Paper review 09/03/10

"Five Chins" and his unique brand of cosy, smug, fawning client journalism today.

He kicked off with a story concerning Theo Walcott, whom Chris Waddle had suggested had "no football brain". He uses his column in the Dail Mail to explain what he means:
Waddle vs. Walcott

In response, one of Curry's mates points out that "at 19 years old, Waddle was making sausages".

Next, onto The Socio-Capitalist struggle that is the thorny issue of ManU ownership. More spice is added (for sports journalists at least) by the return of Beckham for the second leg of the Champions League game against AC Milan. Steve quoted Henry Wanker's piece in today's Telegraph:

"Much fuss has been made about Sir Alex Ferguson knowing some of the Red Knights. So what? Ferguson probably knows some of the Red Arrows."
full article

I'm holding my sides here in an attempt to stop them from splitting, Henry.

There's an epic volte-face in the Guardian concerning Sunday's Observer article which revealed that Ferguson was supporting the Red Knights. We should picture the Guardian sports team furiously back-peddling away from their Observer bretheren whilst muttering "I have never met this man before, officer":

Guardian

Which leads me neatly on to Steve's final flourish on tomorrow evening's game; he a recounts a press conference dominated by questions about Beckham's return to Old Trafford. Ferguson finished this grilling by quipping "that's half an hour of my life I'll never get back".
A sagely chuckling Steve tells us that "Sir Alex has never really seen eye-to-eye with the written press" but then qualifies his own position in the (written press) pecking order with "I've always had , touch wood, a very cordial relationship with Sir Alex"... Imagine Hugh Grant dramatically flicking his floppy fringe here, or more realistically Oliver Hardy Twiddling his tie with a cheeky self-congratulatary smile on his face. this kind of comment brings into focus the partiality of the press and you wonder if sports journalism has lost sight of what it's actually supposed to be doing.