Manchester United fans and the Ronaldo fake news pledge
On May 8, 2017, the Manchester Evening News was “Fighting fake news”. Readers were assured that “Trust is name of the game in sports journalism – whatever team you support…” The MEN was not bullshit.com. Clickbait, be gone. The paper invited readers to answer the question: “what is a sports journalist in 2017?” But it was rhetorical, and the MEN said what readers “crave” is “authenticity”. It is “trusted by the people who go to games and know our teams inside out… It’s a matter of trust.”
And then the crux: the MEN does not chase easy traffic on the web because it is here to stay:
Fake news is fly-by-night, being a fan is for life. We know what fans want because we are them ourselves. But we also know that fans want facts – no matter how much we’d all want to believe that Ronaldo is about to sign for our club. That’s what sets us apart from those organisations who just want your click. We want your trust.
Indeed, we often report on transfer rumours and gossip, but with a critical eye borne out of local knowledge, ears to the ground and great contact-building by our journalists. If supporters are talking about it, then so are we.
No Transfer Balls, then.
September 6 2018: “Manchester United had the chance to sign their dream No.7 this summer.” The URL Google reads runs: “https://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/sport/football/transfer-news/man-utd-transfer-cristiano-ronaldo-15114577”
But United had “the chance” to sign Ronaldo, right. No. Wrong.
“Cristiano was never on my table to say yes or not to Cristiano to come to us. It was never on the table,” Mourinho replied before getting up from his seat in the press room at Turf Moor.
The rest of the story was not delivered by anyone who needed to go anywhere, least of all to a game: it was a quote from former Man United captain Bryan Robson about how good Ronaldo is. It came in the shape of a press release: “Bryan Robson was speaking after Manchester was named ESPN’s Greatest Sporting City 2018 in the UK. The in-depth research, now in its fourth year, discovers the best place in the UK to be a fan. Full results are available on ESPN.co.uk, and on the ESPN app.” Keeping it local, lads.
July 11 2018: “Why Manchester United ‘rejected chance to re-sign Cristiano Ronaldo'”
Is it because it “never on the table”?
Manchester United rejected the opportunity to re-sign Cristiano Ronaldo before the forward completed his transfer to Juventus.
This we know because of one uncorroborated tweet:
…one journalist has claimed on Twitter that United had the chance to seal Ronaldo’s return but Jose Mourinho didn’t fancy him.
Football reporter Sam Pilger wrote on Twitter: “United were offered the chance to make a bid for Cristiano Ronaldo, but declined it and decided to spend their funds elsewhere this summer.”
The URL for this scoop ends “man-utd-transfer-news-ronaldo”. And Pilger?
July 10 2018: “Has Man Utd manager Jose Mourinho dropped hints about Cristiano Ronaldo and Harry Maguire?”
No.
June 1 2018: “Cristiano Ronaldo wants Manchester United reunion with Jose”
And what of Gareth Bale?
July 12: “Manchester United Gareth Bale transfer talks advance.”
July 14: “Real Madrid ‘set Manchester United Gareth Bale asking price.” They didn’t. But they ‘might’ want over £150m for him.
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Posted: 6th, September 2018 | In: Back pages, manchester united Comment | TrackBack | Permalink
