Newcastle United beat Wolverhampton Wanderers yesterday and both calls scored by the Magpies were absolute stunners and yet the post-match interviews focused more on off-field matters.
This 'civil war' between Eddie Howe and Paul Mitchell had got boring a long time ago, but because of the international break and there wasn't a great deal else going on the media kept pushing it, picking through the interviews to find things to spin into a story - we were guilty of it too, when there's nothing positive to write about you have to find things, we get it.
However, the difference between sites like ours and the mainstream media is that we're not there asking the questions. We aren't the ones poking the bear to get a reaction.
Today on TalkSPORT the issue reared its head again in a discussion between Simon Jordan, Jim White and Martin Keown and Jordon was quick to point the finger back at the media.
Jordan was very clear that the issue would not be as big as it is were the media not driving the narrative. While Keown tried to argue that the whole thing was being played out in public and it should be being worked out behind closed doors, Jordan pointed out that the reason it's being played out in public is because the media keep asking them about it.
He recognises that Paul Mitchell and Eddie Howe are in a no-win situation. If they refuse to answer questions on the topic then it looks evasive and the media can take that and run with it however they please, and we know how they would interpret it. However, when they do answer, every word they say is pored over and spun in such a way that the 'feud' remains alive.
If the media stopped asking about it, the whole issue would die down and Mitchell and Howe could just get on with things in the way that they have determined is the best way to work together.
The best part of Jordan's ranting was when he broke down exactly what Paul Mitchell mean with his 'not fit for purpose' quote when talking about the club's transfer policies. While anyone with an ounce of common sense and no agenda could see what Mitchell meant, that's not how it was reported, but Jordan has tried to put the record straight.
"So what you've got now is a new director of football coming in and saying, in part, the reasons why I can't do what I would really like to do is because the previous buying policies which were right at the time for what we needed to fix at the time, aren't proving to be right in the here and now because we can't do what we need to now."
He then moved on to mention that Eddie Howe came out and defended those transfers, which of course he did. Howe doesn't want his players to think that the new Sporting Director is off saying that those players were bad signings. Howe is stepping out in front of it to keep player morale up,
The fact that the media are firing these loaded questions about what someone said about something instead of focusing on the football is probably winding up Howe and he's perhaps not thinking his answer through properly before giving it so he's being a bit emotional and defensive.
At the end of the day, if the media didn't fire off such loaded question designed to get a reaction so they can keep this 'feud' story alive, then this whole thing would have been buried by now.
PL | GD | PTS | ||
---|---|---|---|---|
1 |
Liverpool
|
14 | 18 | 35 |
2 |
Chelsea
|
15 | 17 | 31 |
3 |
Arsenal
|
15 | 14 | 29 |
4 |
Manchester City
|
15 | 6 | 27 |
5 |
Nottingham Forest
|
15 | 1 | 25 |
6 |
Aston Villa
|
15 | 0 | 25 |
7 |
Brighton
|
15 | 3 | 24 |
8 |
Bournemouth
|
15 | 3 | 24 |
9 |
Brentford
|
15 | 3 | 23 |
10 |
Fulham
|
15 | 2 | 23 |
11 |
Tottenham Hotspur
|
15 | 12 | 20 |
12 |
Newcastle United
|
15 | -2 | 20 |
13 |
Manchester United
|
15 | 1 | 19 |
14 |
West Ham United
|
15 | -8 | 18 |
15 |
Everton
|
14 | -7 | 14 |
16 |
Leicester
|
15 | -9 | 14 |
17 |
Crystal Palace
|
15 | -6 | 13 |
18 |
Ipswich
|
15 | -13 | 9 |
19 |
Wolves
|
15 | -15 | 9 |
20 |
Southampton
|
15 | -20 | 5 |