Key to being a 'reliable source' on Twitter

[stw2022]

There are good journalists and poor journalists. People who make stuff up and people with genuine sources. A new type of journalist has emerged thanks to Twitter and some of them get rightly mocked while others get bizarre pseudo-celebrity status. I'm talking about guys that leap on stories nearly always broke by good journalists and pile on with fairly innocuous, yet not unprovable, trivia that makes them look in the know.

A reputable reporter may for example Tweet that club A is thinking of signing player B. These new 'Twitter journalists'(not necessarily journalists that are only on Twitter but who mainly derive their reputation from the platform) then jump in with stuff like:

'Contacts ongoing, 60% chance. Still issues with agent'

and

'Close to happening. Not confirmed but intent on all sides to make it happen'

It adds nothing to the story. It isn't anything that can't be made up. It isn't something that isn't true with 99% of all transfers. Yet the Twitter journo has effectively hijacked the story. He'll Tweet about it 8 times each day, adding nothing new but repeating 'may happen, may not, club are hopeful' and variations of it. If the player signs he's a genius. "Reliable". If he doesn't? Well, he always said there was a chance it wouldn't happen, so he still knows what he's talking about IMO.

As I said I don't want to name names but there's a very prominent 'reliable journalist' who seems to have gained a reputation here especially for doing precisely this. Last night when the board meeting was called, a story others led on, he was immediately ahead of it by claiming to know that the board was split - before any meeting happened or news had leaked from it. The board meeting as we now know concluded our manager was to go. But it was another example of jumping on a story, adding info that couldn't be disproven, to make it seem as if he had the inside scoop. Tweeting 30 times a day because he's noticing an increase in his engagement/mentions adding nothing to the story except 'sources say Ed Woodward ate crisps' level of insight if we're actually breaking it down, and he gets reputation of being a sage of knowledge.

I'm not saying he's the only one but there are a large group of people who might well be decent, credible journaists in their own right, who gain reputation and followers through Twitter by doing exactly this.

 

[golden_blunder]

The person you refer to, I’m not sure I’d class him as a proper journo. I’d say he’s more of a Twitter Hawk, who must tweet x amount of times per day and some of it will stick

 

[Wonder Pigeon]

Again without naming any one in particular, it's so odd to me that someone would have their own catchphrase that means 'contrary to everything I've been tweeting for 4 weeks, something verifiable and official is now actually happening'.

 

[Redfan94]

Fabrizio Romano does genuinely have inside contacts and 90% of the time, he’s the first to break a story.

 

[Chesterlestreet]

I heard that Romano does have a genuine contact or two - but that those are people working for agent service companies, third party in other words, not actual inside sources working for the clubs he reports on.

No idea if it's true, nor do I care - but that's what some hardcore transfer muppets seem to think.

At any rate, it's obvious enough that he doesn't have inside sources feeding him top-of-the-line info at all the clubs he writes about (not unless he employs a vast network of operatives across Europe and beyond).

 

[RUCK4444]

Ok so I assume this is about Romano.

I would like to take a little credit as perhaps the very first person here calling him out as a fecking fraud and took a load of flack for it. There were one or two others as well in fairness.

The example given in the OP in paragraph two is a prime example of Romano, he did exactly this (again) yesterday with Ole. Makes a living out of doing exactly this.

He has some contacts, mainly in Italy and definitely does not know the inside track on every single footballing matter like he claims to, yet people lap it up and worse they use him as the benchmark for reliability, which is what prompts some like myself to get miffed.

 

[UpWithRivers]

Makes me laugh. There is no way anyone had any info on Oles sacking unless United wanted them to. It was an emergency board meeting. That means the Glaziers and top board members. Why on earth would they be texting Romano or any random twitter, youtuber or anyone for that matter in the middle of the meeting or just after? Makes absolutely no sense. There is definitely leaks that come out of the club like players wanting new contracts or wanting to leave but in the thousands of news stories probably 99 percent are a load of bollocks. They have to be. Its just not feasible, possible for these guys to get access to this information.

