The arrogance of the Media on the subject of the Top 6!!

[Manwell Pablo]

4 hours ago, Finnegan said:

How have people still not let this sink in yet? 

 

Journalism is a product and its never been a more competitive market. Sky are competing with BT, the tabloids are competing with each other and there's now millions of blogs, websites, vlogs and apps all trying to push football content for advertising revenue and subscriptions. 

 

You sell by appealing to the most people you can and football fans are overly precious, sensitive, delicate flowers. I mean just look at this thread, or our people talking about us thread. Even or thread for pundit predictions or the one about players in teams of the week really serves for people to just moan about lcfc getting overlooked. 

 

Football fans want to hear nice things about their team and there's more United, Liverpool and Arsenal fans than anyone else. So that's what they write and talk about, it's just economics. It's nothing personal but little old Leicester don't make them a lot of money beyond pushing the "miracle" line. 

 

It's shit that it's that way but you should all be used to it by now. The Big Six is a narrative in itself that makes these people billions as an industry every year, its not going to change unless half the country (or half of China) becomes a Leicester glory supporter. 

 

Even Man City suffer from this, the coverage they get compared to United and Liverpool is often a bit dismissive and brief, so even if we ended up being multiple league winners you can bet we'd never get the attention of United and Arsenal even if they've still not won owt. 

 

TBF whilst all of this is true, we aren't exactly struggling for positive media attention

 

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-7621891/Leicester-City-reason-expect-Champions-League-season.html

 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/50225585

 

https://believeperform.com/the-success-of-leicester-city-fc/

 

https://metro.co.uk/2019/11/09/how-brendan-rodgers-has-turned-leicester-into-what-unai-emery-said-arsenal-would-be-11055595/

 

https://www.wsj.com/articles/leicester-citys-second-miracle-11574361829

 

That took me less than 5 minutes to dig up.

 

Last night we were first on MOTD 2 ahead of the mighty Manchester United. We've got games stacked up on BT Sky and Amazon (as has everyone) over the coming month.

 

Some people will not be happy to till the media is completely Leicester-centric and Chris Sutton and Mark Lawrenson are sacked for not liking us as much as we feel they should do it seems.

 

It's funny as in the do they mean us thread not so long ago there was a pack of Liverpool fans complaining that we get far too much coverage.

 

 

 

[yorkie1999]

3 hours ago, Dorkingfox said:

So true, but look at Man City now, the richest club in the world, worth over £3.2b

3rd richest.

[UpTheLeagueFox]

5 hours ago, Hack said:

There is a serious attitude and arrogance which is not healthy in the media only wanting the top 6 (or perceived top 6, being Man U, Man C, Liverpool, Chelsea, Arsenal, Spurs)  to be the legitimate title challengers. 

I disagree. Leicester - or any other non "top six" club - challenging with the big boys is a great story for the press and media, as was proved in 2015/16

 

3 hours ago, yorkie1999 said:

That guy who was inteviewing Rodgers after the game needs a serious thumping, such an arragant **** with a forceful attitude. 

"Brendan can you confirm you have a buy-out clause in your contract?". What a loaded question that is. Next thing we have the media jumping on the Rodgers to Arsenal bandwagon, which then forces him to deny it. It's proper shit stirring.  

It was a legitimate question to ask, given the speculation about Rodgers and Arsenal and a recent story appearing about the clause.

 

2 hours ago, stripeyfox said:

Personally I consider whiny Leicester fans moaning about how "the media" isn't kissing our asses more irritating...

Spot on Stripey.

 

2 hours ago, Rusko187 said:

I've heard journalists outright ask managers if they're worried for their jobs, but do they ask them if they have a buy-out in their contracts? Thought that was extremely unprofessional from Sky yesterday.

Not unprofessional at all.

 

2 hours ago, car1os said:

I think the Big 6 also like to leak stories to the media about how they want this player, that manager, etc to try to destabilise any other team from breaking into the top group and denying them a seat at the table they believe they’re entitled to.  

