In the Wrong

Why do journalists get so much transfer news wrong?

It's a rhetorical question, as it happens. The simple answer is: they don't.

It's those who consume the news who don't quite get it right.

But the relationship between media, fans and the transfer window itself is a complex one.

I stumbled across something a few weeks ago that made me chuckle, not only for its lack of understanding, but also its remarkable chutzpah. It was a platform ‘ranking’ journalists on the strength of their transfer ‘success’ or 'reliability' – in other words, how much of the speculation they reported ended up coming to fruition. There was no consideration for the endless nuances of individual, often-complicated player transactions. It was merely a scale of how accurate sports journalists supposedly are, as judged by people who don’t work in the industry, nor understand the details or quirks of that particular practice.

In short, it is absolute bullshit. Much like me telling a mechanic how to change an oil filter, or offering my views to a dentist on how to drill teeth. It’s the Tripadvisor world – one where we fall over ourselves to offer an opinion, often on things we know less about than the actual practitioners who deliver those services.

This is the world social media has created. One where the postman who delivers your bills is blamed for your over-spending, or your inability to stick to a 30mph zone, when you saw fit to do 35mph.

The source of this nonsense seems to stem from two bases: the mass growth of the Football Manager gaming franchise and, more so, the proliferation of people who are self-proclaimed transfer experts.

I actually feel a little uncomfortable offering the first of those. I have nothing against FM, the popular management simulator. It has its benefits, certainly in terms of informing clubs about potential players. FM has grown into a fun, challenging game that draws upon the expertise of many, both professional and amateur. But while the game serves an audience well in terms of the many ‘under-the-bonnet’ quirks of football, it doesn’t do a particularly good job of recreating the transfer machinations. Mainly, because it is impossible to do so. You're talking about thousands of variables, none of which can be fully recreated. More so, it has created a demographic of people who think it is a reflection of real life.

Worse, are the many transfer experts. We inhabit a society where someone who knows a member of club staff, or happens to have stumbled upon the number of an agent, not only hangs on their every word, but gives no critical thought to what they’re being told. The instinct is to believe it. But here’s the thing: if a journalist took the word of every agent they spoke to, or every club ‘insider’ they had listened to, they’d last about 10 minutes in the job.

Because, with the job, comes responsibility – not only to the craft of journalism, but to the readers or viewers. Realistically speaking, no journalist will put their neck on the block regarding a rumour unless they can get the information signed off by several sources, including the club, and even then there is a gamble that something may go wrong late on. (Believe it or not, clubs – including CEOs, sporting directors, press officers and managers - don’t always tell the truth, either…).

Amid this is the growing culture of judging professional journalists –  those who have been trained in law and ethics, and know how to stand up a story – against those people who have too much time on their hands, and get some bizarre kick about cutting and pasting the work of others and posting it as their own.

I know a few non-media people who clearly receive insider information and try to serve up news as they see fit. It’s not something I care for, but that’s their choice. This isn’t really about them.

It’s more about the dreadful ITK culture, and the appraisal of those who work within the media industry who genuinely are well-connected.

The problem with judging journalists, indeed anyone, on transfers is that not all cuts of meat are used by the chef. It is right to suggest there are some reporters out there - quite often freelancers, but not just those stringers (a slang for freelancers) - who will earn a living for Sunday tabloids driving traffic towards the players of certain agents they know. This is a relationship that serves all. The agents peddle the name of a player who wants a move, or a player the agent feels deserves improved terms at his existing club, and that in turn provides a story (and a form of living) for a reporter who is making money for each story he files.

Agents are there to serve their clients. Informing journalists is part of that service, especially if it helps a player get a better move, or receive a new contract offer. Likewise, clubs use media too. I know of clubs (at all levels) who have used media to inform of certain player and managerial pursuits, knowing they will not only be able to gauge the reaction to a particular player, but knowing that if the reaction is positive, it feeds into the sense of excitement when that player or coach does finally sign. And a sense of fervour will inevitably mean more people go onto that club video when he does sign. It’s all about the numbers.

I also know of clubs who have called off a pursuit because the reaction to planted speculation went down badly with fans.

Some journalists place stories to serve executives/managers – to try to force players to sign a new deal, because a journalist has written about their ‘replacement’ being pursued. Backs do get scratched.

What isn’t helpful is the growth of misinformation and disinformation – which tends to fall with those outside of the media industry. This is where the ITKs fall foul of journalistic practice - primarily, because they are not trained as journalists, but as fantasists (at worst), or rabid content producers (at best). The former, misinformation, is unintentionally misleading information; the latter (disinformation) is about the delivery of deliberate falsehoods. Both fuel pressure not only on traditional media – those operators who must check stories, often with multiple sources – but also pile an extra onus onto the clubs, who are often held to account by fans who have been fed a load of bullshit and then get frustrated by those rumours falling at the first hurdle.