 

[lsd]

Fabrizio Romano does genuinely have inside contacts and 90% of the time, he’s the first to break a story.

It's Romano he is on about and he is pretty much a fraud.

He is very rarely the first to break any story and has people working for him who just search for any breaking story he can jump on

 

[do.ob]

Romano looks like a solid aggregator, who trawls Twitter 24/7 for info and seems capable of differentiating the reliable sources from the unreliable ones. Maybe he has some genuine sources in the Italian scene, but this whole catch phrase spiel and his followers, who beg him for infos, believing he's somehow tapped into every piece of business that happens around the world is a bit pathetic.

 

[Redfan94]

It's Romano he is on about and he is pretty much a fraud.

He is very rarely the first to break any story and has people working for him who just search for any breaking story he can jump on

The next time Sky Sports confirm something, go to Fab’s Twitter and see if he hasn’t already tweeted about it, because chances are, Sky are using him as their source.

David Amoyal is similarly reliable.

 

[Kentonio]

The next time Sky Sports confirm something, go to Fab’s Twitter and see if he hasn’t already tweeted about it, because chances are, Sky are using him as their source.

David Amoyal is similarly reliable.

That doesn't mean much, because Sky are almost never going to break totally unknown stories. A better test would be 'check if he tweeted about it, and then check if someone else tweeted about it first'.

 

[Leftback99]

I read he said Phelan was going too last night which turned out to be nonsense in the short term at least. Obviously tried adding his own bit of extra info and got it wrong.

Good for aggregating the latest rumours seen elsewhere but he doesn't know anything more.

 

[Robertd0803]

He was a lot more reliable until he tapped in to the market of desperate United/football fans who hang on his every word and believe his word is gospel and seemed to realise there was money/clicks/interactions to be had. Seriously look at his replies to a non United tweet and its all "any Utd news Fab" as if hes their best fecking mate.

Posting the same thing with different wording 9 times isnt exactly an indication of reliabilty.

Whats worse is when Craig Norwood and Simon Stone tweeted something about one of our recent transfers (sources pretty much as nailed on as it gets) there were people saying I wont believe it until Fab says it. Again as if his word is gospel.

 

[stw2022]

Yeah I did mean Romaro. I think it’s comically transparent. He seems to be aware of his own reputation too. Good luck to him but i don’t get why some fall for it. He regurgitates what journalists report and adds innocuous detail to appear to have an inside scoop.

I know we live in an internet age but why would a reporter in Italy know the views expressed at a virtual meeting taking place in England before the meeting itself had even concluded. Why would he be the first to know even after?

He makes shit up and benefits from the fact what he says is rarely disproveable because it isn’t that interesting but he attaches it to someone else’s work and shares the credit. He got sloppy because he was getting giddy at his mentions I suspect.


You have the guy that broke the Watergate story then you have the journalist who after the fact ‘confirms’ the story and adds “Sources say Nixon highly troubled” and everyone thinks the journalistic effort and integrity is the same. Romaro is the “Nixon highly troubled” guy. Existing story, other peoples work - add quote that seems plausible = King Twitter

 

[lsd]

Yeah I did mean Romaro. I think it’s comically transparent. He seems to be aware of his own reputation too. Good luck to him but i don’t get why some fall for it. He regurgitates what journalists report and adds innocuous detail to appear to have an inside scoop.

I know we live in an internet age but why would a reporter in Italy know the views expressed at a virtual meeting taking place in England before the meeting itself had even concluded. Why would he be the first to know even after?

He makes shit up and benefits from the fact what he says is rarely disproveable. He got sloppy because he was getting giddy at his mentions I suspect.

There was a great thread I read on an Arsenal forum about all the times he was wrong when he actually tried to guess some deals instead of copying real news.

He is a complete fraud that has somehow fooled so many people because he says boom or here we go out whatever

 

[stw2022]

There was a great thread I read on an Arsenal forum about all the times he was wrong when he actually tried to guess some deals instead of copying real news.

He is a complete fraud that has somehow fooled so many people because he says boom or here we go out whatever

Surprisingly few think it’s odd he has the inside scoop of pretty much every major transfer story taking place anywhere in Europe at the same time.

