

England boss Fabio Capello has been linked with a shock return to Real Madrid as the Spanish giants begin preparations to replace Manuel Pellegrini this summer.

But nobody’s thought of putting both stories into one single mega-story before, so perhaps that’s the world exclusive part of it. And that’s why it took two journalists to write it.

Of course, this is before we begin to address the question of whether the story contains any truth. Well, it’s absolutely true because we read it in the Daily Mail:

Carlos Tevez has been gagged by Manchester City to prevent him sparking another explosive war of words with Manchester United.

City want to avoid a repeat of Tevez’s bitter slagging match with Gary Neville, which boiled over when the sides last met in the Carling Cup semis in January.

Tevez branded the United skipper a “boot licker” and a “moron”, prompting the FA to warn both clubs to be on their best behaviour before the second leg.

City were concerned the outspoken Tevez might launch another attack on United before Saturday’s showdown at Eastlands given that the Argentine hitman feels he was badly treated at Old Trafford.

All interview requests with Tevez have been refused and the club have even asked his publicity-hungry representative, Kia Joorabchian, to go along with the gagging order.

The FA are understood to be pleased by City’s attempt to dampen passions ahead of what could be the most incendiary derby in years.

It’s a story which can be believable (just about) by a continued silence for the next three days. So what a shame for the Mirror that in the Daily Mail this morning there appears the following:

CARLOS TEVEZ EXCLUSIVE: The Manchester City striker on football, family and foes…

The silence is deafening.

Incey with Le Saux (not pictured) - Photo Justin Hartman CCA

On Friday we looked at the Mirror’s new columnist Jermain Defoe, and lamented the use of a footballer to give opinions that were, if we are being kind, pretty dry, and if we were being less kind, barely worth the paper they were written on. If you’re to write something from the position of having played or been involved in the game, then it depends on you having a unique insight. If you say what we can guess or extrapolate for ourselves, then it’s not worth reading.

On the other end of the scale, you shouldn’t be controversial for controversy’s sake. A column is not by its nature a soapbox. Which brings us to Paul Ince, whose thoughts you can read each Sunday in the News of the World.

And what did he have to write about eight days ago?

The two men I detest and will never forgive

That’s amazing subject matter for an article - not exactly sure how relevant it is to sport this week, but if that’s what he really wants to talk about, perhaps he can somehow shoehorn it in:

READING Sam Allardyce’s comments about how he tries to wind Rafa Benitez up at every opportunity got me thinking about grudges.

I’ve had the best part of 30 years in the game and I can honestly say there are only two people I still actively detest and who I will NEVER forgive.

That’s pretty tenuous. There’s a definite difference between a bit of antagonism and attempts to wind each other up on one hand, and grudges you’ll carry to the grave on the other. But, let’s humour you, Incey - who are the objects of your fury?

The first is Graeme Le Saux. I swear, if I ever come face-to-face with him, I’d knock him out as soon as look at him.

If you’re prepared to behave as borderline psychopathically as that, he must have done something terrible. Let’s read on.

It all started when he and Robbie Fowler had their infamous run-in at Anfield. The pair were going for each other and I split them up before telling Le Saux in no uncertain terms to pack it in and clear off.

So you got in the middle of something which had nothing to do with you. Good start. We’ll bet Le Saux was both grateful and delighted.

That’s when he said something disgusting and despicable about my missus and I went ballistic.

Don’t insult the Guv’nor’s wife - he’ll carry a pointless grudge around with him forever. Something tells us that Le Saux won’t be the only footballer in history to have said something about another player’s wife or family (Materazzi, anyone?) and the reasoning behind such comments is that they might wind up someone in the heat of battle enough that they lose the plot (Zidane, anyone?). It’s a mind game, Paul. Don’t rise to it.

I forgot about the game and started plotting how I was going to rip Le Saux’s head off. I kept asking the ref how long to go because I wanted to be first down the tunnel waiting for the little b*****d.

As soon as the final whistle, I was there, primed to give Le Saux a good hiding and not concerned about the ramifications of a tunnel brawl.

He must have got wind of it because as soon as he saw me waiting, he hid behind Marcel Desailly and I couldn’t get at him. There was a lot of pushing and shoving but no revenge.

Brilliant. And Graeme - there could be no other explanation than that he’s a coward for not standing there and taking a beating from an angry Guv’nor. Who knows - perhaps Desailly was simply intervening and preventing a fight in a more effective way than Ince himself managed to do on the field earlier?

The next time we met was on England duty under Kevin Keegan and Kevin had obviously got wind of the bad blood. He took us to one side and did his best to patch things up. I told Le Saux I’d drop it as long as he apologised after the game to my missus for what he said.

