Sunday Supplement Today

[taylorsworkrate]

Come the post apocalyptic revolution I'm going to have my mutated attack dogs devour him and then wipe the resulting shit in Gary Cooks face.

That would make a nice reality tv show.

[Mazrim]

People who come up with reality TV shows are next.

[taylorsworkrate]

Hiding spot here i come.

[Hookeysmith]

It has been said many times before but the way to shut these cocksucking whores up is to actually achieve something on the pitch (although it has not stopped them fawning over Arsenal and WHU for many barron years)

Take the Champions league - we are an irritation that little clubs like us and Forest have won it when the true footballing giants like Spurs / Arsenal / WH have not won it

[pablopicasso_10]

general krulak has 4 more years than you at running a football club mr holt, you weasel faced feces spouting arsehole...

certainly qualifies him to know more than you have, or ever will, know about about football or more importantly in this particular case, aston villa football club...

the "quality" of your "articles" prove that you know fuck all...

[Billy Walker]

We are the victims of the UK's media being London - and to a slightly lesser extent - North-West based.

To these parasites the Birmingham and the Midlands is a non-existant, unfashionable, ugly footballing wasteland.  Point out to them that the city of Birmingham gave the world the league format for football (thus saving the game) and they will look at you as if you are mad.  Does McGregor get any coverage from the media?  Have the nationals ever shot footage about Villa and featured the statue in the background? Not yet, at least.  To them Shanks and Busby saved the game. Ditto Herbert Chapman.

Ask them who Stan Cullis was and they'd scratch their heads.  Why talk about the great Wolves of the 1950's when they can tell us all about Bill Nicholson, Spurs and the 60's?

Point out to them that the Midlands has had three European Cups to London's big fat zero and they are bemused.  It all never gets a mention.   The hotbeds of English football are London, the North West and the North East according to these guys.

When did all this nonsense start, I wonder?   Was the press like this in the 1920's, 30's or 40's?

I did a little bit of research into the Daily Mirror's reporting of the 1957 FA Cup final through looking at their online database of back editions and was surprised to find that, even back then, the bias was obvious.  If we think back to those days it was a final between  six times winners Villa versus two(?) times winners Man Utd yet the pre match report mentioned very little about Villa's history and pedigree. It was all about Man Utd.   

I believe the reporter was Frank McGee (although I could be wrong on the name/spelling) and to say he was  bigging up Man Utd to Clive Tyldsley levels would be an understatement.  As I say, this was 1957.  Six times winners versus two times winners.  In fact Villa were the most successful club in the country at the time.  True, Man Utd had been a dominant force for about eight years by then, but I got the impression that such coverage was unprecedented.  This type of hyping up of a team seemed surreal.  Maybe such a style of reportage was in its infancy?
 
The following day's match report on the final was equally biased with McGee neatly informing his readers why Villa hadn't deserved victory against Busby's thoroughbreds. 

A little bit more research on said reporter, Frank McGee, was telling.  It transpired that he was very close, indeed, to Matt Busby and that Busby was even a Godfather to one of his children.  There is no doubt Busby was the first manager to appreciate the power of the press and media in promoting a football club.  Perhaps, Cloughie was the only Midlands' man ever to appreciate this?   

I think, since the 1950's, the North West clubs and the London clubs have been far more savvy about such things. Busby and Shanks certainly knew how to use the media.  Over the years Man Utd, Liverpool and the London clubs have all grown close to the media:  Look at how many pundits Liverpool spawn; look at how many Man Utd players have appeared in advertising, released books etc., etc. since the days of Best. Blimey, Sky TV and Man Utd seem to have had a joint business plan throughout the nineties that has fed into the growth of each busness!  Even now Sky are perpetuating the Cantona "legend" to sell their products.  Would any of us give two figs about Cantona if it wasn't for Sky TV reminding us of him whenever they get the chance?

Tellingly I'd say we can trace the birth of the glory-hunter to the 1950's, too.  Busby was all too aware of the influence of the media on the simple-minded modern football follower and fittingly set up the first stadium sovenir shop at Old Trafford...

[Dr Butler]

I have more time for General Krulak's comments, than any comment by this sad, ill-informed, top 4 obsessed hack.

an idiot.

[dave.woodhall]

You can't blame Matt Busby for doing what he thought right at the time - or Shankly, then Clough, for copying him. They were promoting what were then unfashionable clubs and I have a feeling they would all hate the way football has become so celebrity-obsessed.

We should also remember that in 1957 Manchester United were the standard bearers for English football in a way no other club has been before or since. Maybe it was because of the post-Hungary at Wembley fallout that we were still clinging to some proof that English football was still the best. Maybe it was because that team were so good. Frank McGhee was a great writer; he'd started out on the Manchester Evening News and his career progressed alongside the United team. I think if I'd been in close proximity to the likes of Duncan Edwards and Bobby Charlton I'd have been biased as well. 

[Mazrim]

An excellent post, Billy Walker.

[Monty]

The most inexplicable is the love-in about the FA Cup semi-final between Spurs and Arsenal in 1991. I just don't see what's so important about that particular game. Every right-thinking fan knows that Spurs were the bad guys who denied Clough the only trophy he never won, so why is the semi that got them there so celebrated? It's revolting.

[Billy Walker]

Thanks Mazrim.  I fear I went off on one there.

[Pete3206]

Some more fans here

[john e]

Oliver Holt supports man city

[JJ-AV]

He's a Stockport County fan. My Mom reads The Mirror and I occasionally catch his articles.

[john e]

He's a Stockport County fan. My Mom reads The Mirror and I occasionally catch his articles.

i get the mirror. his dad took him to city as a kid. no doubt he went to stockport to.

suits him as a journo to say stockport now. but he is a city fan