Proper journalists with big budgets tend to focus on a handful of clubs, possibly a region. Spend years building up contacts and sources for their patch. This guy’s knowledge is apparently omnipresent immediately as soon as a story breaks and few people think that’s a little odd.

 

[lsd]

Surprisingly few think it’s odd he has the inside scoop of pretty much every major transfer story taking place anywhere in Europe at the same time.

Proper journalists with big budgets tend to focus on a handful of clubs, possibly a region. Spend years building up contacts and sources for their patch. This guy’s knowledge is apparently omnipresent immediately as soon as a story breaks and few people think that’s a little odd.

If anything his reputation increases with every copied tweet now as he seems to be solely concentrating on actual news that has already happened.

He basically predicts the lotto numbers five minutes after the draw

 

[Delano]

Follow Di Marzio, Ornstein etc and Romano and you'll notice pretty quickly he is 2 mins behind on every story. He just pulls it together.

 

[Dan-Utd]

I used to enjoy having a look at Fabrizio's Tweets and still do but the replies have made it all a little tedious,

Whatever he posts there is some fool in the comments saying just "ratio" or others just posting off topic stuff,

Prime example, he posts a Tweet about Felix Afena Gyan and the replies fill up with "United news Fab?" "Bayern news Fab?"

This is a guy who has built a reputation for getting the gossip out there quickly, if he had news he would have already posted it,

So now I just read his Tweets and don't bother viewing the replies.

I do think he does have some genuine contacts within the game, agents need people like him and certain other journalists, getting rumours out there can often lead to moves being made and someone with 5 million followers can get others spreading a rumour quickly, so by giving him some genuine inside info before it happens, it helps him get followers and establishes him as a reliable source.

In a nutshell, it's a 2 way street, he can use agents to help him be a more reliable source and they can use him to put rumours out there that may influence contract talks and the like.

 

[Fox_Chrys]

Most tweeters I have seen use a scatter gun approach with speculations, when "some" stick people start considering them reliable.

 

[ivaldo]

There really is some weird obsession with proving Romano wrong. I see the usual names here. It's a bit sad really.

 

[tomaldinho1]

Fabrizio Romano does genuinely have inside contacts and 90% of the time, he’s the first to break a story.

I think he did have a good contact at one point but isn't he now just pedalling other journo's stories and claiming them? Kind of like Ornstein used to be really good and then seemed to lose a contact. I guess it's logical, leaks get plugged and staff/players move regularly.

 

[stw2022]

Just in the past few hours he’s posted stories without credit or citation, which I can only assume means he’s claiming to have sourced this information himself, on transfers involving clubs from the following counties
England
Spain
Portugal
Germany
France
Netherlands
Turkey
USA
Belgium
Brazil
Ukraine

Sorry to bump an old thread but really the contacts this guy pretends to have is hilarious. How can he find time to Tweet? He can’t ever be off the phone surely

Every Tweet is a fully formed story often with info from both clubs, player and/or agent. Each one must take hours to gather all info on yet he managers 20-30 a day

Nothing but a bullshitter

 

[adexkola]

I treat rumors as bullshit until the news is confirmed on a club's website or the BBC.

 

[littlepeasoup]

I've always thought it's way more interesting hearing stories of the 'how' and 'why' certain transfers happen, information you usually only see published after the fact and something you'll almost never see many of these aggregator type 'journalists' come out with themselves - which just goes to show how few actual contacts they have in the game.

 

[stw2022]

I've always thought it's way more interesting hearing stories of the 'how' and 'why' certain transfers happen, information you usually only see published after the fact and something you'll almost never see many of these aggregator type 'journalists' come out with themselves - which just goes to show how few actual contacts they have in the game.