We cannot be the only people reading these lines and thinking - “Incey, what’s the point of telling your wife what Le Saux had said in the first place?” What did he say? “You’ll never guess what disgusting thing Graeme said about you?”

“Yeah, yeah, Incey,” he said, “of course I will.”

So after the game, I’m in the players bar at Wembley with the missus and I’ve told her what Le Saux said and how he would be apologising.

But we waited. And waited. You know what, the little s*** didn’t even look our way, let alone come over and apologise.

To this day, I still absolutely fume at the thought of what he said and how the coward didn’t even have the decency to say sorry. For that, I’ll always want to rip his head off.

The power of this particular story lies in the fact that Graeme Le Saux managed to say horrendous things about Paul Ince’s wife, then promise an apology which he didn’t deliver, and still somehow come off looking the more balanced individual.

And that’s not all:

The other one is Lou Macari who replaced John Lyall as West Ham manager and basically forced me out of the club I loved.

John was a great man, like a father to me and I respected him absolutely because he was a man of his word. I can’t say the same about Macari.

I was 19 years old and playing regularly for the first team but on reserve team wages of £250 a week.

Claire and I were engaged at the time and living in a part of Dagenham which, to be blunt, was a khazi. My car was vandalized every week, we had bottles thrown at the house and Claire was scared to death living there because she didn’t feel safe. I went to John and told him I had to move out of the area but couldn’t afford to do it. He said: “Paul, you’ve earned a rise, let’s talk about a new three-year contract.”

We eventually agreed on a deal which saw my wages rise to £1,100 a week, shook hands and went away for the summer expecting to sign when I got back for pre-season.

But by then, John had left and Macari arrived on the scene. In our first meeting, I told him about the agreement with John and he asked for a week to think about it.

Fine, not a problem. Until he came back and told me he thought £250 a week was fine for a 19-year-old and that there was no reason for a pay rise.

No reason? My missus was having sleepless nights, I needed to get her into a decent area plus I was doing the business for the club and here’s Macari telling me I’m not worth a pay hike.

From that moment on, I was determined to get out of West Ham. I had no respect for him then and absolutely NOTHING has changed since.

As far as I’m concerned, both Le Saux and Macari can go rot.

Just as an aside, Lou Macari took over West Ham in 1989, by which point Paul Ince was 21, going on 22. West Ham had also just been relegated in 1989, which might have made the pay rise an impossibililty, regardless of how much or how little Ince deserved it. The trouble is that if Ince’s anger is based on events that he doesn’t recall properly, it’s something of a waste of time to carry them to this day, and also to publish them in a national newspaper.

Still, more amusing reading than Jermain Defoe’s column.

G-Nev - Photo Austin Osuide CCA

Glen Johnson’s not quite back into the swing of things, Wes Brown is injured, and suddenly England are looking light at right-back. But not just that - they’re going to be missing a couple of chaps with tournament knowledge like David Beckham. Combine it with a couple 0f much-improved performances, and a nice cross to Wayne Rooney in the Milan game, and you have the perfect storm which has allowed Gary Neville to become  a realistic contender for a World Cup place.

Whether or not he should be there is not really for us to say, but we were intrigued to see that the Mirror had got the inside track from the Manchester United man himself.

Neville refuses to give up on World Cup dream

Strong stuff. And the opening of the article?

Gary Neville has not given up hope of gatecrashing England’s World Cup squad this summer.

Strange, because we can’t see anything in Neville’s quotes about the tournament itself. Oh wait, strike that - here’s the thing:

“Lots of people have been asking about the possibility of me making England’s World Cup squad but it’s not something I’m really thinking about,” said Neville.

Oh. You can almost touch the hope and the World Cup dream.

“I’m just concentrating on playing as many games as I can for United and if that brings a call-up for England, then I would take it.

“I’ve always said I wouldn’t retire from international football and I would always be available to play.

“But I’ve not been in the squad for about 10 months so it’s not something I’m expecting. It is in the hands of other people rather than me.

So Gary Neville is being practical rather than a dreamer. He’s fairly happy to be playing for the United first team, and if in the process it led to a call-up then he wouldn’t close the door on his country. But the World Cup angle is the product of interviewers with jerking knees searching for questions to ask and journalists who need to find a slant on the words he gives them. But good on Gary - it sounds as if he’s too long in the tooth to get carried away by one match or a series of matches over two or three weeks.

“I’m too long in the tooth to get carried away by one match or a series of matches over two or three weeks.”

Good point.