All clubs leak stories through the media, it's not just the big six.

 

1 hour ago, Dave Fishwick said:

I think we should all remove the respective chips off our shoulders and enjoy the ride

no point getting worked up over stuff like this

Amen. 

End thread.

[Rusko187]

Just now, UpTheLeagueFox said:

Not unprofessional at all.

 

Amen. 

End thread.

Can't argue with that 

[Bezzanator89]

4 hours ago, Daggers said:

It’s not “da medias”, it’s a collection of ex-players who, let’s face it, aren’t going to be getting certificates from MENSA any time soon. Punditry is by and large stuffed full of thickos trotting out glib phrases, at the end of the day.

Kind of like the Soccer Saturday panel or the pundits on Radio 5L 606 show then. 😂

[Footballwipe]

48 minutes ago, Manwell Pablo said:

 

Last night we were first on MOTD 2 ahead of the mighty Manchester United. We've got games stacked up on BT Sky and Amazon (as has everyone) over the coming month.

 

Some people will not be happy to till the media is completely Leicester-centric and Chris Sutton and Mark Lawrenson are sacked for not liking us as much as we feel they should do it seems.

 

It's funny as in the do they mean us thread not so long ago there was a pack of Liverpool fans complaining that we get far too much coverage.

 

 

 

Precisely, you and Finners are right. 

 

Until "the media" kneel at the alter of Leicester City. Sacking anyone who is vaguely negative towards us and with a constant glow of endless love, people won't be happy.

 

If people want to have a 100% positive LCFC media experience then just tune into LCFC TV. It's quite simple.

 

 

[yorkie1999]

40 minutes ago, UpTheLeagueFox said:

I disagree. Leicester - or any other non "top six" club - challenging with the big boys is a great story for the press and media, as was proved in 2015/16

 

It was a legitimate question to ask, given the speculation about Rodgers and Arsenal and a recent story appearing about the clause.

 

Spot on Stripey.

 

Not unprofessional at all.

 

All clubs leak stories through the media, it's not just the big six.

 

Amen. 

End thread.

Well it's not is it. A ligitimate question would be Are you interested in the arsenal job, the question that was put to him is intended to put thoughts in other clubs minds, especially as the the point of a post match inteview is to gather his thoughts on the match, not to talk about personal contracts.

[1884FoxInTheBox]

Read this if the media coverages p****s you off.

Think a lot of you guys are completely missing the meaning of the word 'big' or 'top'. Historically, it was used to signify the best teams, but now it simply refers to the size of their fanbase. They are the 6 'biggest' or 'top' teams by fanbase in the country - https://travel.zeelo.co/the-top-15-biggest-and-most-supported-football-teams-in-the-world/

Therefore, as someone mentioned earlier, it is just pure economics to cater to this audience. No agender, just capitalism.

For Leicester to become a 'big' team, we would need more fans. Social media followers will increase with results, especially European competitions. You can also gain international supporters (in growing footballing nations) by marketing, opening training acadamies or with pre-season tours. See Bayern Munich in China as a prime example - https://www.ispo.com/en/markets/how-fc-bayern-commiting-china

However, the drawback of becoming a 'big' club is increased scrutiny on the manager, squad and the board. Perhaps more importantly, you may also lose your identity, such as the feeling of community that Leicester is known for!

[Vestan Pance]

3 hours ago, ultrafox said:

I hate to say this, but I think the media would feel easier if a so called 'sleeping giant' challenged the Top 6.

 

By a sleeping giant I mean teams that have had a number of Domestic and European successes in the past and a potentially larger fan base.. (I'm thinking Villa, Leeds, Everton maybe Wolves .......I can't bring myself to mention anyone else)

 

It's our lack of serious trophies (historically) incl FA cup failures and very few European campaigns that always gives us the minnow tag.

 

For the media, It will take a number of years of consistant success in the Premier League and many more "Champions League" campaigns before we have the right to join the elite.

But how long do we have to wait? We've won more trophies in the last 30 years than that lot put together I'd imagine.