And how are they ever held accountable for their bullshit? He’s come up with a fanatic method, just pretend you have inside knowledge of 30 different transfers each day so by the time tomorrow comes your lie is buried beneath 30 more pieces of nonsense

Never cite, claim to know everything, Tweet incessantly so after a couple of days each lie is buried under 250 Tweets nobody has the time it inclination to scroll through and find

The alternative theory is that he is the most well-connected journalist in sports, news or any other field in the entire world who cannot get an actual media or news company to employ him. Seems legit

The annoying thing is it seems that in the various Twitter threads in the transfer section his tweets make up around about one in three citations if not a greater proportion

 

[littlepeasoup]

And how are they ever held accountable for their bullshit? He’s come up with a fanatic method, just pretend you have inside knowledge of 30 different transfers each day so by the time tomorrow comes your lie is buried beneath 30 more pieces of nonsense

The thing is, whilst there are people out there who fetishise transfer news there will always be others trying to service that and profit from it. I know true boots on the ground football journalists, and none of them take people like Romano that seriously - he's a bit of a joke. He's like the OK magazine of sports journalism - best ignored.

 

[Dominos]

Just in the past few hours he’s posted stories without credit or citation, which I can only assume means he’s claiming to have sourced this information himself, on transfers involving clubs from the following counties
England
Spain
Portugal
Germany
France
Netherlands
Turkey
USA
Belgium
Brazil
Ukraine

Sorry to bump an old thread but really the contacts this guy pretends to have is hilarious. How can he find time to Tweet? He can’t ever be off the phone surely

Every Tweet is a fully formed story often with info from both clubs, player and/or agent. Each one must take hours to gather all info on yet he managers 20-30 a day

Nothing but a bullshitter

Agree. I have no doubt he has some connections to agents etc. which will partly explain why he can cover news from multiple countries, but almost everything he reports is filling in the gaps with vague guesswork.

He speaks like he has boardroom level info at United, and knowledge of our manager's inner thoughts. Level of information British journos who have covered United for 15 years can't get.

 

[Adam-Utd]

Just in the past few hours he’s posted stories without credit or citation, which I can only assume means he’s claiming to have sourced this information himself, on transfers involving clubs from the following counties
England
Spain
Portugal
Germany
France
Netherlands
Turkey
USA
Belgium
Brazil
Ukraine

Sorry to bump an old thread but really the contacts this guy pretends to have is hilarious. How can he find time to Tweet? He can’t ever be off the phone surely

Every Tweet is a fully formed story often with info from both clubs, player and/or agent. Each one must take hours to gather all info on yet he managers 20-30 a day

Nothing but a bullshitter

I think it’s clear he’s fed news by agents, sometimes to get their client attention or to push a club into action etc.

It’s literally his full time job, perhaps he has a team of people working and helping him with it.

 

[stw2022]

Agree. I have no doubt he has some connections to agents etc. which will partly explain why he can cover news from multiple countries, but almost everything he reports is filling in the gaps with vague guesswork.

He speaks like he has boardroom level info at United, and knowledge of our manager's inner thoughts. Level of information British journos who have covered United for 15 years can't get.

It’s a definite tell they all fall for. So desperate to look as if they’ve got the inside scoop they lose the ability to stand back and assess if it looks realistic.

But yet they can’t it any other way. If the stop the pretence they were as good as in the room when the conversations took place, they have nothing

 

[stw2022]

I think it’s clear he’s fed news by agents, sometimes to get their client attention or to push a club into action etc.

It’s literally his full time job, perhaps he has a team of people working and helping him with it.

Proper journalist who actually are paid by news organisations also have that as a full-time job and they will most likely tell you that a single transfer story that has any depth or truth to it takes hours or maybe days to formulate

This guy bashes them out at a rate of about nine an hour and it’s beyond suspicious. Even if he was the worlds most connected journalist who for some reason isn’t regularly writing for any respected news organisation the level of connections and information he presents to have would still be bordering on literal definition of the word incredible

How can an Italian journalist be so connected that he not only he as the inside scoop a transfer of an Argentinian player from a Spanish team to a team in Germany but will probably claim to know what sort of coffee the player ordered at the airport and how many times his wife scratched her arse waiting for the plane

 

[Cheimoon]

Just in the past few hours he’s posted stories without credit or citation, which I can only assume means he’s claiming to have sourced this information himself, on transfers involving clubs from the following counties
England
Spain
Portugal
Germany
France
Netherlands
Turkey
USA
Belgium
Brazil
Ukraine

