Manchester City Balls: Daily Mail Creates The Weakest Back Page Story Ever
IN the race to produce a new story on every leading club every day of the week, the Daily Mail does not flinch. Today, the paper of record leads with news that Manuel Pellegrini has visited a cashpoint machine.
The Mail bought and published a picture of a grown man using his bank account.
This from the “Sports Newspaper of the Year’. And that’s this year.
By now you’re itching to know how the Mail’s Paul Collins managed to create a story from such a mundane photo. Budding hacks looking to get into sports journalism, take note:
Just 24 hours after his team suffered a vital 3-2 defeat at the hands of Liverpool, Manchester City boss Manuel Pellegrini was pictured nipping to the cashpoint to make a small withdrawal on Monday.
Just…
He could have waited longer. As we versed in football’s mores know, there is a two-day (48 hours) period of mourning between seeing your team lose and using cash machines. Pelligrini is, of course, a funny foreigner, so we can, perhaps, excuse him this blatant faux pas. The Mail will show him the etiquette guide, noting that before hole in the wall machines became commonplace, Bill Shankly would not touch money for 72 hours if Liverpool lost; and how Spurs legend Bill Nicholson once waited a full week following defeat before signing a cheque.
It was only with the advent of instant cash vending that the League Managers Association settled on the 48 hour rule. However, it is not breaking confidences to reveal that there are some at FA headquarters who would no more go out with a loose brass button on their blazer than use any currency for three days after an England defeat.
Such are the facts…
Posted: 15th, April 2014 | In: Sports Comment | TrackBack | Permalink