Part of the problem is the nature of Leicester people, in general we seem to be a quieter, calmer, unassuming bunch than than supporters of some of the bigger clubs. I think sometimes this can come across as not being as passionate about our team, we all know this isn't true of course.

[Dirkster the Fox]

Hopefully they can all bog off now.  He's just said this:

 

"I have a contract here until 2022. Thus far, I know managers are losing their jobs, the club have not indicated to me that they are going to sack me. I am very happy so would have no need to look elsewhere.

"Why would I want to leave Leicester City at this time? I am working with a group of players who have so much potential. I gave an honest answer about how all managers have some sort of clause in their contracts and suddenly that seems to have thrown a door wide open.

"For me I repeat, I am happy here. Very happy here. I feel I want to continue with that. Take from that what you want.”

[David Hankey]

There are several problems surrounding this issue. 1) Column inches have to filled somehow so make it up if necessary. 2) Sportswriters in general can't abide the likes of Leicester City "muscling" in on the so-called big boys, how dare we attitude. 3) The numbers of ex-players turned "expert" pundits are now a becoming a burden to the game and the majority of them have nothing positive to say e.g. how can someone be taken recently 8 years after retiring from the game signing for Stockport County be taken seriously?

 

It is a great shame football has come to this as the majority of stories in the media are just that although some must have an unsettling effect.

[KrefelderFox666]

Who cares what the media think about us? Surely the more they refuse to count us in with the top teams or even mention us winning the league the better. No pressure and we can surprise everyone when we do finish in the Top 4.

[Shram]

Ultimately I don’t see an issue with the top 6. Not that long ago it was the top 4 till Man City and Spurs expanded it. Our goal should be to be breaking into it like a top 7 or replacing someone in it. They’re the top 6 because they consistently finish at the top end of the league (ignoring a few brain fart years from Arsenal, United and Chelsea). Our goal should be to regularly challenge for those spots over the coming years to break into it, right now we’ve had one amazing season and a good start. We need to build on it. If we can do that we’ll grow in terms of a place players want to play and a wider fan base. We get as much positive coverage as the rubbish, and a look at Twitter shows just how many people enjoy eating us play who aren’t our existing fan base.

[Bourbon Fox]

4 hours ago, Stoopid said:

It's more about resurrecting received wisdom without which they have very little to say, but which our victory rendered obsolete.

That's why you're always hearing ''Yes, well, Leicester apart' and 'if you don't count Leicester's title'  etc before the latest stale batch of orthodox opinion is trotted out.

Acknowledging the fact that we made such opinion redundant is tantamount to admitting their own redundancy.

 

Great point. 

 

Mainstream sports media is the same as the wider mainstream media - it's far easier to trot out the agreed consensus narrative. 

 

This is the age of the 24-hour news cycle. News media has replaced the soap opera, local newspapers are identikit assemblages of the same centralised content and autocue-reading 'news personalities' recite what they see without analysis.

 

Real journalism is all but dead in the mainstream, and football coverage is no different. To offer insightful, challenging, genuine reporting and debate is beyond the traditional news outlets - thankfully there are independent alternatives to the received wisdom, and these can be found online. 

 

[davieG]

3 hours ago, UpTheLeagueFox said:

It was a legitimate question to ask, given the speculation about Rodgers and Arsenal and a recent story appearing about the clause.

Surely the speculation only came from the same media so it's just self generating stories.

 

Make something up and then say it's genuine to pursue it. 

[Bourbon Fox]

15 minutes ago, davieG said:

Surely the speculation only came from the same media so it's just self generating stories.

 

Make something up and then say it's genuine to pursue it. 

 

Yep - easy formula

 

Step 1 - speculate based on no information at all, or an opinion you pulled out of your a*se

 

Step 2 - amplify speculation as other outlets report on your report

 

Step 3 - Report views of people on Twitter, who are responding to reports of your a*se-originated speculation

 

Step 4 - report that speculation is causing unrest. Use the opinion of clapped-out former players to throw petrol on the fire

 

Step 5 - subject of speculation is forced to make an announcement. Report on announcement, dissect every word

 

You can get a week of web content out of that

 

[Sianist]

Is the lack of acknowledgement from the media really all that bad?