Sorry to bump an old thread but really the contacts this guy pretends to have is hilarious. How can he find time to Tweet? He can’t ever be off the phone surely

Every Tweet is a fully formed story often with info from both clubs, player and/or agent. Each one must take hours to gather all info on yet he managers 20-30 a day

Nothing but a bullshitter

Actually, there was an interview with Romano in my Dutch newspaper in April (link, but in Dutch and paywalled). In fact, they first interviewed a Dutch guy who is only focused on PSV-related news. That's pretty small in scope, but the guy has a hectic full-time job of it, and has built up a large network in the 11 years he's been doing this. Among other things they mention, they explain how transfer hunters are used by players, clubs, and their representatives, both to launch true stories and rumours - whatever any of them think will be in the advantage of a club or player during negotiations.

The final bit is about Fabrizio Romano. During the season, he is apparently constantly travelling all through Europe to maintain and establish his contacts with players, agents, club officials, and others. Then during the transfer period, he is essentially working 24/7, calling and apping and whatever else to get and validate news that he can spread.. He basically can't (and doesn't) take a break, because any rumour can arrive at any time, and then he instantly has to start fact-checking it to be able to spread the news before his competition does.

As for how he got there - in 2009, he had a small website, and was contacted by the representative of Icardi about a transfer (to Sampdoria, and later to Inter). Romano was the first to break that, which established his name a little. He then spent a few years around Milan, trying to be at all the important places so he could talk to people, find out about rumours, and break them. That's how became a specialist in Italian transfers, and then he gradually start expanding his work to other leagues as well.

Finally, he says he does some sponsorships but not a lot (he considers himself a journalist, not an influencer), and that he tries hard not to be used by agents and directors, difficult and confrontational as that may be sometimes.

Given your obsession with Romano, I thought you'd be interest in some actual information instead of all the assumptions in this thread. There's more details if you're interested.

 

[Leftback99]

"Player X is on Club A's list"
"Player Y has been discussed internally"

Regular lines that will never be called out on despite knowing nothing.

 

[UnitedSofa]

Why does the CAF have such a hard-on for this guy? Plenty times I see posters "calling him out" yet when it's good news he's back in the good books yes? I'm assuming that's how it works yes?

 

[stw2022]

"Player X is on Club A's list"
"Player Y has been discussed internally"

Regular lines that will never be called out on despite knowing nothing.

“Something might happen,or it might not”

 

[tomaldinho1]

Actually, there was an interview with Romano in my Dutch newspaper in April (link, but in Dutch and paywalled). In fact, they first interviewed a Dutch guy who is only focused on PSV-related news. That's pretty small in scope, but the guy has a hectic full-time job of it, and has built up a large network in the 11 years he's been doing this. Among other things they mention, they explain how transfer hunters are used by players, clubs, and their representatives, both to launch true stories and rumours - whatever any of them think will be in the advantage of a club or player during negotiations.

The final bit is about Fabrizio Romano. During the season, he is apparently constantly travelling all through Europe to maintain and establish his contacts with players, agents, club officials, and others. Then during the transfer period, he is essentially working 24/7, calling and apping and whatever else to get and validate news that he can spread.. He basically can't (and doesn't) take a break, because any rumour can arrive at any time, and then he instantly has to start fact-checking it to be able to spread the news before his competition does.

As for how he got there - in 2009, he had a small website, and was contacted by the representative of Icardo about a transfer (to Sampdoria, and later to Inter). Romano was the first to break that, which established his name a little. He then spent a few years around Milan, trying to be at all the important places so he could talk to people, find out about rumours, and break them. That's how became a specialist in Italian transfers, and then he gradually start expanding his work to other leagues as well.

Finally, he says he does some sponsorships but not a lot (he considers himself a journalist, not an influencer), and that he tries hard not to be used by agents and directors, difficult and confrontational as that may be sometimes.

Given your obsession with Romano, I thought you'd be interest in some actual information instead of all the assumptions in this thread. There's more details if you're interested.