Is there anything more depressing in modern fandom seeing a club announce the passing of a former player and being met with a ‘This isn’t Player X’ response or a ‘Announce ‘so-and-so’’? That's the pressure that has been created by the social scatter of misinformation and, often, rumour that is no more than utter nonsense.  And so many believe it, so many fall for it.

This practice is such a stain on football fandom, yet for many the signing of footballers is the be all and end all. Football transfers have become a culture within an industry. Not a very healthy one, at that. It feels a little odd that an adult would lose their head over a 31-year-old left-back joining their club, or, more so, not joining their club. But there we are.

*****

The great unknown is the pace of any potential player transaction. Some are slow burners, some happen quickly. Some players won't be made available by a selling club until they have brought in their own signings. Describing it as a pecking order may be a cliche, but a chain of transactions does exist. Just because your club have signed a left-back and a centre-half early on in the window, doesn't mean they don't wish to sign the striker you so desperately need...it's just they might need to wait for the one they want. 

And then we have the journalists concerned. Many journalists ARE incredibly reliable with their information; some are telling a good story at the point of publication. Sometimes it doesn't happen, or they get it wrong. But, I'll guarantee, they will be getting their information from a variety of sources, challenging, and, one would hope, interrogating what they're told.

Consider this: When a footballer is linked with three or four clubs, he clearly isn’t going to join all clubs. Does that make the journalist wrong among the fans of the clubs the player didn’t sign for? It shouldn’t, because the story will have been written in good faith. And sometimes it may be an agent playing the journalist, and the reporter giving his story some added theatre. I have come across instances where media have reported a rumour knowing there is a chance it may be refuted by a manager/sporting director/press officer, which in turn then leads to another story where that initial claim is denied, and therefore keeping a transfer (or non-transfer) alive for another few days. Again, it’s about all the hits.

There are content creators who pay for information and for the privilege of telling you that information. And there are those who pose as journalists, with huge followings, but are shills paid by organisations to put information out to their bloated audiences. They aren’t journalists, but you might well think they are – it is their way of earning a living, while fuelling the micro industry within football. 

In terms of journalistic ethics, there are blurred lines throughout if you look around the non-traditional media organisations and operators. Many of these people are brands in their own right, without any organisation to prop them up. I know of one football content producer who was paid £30k to deliver one single post endorsing a brand - such is his huge audience. If X or YouTube closed down tomorrow, some of these content producers would be left without a huge income overnight.

Football transfers, gossip and rumours are driven by social. It is theatre journalism.

Yet, there is good reason why not all reporters will share their information on social platforms. Journalism is a craft which shouldn’t – and mustn’t – be given out for free. (Back in the 1990s, editors decided to give our content out for free, believing the internet to be a parochial short-lived phenomenon. Those decisions alone – usually made by men in their 60s, sat in smoky offices – were to condemn reporters for the next three decades. Since then, digital editors and media managers have tried to claw back this deficit by charging for content. And rightly so: if you want a service, then you should pay for it...even if those organisations conditioned you to receive it for free for so many years).

I digress.

Many of these so-called ITK experts will claim ‘exclusives’ because they quickly copy and paste a journalist’s news. Many take a punt because their one or two contacts told them. Inevitably, this shifts the focus to the media: ‘Why are the journalists so far behind?’ ask the naysayers, not realising that reporters have to go through several sources and contacts to ensure a story can be stood up. Some of these reporters even have lunch breaks, social activities in their spare time, and one or two are even known to sleep during the night…

Incredibly, some reporters even get grief for a transfer not happening, or a rumour having no legs…as if it is their fault. 

Conversely, there will be reporters told a club is announcing a transfer at 5pm, and run their story deep into 4.59:30…just to attach an exclusive onto it. Get grief from the club? Blame the guy who posts stories at your organisation.

Ultimately, football transfer speculation and build-up is the trailer to what is often a boring film. The drama of it all supersedes the dull reality: a high percentage of transfers don’t work out. Think Paul Pogba, who was announced by Manchester United during the night to suit US times. A wall of noise and a lot of fuss, for somebody who didn’t do quite well. There were many before him; there are more to follow.

The transaction of footballers offers hope, something new, something fresh, something exciting. Familiarity blurs that, which is why those from leftfield often carry greater intrigue.

Money is paramount to a player’s perceived profile. It’s the Adam Reach Syndrome. Do you get excited by a new signing because you’ve never heard of him, or because he’s expensive - or does the very ordinary nature of his name and where he comes from, quell that anticipation?

There is an element of diminishing returns in all of this. Where once there was barely any football news in the summer, there is now a saturation of gossip.

This is football.

Just don’t go for the messenger when it all goes wrong.