 

I mean, with the media not sufficiently respecting Leicester, there'll be less negative outside pressure on the players to preform, and a latent under expectation, which would make other teams (and specially other fans) less likely to appriciate Leicester and hence either heap expectations on themselves, or not sufficiently concern themselves about LCFC

[Pete from the USA]

I think the Premier League is in the middle of a big realignment. It's really exciting. 

 

It takes more than money to win titles. It takes team spirit, community, effort, optimism. A corporation can't buy those things. Only a community can make them. 

 

As the lower PL clubs get richer the gap between sides is determined more by those intangibles. This is why Leicester are rising. They have quite a bit of money but still are basically a community club. 

 

Toxic outfits like ManU and Arsenal, who rely just on superior wealth, are fading. I have a feeling this could be permanent and not just a few bad seasons. The media will be the last ones to realize this. 

 

Interesting times we live in...

 

Edited 2 December 2019 by Pete from the USA

[Sianist]

3 minutes ago, Pete from the USA said:

I think the Premier League is in the middle of a big realignment. It's really exciting. 

 

It takes more than money to win titles. It takes team spirit, community, effort, optimism. A corporation can't buy those things. Only a community can make them. 

 

As the lower PL clubs get richer the gap between sides is determined more by those intangibles. This is why Leicester are rising. They have quite a bit of money but still are basically a community club. 

 

Toxic outfits like ManU and Arsenal, who rely just on superior wealth, are fading. I have a feeling this could be permanent and not just a few bad seasons. The media will be the last ones to realize this. 

 

Interesting times we live in...

 

 

Agreed, and i'd Also argue that Leicester probably have had one of the best scouting teams, with arguebly the only major flop being Slimani, and that I'd argue is more about being a poor fit for the team, needing a longer acclimatisation than expected and were interrupted by a few injuries

[Bourbon Fox]

1 hour ago, Sianist said:

 

Agreed, and i'd Also argue that Leicester probably have had one of the best scouting teams, with arguebly the only major flop being Slimani, and that I'd argue is more about being a poor fit for the team, needing a longer acclimatisation than expected and were interrupted by a few injuries

Injuries is a great point

Back when Pearson was in charge of us in the Championship we were hosting Premier League sides at the BASES conference. Our sports science has been top notch for years, and it pays off massively by keeping our first team by and large off the treatment table

[Foxxed]

8 hours ago, Dave Fishwick said:

I think we should all remove the respective chips off our shoulders and enjoy the ride

 

no point getting worked up over stuff like this

Amen. Puffing out your chest and demanding pundits and journalists say nice things about us is sad. As Finners said, they’re targeting bigger fanbases. Demanding respect and getting stuffy when you don’t get it is a sad, sad trait.

[Tom12345]

Great thread. I am sure it reflects the attitude of many fans. I for one am sick and tired of reading articles every day linking our players and manager with a so called Top Six side.

 

They don’t say Kevin De Bruyne is doing great at Man City so hey he should leave for any other club. 

 

It is unsettling and almost a crusade to help ensure the so called Top Six remain Top 6.

 

When we look closer, we often hear a random pundit, eg. Sutton, say something on TV. Another journalist will then report that as a news worthy event. That in turn then generates another piece and another piece. Soon it becomes almost like the truth. It is not even like it is a rumour that starts with some alleged leak from the inside. It is just everyone reporting what everyone else in the industry is saying, keeping the click baits going and keeping their jobs. 

 

A story might go around like this:

 

- Sutton says Rodgers suck and he thinks Leicester is a small club and should leave for Arsenal and take Chilwell with him

 

- A reporter then writes a piece about the above

 

- Other reporters then repeat the above

 

- Reporters and pundits then go on and say it has been “widely” reported that Rodgers may leave for Arsenal taking Chilwell with him

 

- Some twat will then speculate that it would take Arsenal £20m for Rodgers and £60m for Chilwell

 

- Some TV pundit (eg. Neville) will then take that on, because he actually doesnt do his homework and simply read today’s news before going on TV. He might say there are lots of speculations of Rodgers and Chilwell going to Arsenal and apparently for £80m. He might then add his own opinion about whether it makes sense because Arsenal is a Top Six club.

