Thoughts about the England players refusal to talk to the media

Dub13

Last night proved many peoples already jaundiced view of football "stars"
The players are a cosseted bunch of overpraised- overpaid- underperfomers.


SKY are now an interagle part football.Richard Keyes couldn't contain his anger with the England players,it was funny.

I bet this morning the phones between the FA and sky will be red hot....SKY have basically created the platform for the money slewing around football...when you dance with the Devil he calls the tunes...within 24 hours there will be "exclusive" interviews on SKY with Beckham and Co.

You watch the PR machine will move swiftly into action know for a damage limitation exercise for the players

JohnnyBravo

Have to admit beckham and owen rubbish

StickyMcGinty

the press wil slaughter them today!! i hope so anyway, havnt got the paper yet, whats the talk like?

p.pete

It was funny to see Sky Sports News last night, resorting to interviewing other reporters on their thoughts of the blackout

KdjaCL

James fooked up bigtime , not in a small way but on the big stage of international football. Any bad press he got he deserved its was a horrendous mistake which cost them the game.

For the players to pull a stunt like that i agree with the 1st post, Sky rule the roost over there im sure they will put a spin on it now.
kdjac

therecklessone

Well I don't agree with the players throwing a hissy fit, but its nice to see Sky get a kick in the goolies once in a while.

Maybe now they'll realise there's more to football than Richard Keyes and Andy Gray.

JohnnyBravo

Dunphy And giles

therecklessone

The Muppet

They must be taking lessons from the Fergie school of media relations.

I,m in two minds over this one. I don't agree with the players attempting to pressurise the media in the stories they run but then again the English media tend to build up certain players and then try do a character assination on them. Sometimes I get the impression it is a game for the with no consideration for the player or his family. I,m not sure refusing to talk to them is the answer as it only gives them more ammo for their vendettas.

Dub13

I have heard from a friend of my great uncle whose father's nephew works for a top paper that David Beckham handed the media a piece of paper on which he wrote (in crayon) a short message for them.
He wrote:

"Wees won the game after my bestest mate Mikey scored and and and now that it's finished wees are going back to our big hotel and and and wees are going to play our Playstation 2 and and and wees are not going to talk to you, so there!!"

Big Nelly

This is just an another example of Beckham throwing his toys out of his pram! prob ringing Victoria last nite crying because the press where bullying him! MUPPET! anyway this is just a follow on from the Rebecca Loos thing when Beckham got slated! just using his mates in the England squad to try and get bacl at the press!

JohnnyBravo

Ye cant blame beckham
your telling me the rest of the players are so weak willed that they do everything a fellow who talks like a girl says

MisterAnarchy

I agree with the players on this issue.
The British media are one of the major factors the English team fail to achieve potential.
The press only care about selling papers and scandal.They dont give a damn about the best interests of the nation.
They artificially build players and managers up specifically to cut them down.
They seem intent on ruining Englands chances.
Graham Taylor was crucified by the press.
Glenn Hoddle was sacked over a minor comment he made.
When Eriksson started the job,the press named him the 'iceman' and blew his trumpet.
Now they hound him for tacky details of his private life.
How can players perform under such circumstances.
Players usually have very little to say about a game anyway,bar the usual cliches so it isnt a big loss.

The Rooster

IF they had any brains between them, they would have just shunned the print media and just talked to Sky and 5Live.

This morning on 5Live they said that (bizarrely) Gary Neville and David James are the leaders of England off the pitch. They act as shop stewards, make whatever represenations need to be made to the FA etc, and it is believed they were the two who suggested the ban (no real surprise given that Becks and Calamity took the brunt of the tabloid abuse) and the rest of the squad followed like sheep.

BaZmO*

MisterAnarchy wrote:

Glenn Hoddle was sacked over a minor comment he made.

I wouldn't call it a minor comment now! I agree with you on the rest but Hoddle had to go after what he said.

B.

_blank_

MisterAnarchy wrote:

I agree with the players on this issue.

As do I. The stick the British Tabloid Media ( including SkySports ) dishes out is unbelievable and in the main unfair. The was players lives are scrutinised under a microscope is uncalled for.

OK, so the players earn astronomical wages, but it's hardly their fault. Can anyone here say that if their chosen profession was as highly paid, that they'd say "thanks, but no thanks, your offering me a hundred grand a week to do my job, but I'll do the decent thing and only take a basic minimum wage" - fantasy isn't it. The argument that the public somehow "own" these players is ridiculous too. What right do the media have to tear peoples private lives apart. Yes, we can call Beckham a media whore, but his private life is his private life, and so it should be kept.

Now, about the backlash since Saturday. Davis James came out after the game and publically held his hands up to the mistake he made. He took full responsability for it, but the papers still tore in to him. Is it any wonder he and his team mates decided not to talk to the same media that turned on them so horribly.

MisterAnarchy wrote:

Glenn Hoddle was sacked over a minor comment he made.

