Where is our apology?
Wednesday, July 20, 2011 at 12:02PM I'm playing catch-up what with being 'off-line' for the vast majority of yesterday due to travel commitments. Sounds like I missed out on a fair bit. I'm hearing rumours that Chirpy attempted to foam pie Harry Redknapp in the face but Joe Jordan intervened. That pesky attention seeking chicken.
Terry
Elsewhere, Sky Sports published an article covering an interview with John Terry. Then issued an apology and altered the article in a couple of places. I've had a look at their website. If I've got the wrong end of the stick, then beat me with it. I've seen the video footage of John Terry being interviewed (which is what the written article was based on). Terry (around a minute or so into it) uses the word 'disrespectful' whilst referring to the Spurs and Luka Modric situation. It's muddled, I'd admit that. But my gut reaction is that he's simply citing the fact that talking about Modric is probably not the best thing to be doing in any grand old way because it will start to touch upon the art of tapping up. So he throws in the word disrespectful to appease us and protect himself. Which is fine. It's understandable.
Sky, oh so giddy Sky, run the written text version (along with video) to the tune of 'Terry - Modric 'disrespectful'. Pretty much sums up their tabloid bloodline. They've taken nothing and made something out of it. The tone of the entire interview did not have an agenda to it from Terry's perspective (can't believe I'm painting him as an innocent party in all this). The only apparent agenda(s) was to try and get Terry to talk up Luka (in a Chelsea shirt) and to thus gain the most sensationalist headline out of it. Terry does call Modric 'world class'. But that's ignored (surely better to have run with that if Sky are so desperate for the player to join the West London club?)
Don't know how long it took, but the title was later altered to 'Terry - Modric is world class' (there we go, second time lucky). So what we have here is simply a case of Sky running an out of context headline for what Terry said. He cited 'disrespectful' - Sky run with it. They change it. Then they apologise. But then what they do next is laughable - they remove the disrespectful comment from the written text article altogether. Too much to get their heads around I guess. Perhaps struggling to work out the ambiguity of the quote.
Far far easier to ignore it altogether than perhaps appreciate that Terry didn't want to be too forward in his appraisal of Luka's talent. I actually still don't get quite grasp the point of the original headline as it's hardly the type of headline that follows on from previous pro-Chelsea ones. The 'world class' amendment is more in tune with their Luka to Chelsea push.
I'm still patiently waiting for Sky to issue an apology relating to the Modric transfer request that apparently was never (according to Spurs) handed in.
One critisism of John Terry re: Luka?
"He's very agile, very quick and a great finisher like we've seen over many years."
You what?
Souleymane Coulibaly
Looks a talent. 16 years of age. Superb vision and touch. An eye for goal. Suggestions from some that he's on a promise for first team football (hence why he signed for us). Back on planet earth, it's obvious the kid has the moves but he's just that. A kid. We've been here before. Many many times. We never actually sign teenagers good enough to be blooded into the rough and tumble of the Premier League without disappearing in the youth sides and loaned out to Championship clubs first. I'm hoping he is different (much like I thought Bostock would be different). I'm also hoping we take our time to work on his raw ability and develop him with the onus on Souleymane being a valid project for first team football in the next year or two. It's about time we signed someone of this ilk and followed it through to fruition and witness an impact at an early age rather than a full début at 25 then a transfer to Ipswich.
Scored on his 'Spurs' début. Read more here.
Pirates
The second game in SA and the second pre-season game I've not watched. As previously preached, all I care about is the team getting fit, getting back into a rhythm and avoiding injury. Would be nice to read about us performing with spark, style and swagger. We either always look disjointed or amazing. Never in-between. We all now that 'amazing' usually equates to world class underachieving when the season proper starts.
Don't think Modric should have been handed the captains armband. Are we trying to get him 'on side'? There's no reason to be doing this just to send out a message to anyone watching, because as chairman has stated a couple of times - it's a closed matter. Luka is hardly captain material. Even in a pre-season friendly wearing the armband should be an honour rather than part of a reconditioning process.
Nice free-kick from Rafa. More of this in the Prem please.
