Liverpool After Pirlo (Not Really)
7Monday, July 06, 2009 by Paul Grech
Let me see if I’ve got the hang of this. Liverpool might be losing Xabi Alonso so they would need a ball playing midfielder in order to replace him. That’s step one; step to is trying to see who this replacement could be. I rack my brains (or do a quick google search) to see which players might fit into a similar pattern and come up with a name. In this case it is Andrea Pirlo. Now all I’ve got to do is put everything together. So here goes:
Liverpool boss Rafael Benitez promised one further signing this summer and could be about to do just that when this week they launch an audacious bid for Andrea Pirlo. With Xabi Alonso eager to leave for Real Madrid, the Anfield club knows that there is the need to find an adequate replacement and Benitez has identified Pirlo as the man to do that. AC Milan have made it known that they are listening to offers for their players in a bid to sort out their debt. Whether they would be willing to let a fans’ favourite like Pirlo go, however, remains to be seen.
And there it is: my first rumour. Because, looking at the rubbish stories that come out, that is definitely what is done. Of course, it all depends on how much you happen to like Liverpool or not. Pirlo, for instance, is a best case scenario whilst if you really have it in for Benitez you would put in the name of someone like Didier Zokora.
The worst part of the summer – much worse than the lack of football – is the number of made up stories that come out. Similarly, the most irritating aspect of this time of year is that so many people are willing to believe anything that is written. Regardless of the rubbish that is thrown their way, they keep gobbling it up.
The Worst Offenders
This was always the case with tabloids but the internet, and the hunger of sites to drive traffic their way in order to boost advertising hits, has raised the stakes much higher.
FansFC
Spurious rumours galore as they blatantly come up with stories such as those linking Obafemi Martins and Maxi Rodriguez.
The New Football Pools
Recent arrivals on the scene, they have taken things on to another level coming up with headlines that include up to three or four teams in order to draw in as many people as possible at the same go.
Goal.com
These guys adopt a slightly different tactic to the rest in that they see what the foreign media is saying and then translate everything if an English team is mentioned. To their credit, the authors’ names are published.
Tribal Football
The daddies of the current trend, having been around for five years, they don’t really make up stories but only regurgitate what everyone else is saying and disguising it under attractive headlines.
Category Transfer Talk
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7 comments »
Good article ... I can't wait for the transfer merry go round to finish. It's become a joke.
lol spot on i've been saying this all summer. i think you have actually hit the nail on the head with that method.
Absolutely spot on and long overdue. The standard of online sports journalism is pitiful. The long footballess Summer drives fans to desperate measures and reading this stuff is the supporters equivalent of reluctantly drinking your own piss when dying of thirst, it's shameful and unrewarding but it's better than nothing.
I dont believe anything that is written until it actually happens. Moguls need to sell papers so they make up stuff and really 10-15% of the time the actual players/agents/managers will think they can get that specific deal. Internet websites need to make money so they make up rubbish rumours, for every click we probably give them 5 cents,
Fed up with the Javier to Barca rubbish, I've now heard 3 reason for him leaving, his wife not happy, not being paid enough and my personal fav argument with RAFA for not playing some crucial games at the end of the season.
The only problem with this is Javier played 16 of the last 18 games, only suspened for the CL at home to Chelsea and on the bench for the Fulham game. So the Sunday Mail expect me to believe that he's going to leave LFC because he didn't play against Fulham.
Time to report the truth, Javier got a greedy agent and he's after a big payday.
My advice would be to just stick to the news sources that you know best. I've got experience of working within the sports department of a few newspapers and I know the hard work that goes into finding out stories.
The Liverpool Echo, for example, will not publish a transfer story unless they are totally sure that there is something in it, while the seemingly hundreds of football gossip websites out there (written by unpaid people with next to no contacts, and whom it is wrong to call journalists) are just looking for exposure and advertising revenue, because they are not getting paid any other way.
Transfers are complicated things, and a club as big as Liverpool have scouts all over the world and files on hundreds of players. So while they might be keeping tabs on the contract and transfer situations of many of the players mentioned on the gossip sites, it doesn't mean they are signing them.
OHH GOD! We don't need Pirlo! Keep Alonso, he's younger, tougher and already settled. Pirlo would take a year or two to get into the swing of things, and he is pretty old. Kiss good by number 19. You'd have thought Benitez would have learnt his lesson with Italians after Dossena. I can't think of one Italian defensive player who has been any good in the prem. PLEASE RAFA DON't DO IT!!!!
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