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Someone is going to die

It’s getting ridiculous by the day. Times Online, for whom I have lost respect this summer, have published another report without any quotes whatsoever claiming Cristiano Ronaldo will hand in a transfer request.

It’s one thing when the likes of The Sun indulge in such crap, but when the likes of the Guardian and the Times join in then they get a little worrying. Of course, it’s not as if I haven’t seen this before, but when one can write a full length report claiming something without quoting a named source, then it’s a little worrying — not the content, but the journalism.

About the report, it’s bollocks really. So who is the real loser then? The gullible fan, of course.

Now we here at Red Rants, aim to filter out the rubbish from the truth — or at least attempt to call out the BS — and we have been successful at times and not so successful on other occasions. But we have seen many seemingly intelligent fans, who seem to be swept by reports that seem to come about these days. This is for them. If you look at reports over even a two day period you will see an equal number of reports contradicting each other. Let’s take the Ronaldo example: over any two day period you will see one daily claiming Ronaldo to hand in a transfer request, and another, on the same day, claiming he will stay at United. So which one to believe. In most cases you will realize that you can’t believe either reports. The reason: no quotes from the parties concerned. In this case, Ronaldo and a member from United — either Gill or Ferguson or the Glazers. The quotes in the article must be attributed to them and in quotes. Nothing else would do. You will have articles where they will say, Ferguson is reported to have told his aide blah blah blah — all that doesn’t work.

Meanwhile fans will continue to fall victim to the spammers on Newsnow looking for hits, clicks and dollars to make full use of the silly season. Fans will continue to furiously refresh Newsnow in the hope that there will be some exciting, breaking news and if they don’t see that it’s the end of the world and apocalypse is round the corner. I’m sure the day will not be far off when someone falls victim to OCNRD (Obsessive Compulsive News Refreshing Disorder) where a fan will suffer from the effects of refreshing websites looking for the latest breaking news. Symptoms include frantic clicking on an imaginary mouse, followed by pulling a strand of hair for every passing day without any transfer news.

Seriously though, any of these reports may turn out to be true, but we cannot be sure until we hear from the horse’s mouth. So while we read through news websites, let’s do so for the sake of entertainment while occasionally coming across a stray quote from SAF — in which case we can jump with excitement. So keep your packet of salt with you, you’ll need more than a few pinches of them, and they’ll sure taste better when taken in with said pinch.

I realise that I haven’t brought up any news items so far, which probably is why I devoted so much space to general sports reporting but here is something which actually has quotes. I quoted this yesterday from MEN, but I didn’t spot the quote yesterday where Ole says he’d like to get into management one day and stay at the club.

And the Guardian reckons the fixture list will stir up Fergie’s rage — which wouldn’t surprise me. We do have a tough first half of the season, considering we have to travel half way around the world for the World Club Championships.

On the Euros, I feel happy for Croatia going through. Slaven Bilic has seen his stock rise during the last six months, and I like his outspokenness. And is it only me, or do the others also want to see Portugal get raped by Germany so that Ronaldo can get his pretty ass back and decide on his God-damned future. For once, I really want to see him cry — not that he’ll disappoint, because he seems to cry at everything, anyway. [And before the Ronaldo backers start throwing stones at me, sorry, that’s the way I feel about him and let me say it right now that we shall agree to disagree.]