Reader Comments (24)
Hear hear. On all counts.
That's all.
Your interpretation of the Sky interview and story is spot on. If you just read the banner and did not see Terry speak, you would be left with a totally different view of events. It is this nonsense that happens time and time again that convinces me and others that their is a real attempt to 'tap up ' Modric. This is just another example of the Chelsea-media link in this saga that should be referred to the FA (although they are probably still choosing next seasons blazers) and to the newly formed government committee to ethics and culture in the media.
I think people make a big thing re bringing youngsters through. As in we're not that bad at it. Slightly older, yes, but Lennon, Hudds, Bale, Daws... all young and now regulars, even with youth-killer Harry in charge!
In all fairness we haven't changed much of the 1st team so more of the same for now. Difficult to believe our strikers still don't look that dangerous. I'm confident (lol) of signing someone before Sept though.
I noticed that after i watched the interview yesterday afternoon, they'll start editing the video's soon, cutting out key words to make a good story.
"He's very agile, very quick and a great finisher like we've seen over many years."
I'm sure he said the exact same sentence about Torres later in the interview
To be honest, I'd like to see Modric go. No point keeping an unhappy player. He's not exactly a prolific finisher either, and in our squad, we have Niko, who scores more, and is more passionate about playing for the club. Let Modric go, but not before we make Chelski pay through the nose for him, if Carroll's 35 million, then Modric is easy 50 million. They want him? Then put up or shut up. Or 40 million and Drogba.
Souleymany Coulibaly looks like a real gem. Unfortunately, seeing that we are the team that allows Jenas to sit on the bench game in game out - taking the place of one of the developing youngsters (Bostock) - and occasionally showing up to engineer another 4 goal drubbing, I highly doubt we are the ones to develop him. Surely, Giovanni dos Santos, Adel Taarabt etc are better that the horrible Crouch....but Redknapp would rather we finish 5th than win the league without his pathetic 3MP...
looks like Chelsea have the biggest lawyers and not THFC..from sky
Chelsea - an apology
Last Updated: July 19, 2011 7:30pm
At skysports.com we have a reputation for the honesty and integrity of our reporting. Unfortunately we fell short of those standards with our coverage of John Terry's interview with Sky Sports News on July 19 during which the Chelsea captain was asked to comment on Luka Modric.
We would like to clarify that John Terry did not refer to Luka Modric as being disrespectful to Tottenham Hotspur during the interview. On realising our error we immediately removed the original article and published a corrected version which you can read here
We would like to apologise to John Terry and Chelsea for any inconvenience caused.
Giving Modric the captain's armband sends out the signal that he is bigger than the club. Rewarding a player with the captaincy for publicly saying he wants to play for the blue scum isn't on. I had enough of Redknapp a while back, but I sincerely hope his time with us is as short as possible; the bloke is a grade A wanker.
I'll believe in the new lad when I start seeing the goals go in in the PL, but at least it's a step in the right direction, there's no way he can be any worse than the misfits we've got now. If losing all the momentum we built up by not buying in previous windows wasn't depressing enough, watching Pav, Pointy and Defoe stumble around last night was truly 'reach for the razor blades' stuff. I know they're only pre-season games and that regaining fitness is the main priority, but why on earth are we bothering with Bentley, the spineless one and the pikey? If these games represent a shop window, what the fuck does the shop purport to be selling? Looks like a junk shop to me, and looking at some of the junk on display last night, we'd have to pay someone to come and dispose of it (it's akin to toxic waste).
The 'disrespectful' was a reference to how Terry intends to approach Luka's wife.
Sky are about as professional as 'John Terry' and visa-versa. Why the FA do not take a stand on this (especially with Murdoch and his cronnies up for phone hacking and under counter payments to the police) as it is no different to the phone hacking. The FA are really useless. It would be easy to prove if Abromavitch hosted Modric onboard his yacht and if he did, and then, suddenly, Modric wanted to join Chelsea, he was tapped. Just dock Chelsea 9 points, ban them from this season's CL and also ban them from buying players for two seasons. Job done.
Also, suspend players who comment on other player's they would like playing for their, or any other club. Say 10 matches for the first offence and a whole season for the second and 2 seasons and execution etc.
