ENTIRE OF SWANSEA SQUAD DEMAND TRANSFER - according to a newspaper in the Dominican Republic
I am 100% confident I am far from the only person who is sick to the back teeth of the way the media (in general) deals with transfer speculation. At the slightest hint of a rumour it's a race for all the "reputable" outlets to get their own oar in, lest they miss out on all those lovely pageviews with their associated ad-clicks.
I do, however, think that a/the local paper which has a working relationship with their local football club should try to be above this. They will report multiple stories a day on said club, what they write is read primarily by fans of that club, and as such they can have a massive, massive say in swaying the opinion of your average supporter.
Take today's effort in the local paper. I generally don't like to single out the Evening Post, but today isn't the first time I've really disliked the angle of their headline/article and until now I've refrained from comment. Here's the article in question:
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| http://www.southwales-eveningpost.co.uk/Swansea-City-s-Bafetimbi-Gomis-wants-Aston-Villa/story-25806960-detail/story.html? |
As you can see, the headline starts "Gomis wants a move". In today's age of social media and clickbait headlines, I very much doubt most would see the entirety of the headline unless they happened upon this story on the Evening Post website itself. I assume Gareth Vincent didn't also do the headline to the story, but regardless of who did, what are they trying to achieve?
I'll tell you what they're trying to achieve. As mentioned earlier - pageviews. You get revenue for "click-throughs" on adverts, and what's more I also recently saw a post on their site which appeared to be one supplied entirely by a gambling company (link). Maybe I'm wrong and someone at the EP wanted to do an odds piece and give a free plug to a bookie, but I get offered lots of stuff like that and I don't like the idea of pushing it. For an actual newspaper to do that - to me, anyway - is very disappointing.
When you write a headline like this, then as mentioned lots will only see the first half of the headline. That's not good. "Gomis wants move" is hardly a positive thing to read as the transfer window opens, with our first choice striker away for a month or so. Secondly by naming other teams in the headline it ensures this article features in news services for all the clubs mentioned. Why worry about the effect you can have on the club you're supposed to have a good relationship with when you can get thousands of Geordies looking at your website, eh?
Speculation like this does no good for Swansea City, and the Evening Post will be fully aware of that. Writing articles which I'd imagine are based on nothing more than other internet rumours, and starting the headline with "Swansea's main striker for the month wants a move" is, in my opinion, unacceptable and atrocious journalism. Of course they'll hide behind the suffix of the headline "according to reports in France", but as I say lots won't have read that. It's like that scene in Talladega Nights where Ricky Bobby believes he can say whatever he likes, just because he said "with all due respect" first.
This all stems from a story in L'Equipe, the French newspaper, saying Gomis wants a move due to playing second fiddle to Bony. Well if that's true, why hasn't he been kicking off before now? Why wait until he's started two games in a row - grabbing two assists and two goals in the latter match - with a run in the team coming? Sorry, I don't buy it at all. This is conjecture by L'Equipe because they've put two and two together and got five, while every other media outlet who cares to do so is repeating it purely because they can, and they know it'll bring views.
Unsurprisingly, there's no substantiation other than "French paper "L'Equipe have claimed" - I've spent a good while looking and while it's possible my basic French has defeated me I can't find anything from said publication relating to this, and neither can I find any mention of it on their Twitter. There are reports on other French news sites which claim L'Equipe are reporting this, but again, no links. I'm not saying it's not been said - I'm saying if you're saying it's been said by a website provide the link. Otherwise why should I believe you?
If Gomis wants a move then that's his call. A day or so into the transfer window though I find it very, very disappointing that our local paper - a paper which proclaims itself "the Swans paper" on it's back page very proudly - chooses to run articles in the same manner trashy tabloids do. They should be better than that, and with the access I'd imagine they have to the club I think it's very poor they're chasing hits this way.
There will always be rumours in football, that's unavoidable. You don't have to publish them with a headline which makes it look like fact though. Similarly, there is always something you can write about if you're covering football. It's just easier repeating rumours I guess.
Sad.