The social media age has transformed the way that football media operates.
Large followings and trends have influenced news cycles; whether it be favourable coverage to a player whose agency has given favourable access to a social channel, an unreasonable bias towards or against an individual player by a journalist, an unconnected social media personality getting the sort of opportunities long-term supporters could only dream of, or even memes inspiring questions in actual press conferences to about-to-be-sacked managers.
However there is driving a narrative and being the news, with the two being very different things, as the football world found out this week when Turki Al-Sheikh – a Saudi-based boxing specialist claimed in a tweet : “The best news I heard today is that Manchester United is now in an advanced stage of completing a deal to sell to a new investor – I hope he’s better than the previous owners.”
The tweet was quickly noticed by major outlets in the UK because of Turki’s 7 million followers. The Daily Mail even boasted of being ‘the first to report the news in the early hours of Thursday after Al-Sheikh wrote’ his tweet.
The Mail have Qatari sources; in fact, during the speculation during the takeover talk, Mike Keegan was the most well-informed reporter with the direct line to the camp claiming they were representing Sheikh Jassim, with all reputable quotes on the saga linking to him.
However, Turki’s claims don’t even need to be entertained. There are two primary reasons why there is no substance to the story – the first being the obligation of the club to notify the Stock Exchange of such activity.
The second is the publication of the latest Sir Jim Ratcliffe interview that was run via the Times this past week. The Times is Ratcliffe’s mouthpiece and TalkingDevils.com understands it has people working on a documentary and book associated with the INEOS takeover and running of Manchester United.
If there was any substance to Turki’s tweet, the Times would not have run with Ratcliffe’s interview, and indeed, there would be plenty of associated speculation from them regarding his position.
Could it happen in the future? Perhaps. Never say never in football, and ever since the drag-along rights became public knowledge in August, speculation has been invited. However, for now, it’s better to pay more attention to the credibility of Ratcliffe’s interview in his publication of choice – whether you like what he says or not.