For a manager, ban him from football related involvement for anything from 10 matches to a whole season, up to execution.
Can't think of a plan for the Media ??
SSN are really beginning to annoy me with the selective reporting and the use of the term "Sky sources understands" as some sort of justification of fabricated headlines.
Twice they have reported that Sky Sources Understands Modric hands in a written transfer request....twice in about 5 days. And yet the club confirm it has not happened.
The other day...again out of left field, and something that slipped under the Sky Sources radar, we sign the Ivorian youngster....an actual signing, of an actual player who was top scorer in the U17 World Cup, a competition Sky broadcast.
I caught a headline on Newsnow linking to spursfc.com, but it is blocked at work. When I got home i rushed to SSN and it didn't even get a mention.
Sky Sports seem to have an agenda to get Modric to go to Chelsea. They even ask Chelseas captain direct questions about Modric.
To me they just want their big final day TRANSFER WINDOW SPECIAL to not be a total anti-climax as it has been in recfent times
was modders not capt at the end of the season in a couple of games!!!
also sky are arsewipes just like the dailymail put stuff about us dont care if they are lies and dammed lies
and as for those numpties who want modders to go who do we get to replace him .That twitchy prat probably wanted to sell modders and bring in j cole yea right!!!!
And please wat harry says to the media is not wat he says to others!!
JT .. once a c***... always a c***..... F RIGHT OFF
Spooky, not sure where you are coming from with this line: "(We) never actually sign teenagers good enough to be blooded into the rough and tumble of the Premier League without disappearing in the youth sides and loaned out to Championship clubs first". What, apart from Bale you mean? Or Lennon? Or Hudlestone? Or Rose?
The ones that dont make it (eg Bostock) are just natural attrition in the game of signing youngsters. Some make it, some dont. The simple reason is, the Bostocks, Mpokos, Blondells and Zieglers arent good enough - its not like they do the business anywhere else. I'd guess you only need one out of 10 to come good to pay for the strategy. We aint done too bad with Bale, Lennon and Hudd. Lets hope this new kid is another of the '1 in 10'.
Spurs could be signing Messi and SSN would be running a headline of chelsea/united/liverpool/arsenal/city releasing some academy players
Devonshirespur - how have the last few transfer windows been an anti climax for Sky? They've been about the best thing on Sky - particularly the last few minutes with that clock ticking down and millions of press releases coming through and the presenters desperately trying to sort the wheat (VDV to Spurs) from the chaff (random Man City reserve goes on lona to Leek Town). Its been a lot more dramatic than any of the footbally they've shown, other than the last 30 secs of the league cup final, and a few mins of the relegation battle.
The day last year when rumours came through that we'd signed VDV were so exciting I almost came. Not good in a crowded office.
And then there was the end of the Xmas window this year, as LIverpool started bidding more and more ridiculous amonts of money for Andy Carroll. Surely that day will go down in history as one of the funniest football events ever. Andy Carroll (valued at £500k on Newcastle's balance sheet) bought for £35m. Comedy gold!
Lennon, Hudds, Bale, Daws were signed prior to Harry's arrival. All made their breakthrough to the first team pre-Harry. Bale was injured when Harry arrived and, as is widely acknowledged, Harry wanted to loan him out to Forest but was prevented by BAE's injury.
Name one "youth" who has made it into the first team since Harry took over. Just one. I dare you.
From Harry's perspective, Souleymane has two strikes against him already: He's young and he's foreign. Yeah, from South Africa so speaks English but not gaffer, plus funny name. We won't see him playing in the league as long as Harry is here.
"We would like to clarify that John Terry did not refer to Luka Modric as being disrespectful to Tottenham Hotspur during the interview."
Funnily enough, what Terry actually ment was the Sky reporter and his line of questioning was disrespectful to Spurs....oh how ironic.
...so, do Spurs get an apology for the disrespect shown by the reporter? Or one for the inaccurate reporting of the transfer request? No, didn't think so...
reply to zeigemonster : What about Danny Rose then??
I am fed up for Sky & News Corp, I am fed up for their Agenda's and BIAST nature.