Hardly a minor comment, in fairness. Whatever his religious beliefs, he shouldn't be going around saying what he said.

pickarooney

Jesus, who honestly cares that they didn't get to listen to "at the end of the day it was a tough game and full respects our opponents they ran us close but Oweney and Becksy and Coley had the measure of them when push came to shove and now we just have to win all our other games and we'll qualify for the World Cup" ?

por

MisterAnarchy wrote:

The press only care about selling papers and scandal.They dont give a damn about the best interests of the nation.

One of the harshest critics all week has been Terry Butcher writing on the BBC website and talking on 5 Live, so it's not just the tabloids they have a beef with.

It seems the players are unable to stand up to criticism from any source. they have to grow up.....

mike65

I'm with the players, the scribblers in the newsprint media are'nt worth talking to for the most part, they behave like schoolkids flip-flopping between idiotic hype/adulation and the most brattish hostility. If I played football at the top level I'd NEVER speak the press.

Mike.

cournioni

I can't believe that the players not talking to the media even made the news... I mean the press could write what the players are going to say before the players even say it... It's usually always:

"We knew it was going to be tough but we played well"

"They were hard to break down"

"It's only one game, we have to concentrate on Wales game now"

or...

Before the game
"we're really looking forward to it, we think we can win, we're going for the 3 points. We'll do our best"


After the game (win)
"we were looking forward to it, we thought we could win and we got the 3 points. I think we did our best"

After the game (lose)
"we were looking forward to it, we went for the win, I think we did our best"

I mean who cares?!

They only seem to have gotten more Bolshie since Sven took over as manager...they were never like this under any other

dannyd20

Put up or shut up

England's finest egos can't have it both ways: either they go for a blanket media blackout - post-match, promotional stuff, the lot - or not at all, says Scott Murray

Lifted from here


And there we were thinking the most outrageous dummy we'd see all night was the one Jermain Defoe sold his Polish marker.
So after this glorious nation's heroes thrashed Poland 2-1 thanks to an own goal... spit! Out flew another, straight across a roomful of journalists. The captain David Beckham - operated using strings and pulleys by working men's club ventriloquist act Gary Neville - had organised a player's revolt in protest at hostile notices posted regarding England's brave draw against Austria (world ranking 90). And off they toddled without saying a word.

Couple of things here.

Firstly, any chance of you chaps keeping it up? If you'd ever said anything even remotely interesting or arresting, this industrial action would be a minor pain in the arse. As it is, though, it's a positive boon: with not a single one of you having ever uttered a beneficial word to humankind - and being, to a man, almost completely bereft of wit or personality - the fact that this is one day when your barely articulate musings aren't reverentially plastered all over the morning papers is one to celebrate. Hallelujah, a hymn to this, and long may it continue.

Dave and the lads also seem to be labouring under the misapprehension that any of the gathered journalists cared a jot about the lack of forthcoming bons mots. For a start, the squad's no-show meant the hacks didn't have to spend up to two hours demeaning themselves by traipsing around after disinterested players in fear of missing any pearls. Which in turn meant they could spend extra time at the free buffet, shoving stale sandwiches down their craw. It also made the Fourth Estate's job easier; what a story England gave them. Editors nationwide must be delighted; this all gets remembered come the next round of pay talks, you know.

Still, this is in truth a sad affair. And also an instructive one, in what it reveals about the attitude of the England camp these days. The sneering arrogance of today's confused yet cocksure stars - the Dyerfication of our idols - we know all about; it's old news. But the camel will be fearing the next few straws; things have come to a pretty pass when the national team can't be bothered to communicate with the support after winning a crucial World Cup match.

This siege mentality was engendered during the Riogate scandal, when players and manager closed ranks against the game's authorities after a grown man forgot to urinate into a bottle. While ultimately a misguided exercise in hollow posturing, it was still mildly amusing to witness the foot soldiers take it to The Man. But it's less entertaining now they've extrapolated this bolshiness into an unerring belief that they're above any sort of criticism.

Surely they understand the simple fact that the dissing of players and managers is all part of the dance? In the same way a paying spectator is allowed to critique a player's skillset and application as loudly and as trenchantly from the sidelines as she likes, so journalists must opine pretty much as they please. When a player performs badly, they make a case for the prosecution. On very many occasions, yes, they go wildly over the top. Then again, when a striker simply does his job by scoring a couple of goals in a summer tournament, the sort of proportion-free press deification that results has been known to hasten £27m transfers to Manchester United. It's brickbats and bouquets.

Perhaps there's one way to settle this. It would be nice to think the next time England perform brilliantly, the papers would, en masse, not bother covering the result - no match reports, no marks-out-of-ten ratings, no comment - and gauge how the players react when nobody's talking about how good they were. But of course that's never going to happen (the en masse boycott, that is, not the performing brilliantly bit).

Hmm. How about this instead? If the players really want newspapers and magazines to stop bemoaning their brave efforts, the press should indeed desist. Never again should a single critical word be printed. But if the hacks relinquish their platform for free speech, so must the players. And no half measures; that means a blanket interview blackout.

This would sadly put an end to many media events, for example ones organised by players' personal sponsors, where journalists are granted one-to-one interviews in exchange for product placements. It may mean waving goodbye to those lucrative boot deals, razor-blade promotions and computer-game tie-ins... but what price a principle, lads, eh? Eh?