A question about the local press coverage

[paul_e]

Posted yesterday

Talking of headlines, has the Mail had a double page spread yet with a picture of the Villa badge split in half and a banner headline running accross the top " Villa in crisis...Villa in crisis...Villa in crisis..."

I'll be disappointed if they havent

In today's Mail

http://www.birminghammail.net/news/top-stories/2012/04/25/birmingham-mail-front-page-today-s-headlines-97319-30840088/

I saw that and instantly thought of your post, if only you'd said front page rather than double page spread, people could've assumed you actually gave them the idea (maybe you did and they changed it slightly to throw you off the scent).

[Damo70]

I'm guessing that when The Mail say 76% of Villa fans want McLeish to go they mean 76% want him to go right now and 24% after the last game. Unless 24% of those who voted were noses.

[Tokyo Sexwhale]

"Sir Doug: 'Villa will finish in the Top Six next season'".

I should think so - the play-offs should be the least of our expectations.

[prmort]

"Sir Doug: 'Villa will finish in the Top Six next season'".

I should think so - the play-offs should be the least of our expectations.

Unless he meant the Prem....and his finger slipped.

[ez]

Wasn't Kendrick banned by O'Neill?  I guess he toadies up to them because he wants to keep his job rather than tell the truth.

Thats my thinking. He's got to kiss ass to maintain access to the club.

[Monty]

The media really do have less of a problem telling a foreigner to go than telling a fellow Brit that their time is up. The kind of jobs-for-the-boys nepotism which gets incompetents like McLeish and Bruce their jobs (see a connection anyone?) exists in the media as well, and twofold: firstly, journalists are mates with their good, old fashioned British counterparts in the dugouts; secondly (and this is deadly serious), they don't want to do anything to antagonise Ferguson.

The second point applies to us, but also imagine if it had been Carlo Di Abroad who'd been manager of Liverpool this season, or Philippe Le Baguette etc. Think above all of Roy Hodgson who, despite being as Cockney as jewwied eews, feels like a foreigner who's just come in as he's actually worked outside of this country for the majority of his career, therefore not having the opportunity to build a mateship with the media - so he got the treatment good and proper.

Houllier said that foreigners get a harder time in the media, as a general rule, than British people, and he's right. It's what's saving Eck from the negative coverage his incompetence would have merited, and which any manager from abroad would have got.

[Matt C]

Wasn't Kendrick banned by O'Neill?  I guess he toadies up to them because he wants to keep his job rather than tell the truth.

Thats my thinking. He's got to kiss ass to maintain access to the club.

I think it was Bill Howell he had the falling out with. Add him to the list.

[Martyn Smith]

This is excellent - at last a journo who  wants to talk about the real problem.

Before I even clicked on that link I knew it was going to be the excellent Stuart James' piece in The Guardian... that paper is just about the only thing in the entire national media that I feel I can trust now to give a balanced and fair view on such (most in fact) matters...my dad cancelled the Evening Mail a couple of years back after 45 years of subscription because he'd just got fed up of how far down the toilet it had gone...

[Tom Sawyer]

"Sir Doug: 'Villa will finish in the Top Six next season'".

With Doug it was always possible. With this shower you'd have to take LSD to come to this conclusion.

[frankmosswasmyuncle]

This is excellent - at last a journo who  wants to talk about the real problem.

What a brilliant article. Sums the situatuion up perfectly!

[Vanilla]

The EM doing a poll if he should stay and Kendrick certainly more pro active in asking if people want him to stay points to a change in tone from them.

I think the fact that he has been involved with football in Birmingham for some years now, along with his genial character, means he has quite a few friends in the local media. As such, any criticism has been quite muted.

You only have to compare that to the criticism in the national media.