Are journalists deliberately facilitating in making United a laughing stock?

[horsechoker]

This is a crackpot theory and it goes without saying that Woody, The Glasers and several managers have already done this but I'm coming to the opinion that journalists are deliberately stoking up United fans with false transfer stories which make the club look stupid when they don't pan out.

We've seen it this transfer window with Bruno, Berge and just prior Haaland. This is happening in a way that doesn't happen to City or Liverpool. I also think they do this to Arsenal, because they know you can get an easy laugh at the fans.

tl;dr - stop bully please

 

[Siorac]

This is a crackpot theory

Indeed.

(Also, the Berge story makes the journalists look incompetent, not the club. How is it the club's fault that a youngster was mistaken for a random midfielder from the Belgian league?)

 

[MikeUpNorth]

Nonsense stories will always fill a vacuum. If the club wants to avoid the nonsense, implement a proper transfer strategy and get our business done efficiently.

 

[Pexbo]

Yes. A lot of the nonsense is pure click bait and half our fan base is all too desperate to believe it because they are masochists.

 

[JPRouve]

Of course they are. The vocabulary and new metrics that they use are designed to create unrest and clicks. I'm pretty sure that they publish fake transfer rumours just to later spend a month or two writing articles explaining how United are disfunctional as the numerous failed transfers show.

 

[LilyWhiteSpur]

United has the biggest fan base in the land, BS clickbait stories make them money, that's really what its about. Stop clicking and they will stop writing.

 

[Infra-red]

Woodward and Solskjaer have achieved this all on their own. No help from the media was required.

 

[VP89]

Are Man Utd being bullied and harassed on TV?

 

[Catt]

Looks at half this forum. They have an easy job.

 

[spiriticon]

The fanbase lick up every rumour and tweet like it's the gospel. Whaddya expect?

 

[Fosu-Mens]

No. The club is diversifying its revenue stream.
Now operating as a fan-scam and a comedy club. Bloody genius Woody.

 

[Rozay]

Obviously. They have made 5th seem like 12th all season.

 

[Raw]

Writing bollocks about United is guaranteed clicks. Especially when we're shit. Must be so easy being a sports journalist, just throw a dart at a list of players, make up a transfer fee and write about how United are "preparing talks" over signing them.

 

[mav_9me]

Is it media's fault for reporting Ole: "Sanchez will come back and prove everyone wrong".

Just kidding. I know what you mean.

The journalists are doing what they are paid to, generate clicks for their websites.

 

[NotoriousISSY]

The Sander Berge one was somewhat believable.

A young Norwegian midfielder...fits a narrative. But yes, journalists are paid to clickbait...and United are one of the most vulnerable to clickbait right now.

 

[Ikon]

Nonsense stories will always fill a vacuum. If the club wants to avoid the nonsense, implement a proper transfer strategy and get our business done efficiently.

This^^
An efficient recruitment team doesn't give the impression of being utterly unprepared and incompetent.

 

[Nickelodeon]

Obviously. They have made 5th seem like 12th all season.

It's not them. It's us.

 

[MikeKing]

Yes. I guess some folks have a habit of reading news about United, which in these days usually means negative clickbait, that just adds fuel to their frustrations. It reinforces the idea about "a laughing stock" at every opportunity and fans get confirmation for their frustrations, but embarrassed at the same time and blames the club for them feeling that way. The only way to not feel that way is to not get sucked into the talk of the culture vultures. These stories will never be about the positive things anyways, shit articles won't change with the clubs fortunes, they will always be there if we look, which we wouldn't necessarily do if we were satisfied with the clubs results.

 

[wolvored]

United has the biggest fan base in the land, BS clickbait stories make them money, that's really what its about. Stop clicking and they will stop writing.

This. Utd have been linked to everybody since the 70s. Its nothing new. If City had have been the bigger club with the biggest fanbase all these years, it would have been them.

 

[Drz]

This is a crackpot theory and it goes without saying that Woody, The Glasers and several managers have already done this but I'm coming to the opinion that journalists are deliberately stoking up United fans with false transfer stories which make the club look stupid when they don't pan out.

We've seen it this transfer window with Bruno, Berge and just prior Haaland. This is happening in a way that doesn't happen to City or Liverpool. I also think they do this to Arsenal, because they know you can get an easy laugh at the fans.

tl;dr - stop bully please

Besides dumb, they are lazy beyond anything else. Their narratives are pre-setup in terms of click-bait potential then it is just a matter of taking recent events and fitting it within that context.
United not leaking intel for a change has them wound-up in a frenzy, imagine JJ Jameson offering 5bucks for a pic of Spiderman driving into Old Trafford.