...Fabrizio?

 

[stw2022]

Actually, there was an interview with Romano in my Dutch newspaper in April (link, but in Dutch and paywalled). In fact, they first interviewed a Dutch guy who is only focused on PSV-related news. That's pretty small in scope, but the guy has a hectic full-time job of it, and has built up a large network in the 11 years he's been doing this. Among other things they mention, they explain how transfer hunters are used by players, clubs, and their representatives, both to launch true stories and rumours - whatever any of them think will be in the advantage of a club or player during negotiations.

The final bit is about Fabrizio Romano. During the season, he is apparently constantly travelling all through Europe to maintain and establish his contacts with players, agents, club officials, and others. Then during the transfer period, he is essentially working 24/7, calling and apping and whatever else to get and validate news that he can spread.. He basically can't (and doesn't) take a break, because any rumour can arrive at any time, and then he instantly has to start fact-checking it to be able to spread the news before his competition does.

As for how he got there - in 2009, he had a small website, and was contacted by the representative of Icardo about a transfer (to Sampdoria, and later to Inter). Romano was the first to break that, which established his name a little. He then spent a few years around Milan, trying to be at all the important places so he could talk to people, find out about rumours, and break them. That's how became a specialist in Italian transfers, and then he gradually start expanding his work to other leagues as well.

Finally, he says he does some sponsorships but not a lot (he considers himself a journalist, not an influencer), and that he tries hard not to be used by agents and directors, difficult and confrontational as that may be sometimes.

Given your obsession with Romano, I thought you'd be interest in some actual information instead of all the assumptions in this thread. There's more details if you're interested.

Yeah…none of that happens. For a start he clearly understands social media algorithms so it would seem unlikely he will be somebody who flies everywhere around Europe making contacts face-to-face rather than picking up the phone using email or text.

His biggest giveaway is the sheer amount of knowledge and insight information he presents to have. It simply isn’t credible. He is a Twitter journalist in the loosest sense and I don’t mean a journalist on Twitter. Don’t get to be wrong he’s very good at it looking at his follower numbers.

But there are actual paid respectable long-standing journalists who put years focusing on a certain club or a certain city or a certain area who do not have 5% of the inside information this guy purports to have on every single club in every single major footballing country. Actual field journalists to cover one club for decades and make genuine connections don’t have as much information as the sky seems to have on every club on the entire continent.

At some point it is surely reasonable to point out this simply doesn’t smell right.

moreover actual credible journalists regularly credit other journalists for stories and information this guy doesn’t do that ever even by itself does that not seem odd to you? Especially given that he isn’t tied to any news or media organisation whereby apportioning credit elsewhere to a rival journalist may be frowned upon.

Besides anybody who has ever been on an aeroplane will know how sketchy the Internet connections can be and given the rate this guy tweets at all year round that isn’t a chance he is flying around Europe unless he’s travelling everywhere on foot or by car. If nothing else he certainly tweets like somebody sat at a desk with a stable wired internet connection all year round

 

[CraftySoAndSo]

Icardo about a transfer (to Sampdoria, and later to Inter).

Incredibly odd that a player who's name is so similar to Icardi made the exact same move as he did and at the same time as well, small world.

 

[Cheimoon]

Yeah…none of that happens. For a start he clearly understands social media algorithms so it would seem unlikely he will be somebody who flies everywhere around Europe making contacts face-to-face rather than picking up the phone using email or text.

His biggest giveaway is the sheer amount of knowledge and insight information he presents to have. It simply isn’t credible. He is a Twitter journalist in the loosest sense and I don’t mean a journalist on Twitter. Don’t get to be wrong he’s very good at it looking at his follower numbers.

But there are actual paid respectable long-standing journalists who put years focusing on a certain club or a certain city or a certain area who do not have 5% of the inside information this guy purports to have on every single club in every single major footballing country.

So he was lying in the interview, and you know better based on reading his tweets?

 

[Cheimoon]

Incredibly odd that a player who's name is so similar to Icardi made the exact same move as he did and at the same time as well, small world.

I'll correct it.