 

- Other pundits will then jump on the bandwagon and add to it, all sounding as if they have inside gossip, but all originally based on what, unm, Sutton said

 

- player agent for Chilwell may then seize the opportunity and add fuel to the speculation to generate a transfer for Chilwell or at least a pay rise so that he gets paid his fees

 

It is all crap.

Edited 2 December 2019 by Tom12345

[cstrafe]

It's just lazy journalism by people with little understanding of football.

 

You look at a club like Arsenal that has all the resources in the world and they are desperately struggling. They just fired their manager and their squad is a bunch of over-hyped and overpaid Instagram personalities. They're sitting 8th and can't beat a second tier club from the Bundesliga. "Emery is trash and can't manage. We need to get rid of him to fix Arsenal."

 

They see Leicester sitting second, playing nice football with a squad made up of players they knew nothing about before this season and are perplexed. "Take Leicester's manager and insert him at Arsenal, it's that simple!" It's not.

 

That's literally all it is. They see a man doing great things with what they perceive as "little" and now they have a "solution" to the equation: A + B = C. This is their simplistic understanding of football. Never mind the details, it's as simple as changing the manager.

[Meat and 2 veg]

53 minutes ago, Tom12345 said:

Great thread. I am sure it reflects the attitude of many fans. I for one am sick and tired of reading articles every day linking our players and manager with a so called Top Six side.

 

They don’t say Kevin De Bruyne is doing great at Man City so hey he should leave for any other club. 

 

It is unsettling and almost a crusade to help ensure the so called Top Six remain Top 6.

 

When we look closer, we often hear a random pundit, eg. Sutton, say something on TV. Another journalist will then report that as a news worthy event. That in turn then generates another piece and another piece. Soon it becomes almost like the truth. It is not even like it is a rumour that starts with some alleged leak from the inside. It is just everyone reporting what everyone else in the industry is saying, keeping the click baits going and keeping their jobs. 

 

A story might go around like this:

 

- Sutton says Rodgers suck and he thinks Leicester is a small club and should leave for Arsenal and take Chilwell with him

 

- A reporter then writes a piece about the above

 

- Other reporters then repeat the above

 

- Reporters and pundits then go on and say it has been “widely” reported that Rodgers may leave for Arsenal taking Chilwell with him

 

- Some twat will then speculate that it would take Arsenal £20m for Rodgers and £60m for Chilwell

 

- Some TV pundit (eg. Neville) will then take that on, because he actually doesnt do his homework and simply read today’s news before going on TV. He might say there are lots of speculations of Rodgers and Chilwell going to Arsenal and apparently for £80m. He might then add his own opinion about whether it makes sense because Arsenal is a Top Six club.

 

- Other pundits will then jump on the bandwagon and add to it, all sounding as if they have inside gossip, but all originally based on what, unm, Sutton said

 

- player agent for Chilwell may then seize the opportunity and add fuel to the speculation to generate a transfer for Chilwell or at least a pay rise so that he gets paid his fees

 

It is all crap.

Very well put !

[Hack]

7 hours ago, KrefelderFox666 said:

Who cares what the media think about us? Surely the more they refuse to count us in with the top teams or even mention us winning the league the better. No pressure and we can surprise everyone when we do finish in the Top 4.

I really am not sure people really read my post and what i am saying.  It has nothing to do with getting praise for the club nor is it about what they think of the club, but the bias of keeping a certain status quo in club hierarchy in the Premier League.  my point uses us and how we are doing, but it could be about any of the other 14 teams that make up the PL. All the media want to talk about and speculate about is 6 clubs. Yes it is driven by size of market and audience but I feel that is naive .