 

[T00lsh3d]

They have to write something about united, we’re to big not to. Unfortunately, we’re doing feck all, so it all has to be BS

 

[crossy1686]

Of course they are. You've heard how journalists have openly said that any United story is lapped up, all the top news stories are United related, always have been. You know what's a better read than any positive story about United? A negative one. Because everyone hates us and always will.

The scariest part about all the negative news stories is just how many of our fans genuinely believe them, despite being written by Scousers or affiliates...

 

[11101]

Problem is its hard to see through the lies and clickbait anymore. Yesterday we all rightly laughed when rumours came out that we wanted Sanchez back. Today, Ole confirms it.

 

[Adisa]

Who really gives a shit? Everything is seen through the prism of results.

 

[Heinzesight]

The Augustin one today is a proper pisstake when in fact it was a host of PL clubs that were in for him but failed. feck them.

 

[12OunceEpilogue]

It's probably a combination of journalists and twitter banter accounts knowing they'll get clicks/RTs from chronicling our travails in the most dramatic way possible and our football club genuinely being shit at all facets of being a football club.

 

[sugar_kane]

What I do know is that all the idiots on Twitter and this forum who work themselves up into a frothing rage about us not being able to conduct transfers effectively are basing their whole anger on the premise that the majority of the articles about us being interested in players is true.

If you remove this premise, ie. assume that most of it is bollocks which it almost certainly is then the continual rage at our board's incompetence seems a lot less justified.

 

[Amerifan]

Clickbait. Controversy sells.

 

[arthurka]

Ed and co need no help in looking incompetent.. none what so ever.

 

[MrPooni]

This is a crackpot theory and it goes without saying that Woody, The Glasers and several managers have already done this but I'm coming to the opinion that journalists are deliberately stoking up United fans with false transfer stories which make the club look stupid when they don't pan out.

We've seen it this transfer window with Bruno, Berge and just prior Haaland. This is happening in a way that doesn't happen to City or Liverpool. I also think they do this to Arsenal, because they know you can get an easy laugh at the fans.

tl;dr - stop bully please

The transformation is complete. Welcome to RAWK Cafe.

 

[Siorac]

Obviously. They have made 5th seem like 12th all season.

34 points from 24 games is usually more like somewhere between 7th and 9th. Our performance is that of an upper mid-table team, statistically speaking.

 

[Snuffkin]

Man utd being at the top of headlines means we aren't dead yet. Nothing grabs the attention like a utd storey. Pool will dominate until klopp goes but they will never be as sexy as utd

 

[Rozay]

34 points from 24 games is usually more like somewhere between 7th and 9th. Our performance is that of an upper mid-table team, statistically speaking.

Statistically speaking, it is that of the 5th placed team. Literally.

 

[hobbers]

The club are doing a good enough job of it without any help from the press.

Most of the big press stories have been genuine imo. Dybala and Eriksen interest in the summer. Bruno and Haaland interest in the winter. I think in all four the club genuinely are briefing that they're interested. Obviously briefing something and it actually being true are two very different things.

 

[Lentwood]

Yes. In reality, this season was always going to be a struggle but we're still above Arsenal and Tottenham despite all the very obvious problems we have had.

Seems to be Ole who gets all the criticism though, despite Arsenal and Tottenham (in particular) having far, far superior SQUADS (capitalised that because I mean the squad of 23)

 

[roonster09]

Its all reverse engineering. You see the results and then you build a narrative based on that. Sadly our results are very poor since SAF retired, so it's easy to build any narrative that media wants.

 

[Siorac]

Statistically speaking, it is that of the 5th placed team. Literally.

Eh, you know what I'm saying. Are you one of those who just ignores any and all context to things?

 

[Gambit]

Yes, there's a saying in the British sports industry, you will never go poor writing about Manchester United. We're not helping it mind.

 

[Adam-Utd]

Yes, it's pretty obvious the press know that writing ANYTHING about united makes them more money.

It seems the current demise of united is their favourite thing to write about, and transfer news especially gets massive traffic.

 

[Darlington Padgett]

Regardless of how ridiculous the Berge story was, Ole's claims about Sanchez were far worse. The manager and owners are making United a laughing stock.