Now is the time to stand up and do something, if we seriously want to change something we have to kick them while they are down so to speak.
I am not talking about silly or illegal retaliation, I am talking about pursuading enough people to take action to ensure our media start to get cleaned up.
Maybe a boycot, maybe more I am not sure just yet, I admit it is probably true to say that is it impossible to have a completely impartial media as a whole, even BBC have their obvious loyalties in place, I am not talking about Lee Dixon's Man City or Arsenal Biast or Lineker's Spurs Biast, that is inevitable if we want pundits who know what they are talking about, there is bigger issues than just football with this whole New Corp thing and it needs to be dealt with.
It is not just them, there are many others and yes for business interests they will always have some loyalties, but Football in our country I fear is far, far from clean and I have absolutely no doubt in my mind whatso ever that the media have a fair part to play in this.
We may not have the match fixing and deep routed corruption that Italy had for example, though on the other hand we may. At the end of the day though, as long as the media have it in their own interests to back a club or the premier league they lose the interests to report anything bad about it, I am have no evidence that has happened, but will all that has happened which has only just come to light who knows.
We need transparency, we need Sky taken down a few pegs and put back in their place, after we have done that the Gov can start on the oil Companies and the Supermarkets, otherwise the power secrectly switches away from our Goverments as they gain leverage and that can never be good think.
The only question now, is what do we do about it?
Ziegermonster - surely Redknapps record speaks for itself in terms of bringing through youngsters. How about, just for starters, Defoe Lampard Ferdinand Carrick Joe Cole Walcott Gary O'Niell, Mark Wilson. Oh and as your challenge was for just 1 youngster he's put into yhe team at Spurs, i'll go fir a diuble prize: sandro and rose.
Fergie aside, can you name a top level manager thats brought more youngsters through? It's hardly Redknapps fault that most of the youngsters at spurs haven't been good enough to replace senior players ahead of them is it? Or perhaps you'd prefer a line up featuring the likes of dos santos, Livermore, Townsend, Obika, Bostock? Good luck with that buddy - it's got the makings of a great Div 1 side.
john terry is chav and his mum is a thief and he serves his mates wife's up too! so who gives a damn what the mug says? its all unsettling tacktics. but be fair to our chairman he has not budged on his stance. fair play to him. now try and sell some of the dead wood so we can move on, although im well aware our cast offs arnt worth alot!
Hoe - I too am fed up with Sky Sports News reporting and after 20 years of subscribing, I recently rang them to cancel and let my feelings known to them .... The Sky customer service person who took my call seemed to be in a state of shock when I told him, that unless their reporting veers away from the sensationalism and bias towards the moneybag clubs , you wont see a penny more from my account ...
I told them I'm not intrested and its not about the monthly rate but they've since come back to me with new offers such as reducing my monthly subscription rate by 50% !
I've urged some of my fellow Spurs to do the same, especialy those who are constantly bleating about , Sky Sports but its all fallen on deaf ears and they just wont do it ...I say, at least do it for a few months into the season just to make them sit up and take notice, again it falls on deaf ears and in some cases, I get that, 'are you f**king mad stare' ! ...They just don't want to go into a hardship such as giving up their Sky Sports and meanwhile they castigate Modric for wanting to triple his wages !...
Tis no wonder that he who owns the pot sh*ts on the plebs ...
Spurs Fans Say No To Sky Sports !
Paul F,
oh joy, another one who has chugged down the redknapp koolaid--if it works, it's all down to Redknapp's brilliance as a manager, if it doesn't work, it's the player's fault. Yeah, right.
Sandro was a couple months short of his 21st birthday when he joined us and was an established star with his team Internacional in Brazil and he was key to their winning run in the Copa Libertadores, the equivalent of the champions league. Hardly just a promising teenager.
Danny Rose--where is he? Where was he for the whole of last season when we were desperately in need of goals? Not on the first team, that's for sure.
As for the rest of your list, most of them "broke through" ten to fifteen years ago and the rest I've got to question Harry's impact there. More down to West Ham's academy. I mean, Walcott? Are you serious?