Mails: When did Pogba’s social media accounts become news?

Mails: When did Pogba’s social media accounts become news?

A varied Mailbox, top work. Now keep them coming to theeditor@football365.com…

When did players’ social media accounts become news?
Question: why are players’ social media accounts the source of ‘news’ nowadays?

If a player is teasing his followers with an impending transfer, or makes an announcement using Instagram, only then it is acceptable to cite a player’s social media account for information. Eden Hazard and Paul Pogba are famous for having done this, and it definitely seems like the ‘new age’ thing to do. But surely, there’s got to be a line in the sand labelled ‘over exposure’?

For instance, Paul Pogba and Jesse Lingard uploaded a video of a dance recently. Rio Ferdinand, amongst droves of others, slapped them down for ‘not doing their job on the field and dancing in the changing rooms’. Let’s ignore that they’re both youngsters and avid listeners of music… are they not allowed to upload anything but videos of themselves pumping iron, doing sprints and eating salads?

Surely a player’s social media account, which is on his own personal electronic device, is nothing but his own business, his own life? Surely there should be some rule (amongst all facets of ‘media’) to stay out of the players’ personal lives?

The most bizarre part of this example is that the video was described as ‘a new celebration’… Pogba, when he scores, angrily screams something before pumping a fist and getting submerged by his teammates; Lingard runs ecstatically to the corner before getting submerged by his teammates; neither (let alone both) ever do an elaborately pre-planned 15 second dance routine.

But, according to Rio Ferdinand, unless you’re winning every game you are not allowed to have a dance with your mates after training. Or perhaps it’s sinful to show the world you’re dancing when 6th in the league.
EMUFC Boston

Aguero isn’t playing for our approval
In response to David, that’s a horrible argument to make. Alright, you’re entitled to your opinion, but then so am I.

Aguero’s goals may not be memorable, but then neither were those of some of the finest no 9’s of the game. Getting into the right place at the right time and creating an ‘easy’ chance for yourself is a talent on its own, one that Lampard mastered. The difference of course is that Aguero doesn’t belt in screamers, but that’s just because he doesn’t need to…

His lethal finishing ability has endeared him to me and I certainly respect him. Also, he doesn’t give interviews in English, what is his motivation… This is not fecking Hollywood.. he’s a footballer, it’s his job. And so what if he’s “shy” and “unassuming”, he’s still world class. And if you don’t like him, don’t make bs arguments like a lack of interviews.
Sood CFC (don’t think he’s honestly playing for any of our approval)

Everyone at Manchester City is underrated
Thanks for highlighting the lack of respect for Aguero, but I am afraid he is not alone. Consider the following:

– In the last six years, City have always been in the top four, including two titles and twice second, yet we have seen just nine entries in the PFA team of the year.
In contrast, Chelsea had six just in their sole title-winning season, and even Spurs (one top-4 finish) have more.

– The golden quartet of Silva, Nasri, Aguero and Dzeko, responsible for 300 goals and so many thrilling moments, have just one nomination in total while playing for City.

– Hart was possibly the best EPL goalkeeper during this period, with four golden gloves, yet constantly derided for the odd error

– It’s not just the players. Mancini’s stout and brilliant 2012 team and Pellegrini, with an insanely attacking formation in 2014 (Yaya in a 2-man midfield, two up front). Both overlooked for manager of the year, the only league winning managers (with just one exception) thus denied in two decades

It’s very simple really, and brought out clearly in Martin’s mail – the sheer jealousy and viciousness of supporters of the established “big” clubs, who have constantly used “money” jibes to attack and denigrate the achievements of a fine set of players / managers.

As if they themselves have never used huge amounts of their owner’s money to rise to the top (funny how you never suggested FFP in the late 80s, eh?). And as Man United have so delightfully proved, just spending money doesn’t work.

What is pathetic though are the “mercenary” jibes. Sure, they cost more than Goater, Dickov or SWP. But the set of players City fans had the good fortune to witness through 2011-16 – Kompany, Hart, Silva, Aguero and co – bleed blue all the same, and share great rapport with the City fans.

That great team is being broken up now, but whether any other fans appreciate them or not, they will always stay in the memories of Man City fans, and not just for the titles.
SM

Really angry about football, Wenger reaction and journalism
I think I’ve just about had it with football. Journalists, the TV Media and fans in general.

The outpouring of, not hate that’s too strong, dislike at Wengers performance at Arsenal is simply staggering. Arsenal by pretty much all fans opinion, are the 4th or 5th biggest and richest club in the country. Yet Wenger is judged as if they are the richest and biggest. Last time I checked they were above the 2 biggest clubs in the world in the league table, having comfortably finished above them last season. And here we are again with pretty much every written word journalist having a pop at Arsene.

Where was this last season for managers of clubs that didn’t win the league? Where is it this season for Klopp? For Mourinho who has spent millions and treats journalists as though they are beneath him?

I still cannot fathom the overall opinion of Wenger. He consistently gets them performing above where they should if you base finishing league position on money available. He has never done a Mourinho or Klopp and finished outside of Champions league football. Yet in your poll he is classed as the most disappointing manager?

Is it purely because Arsenal have the biggest selection of absolute weapons as fans on the entire internet? Are we basing fan support off of twitter? I know many many Arsenal fans who barely know what twitter is and they are perfectly reasonable sensible supporters.

Click bait (even f365 is guilty) is destroying the sport as enjoyment for me. An article is written purely as a dig at Arsenal to get the angry mob clicking and sharing and said article is then used by bloke down the pub to back up his nonsensical anti Arsenal rubbish.

Danny Mills claimed that Bellerin should have been stronger against Alonso. Utterly ludicrous. Guy at work used word for word the exact same argument yesterday. Moronic.

If football were politics, it would be Donald Trump and journalists would be Steve Bannon. Will the last one left please turn out the lights.
Brad S

England can go 3-5-2
Following on from the England strikers in the next squad mail, I´d have to start with the idea that a 3-5-2 ought to be tried. Kane and Rashford would have to be up top. Alli and Lallana must play. Henderson, Wilshere are strong contenders. The Tottenham “wingbacks” are both shoe-ins.

That leaves only a few problem areas: Who should play in goal? Who would make the most effective three-man defence? Is Phil Jones now a starter? Maybe Dier + Stones + Jones? Forster between the sticks? Heaton?
Peter (has Southgate got the cojones to coach a 352.) Andalucia

Que sera, sera
The Sky Blues make it to a final! A slightly patronising, pat-on-the-head, oh well-done-you final, but a final nonetheless! Jordan Turnbull looked great after an initially jittery couple of minutes after Akinfenwa came on, Jodi Jones was a superb outlet, and Stuart Beavon’s first touch for his goal was Alexis-esque. Alright, I’m getting slightly carried away there.

Hopefully last night will manifest itself into a dash for survival in League One – if we sign Yakubu, all the better – but I’m not holding my breath. Oh, and that pitch last night is what happens when you sell your ground to a rugby team. Either way, we get a day at Wembley! Now, about those plane tickets…
David (Dukla Prague at home on the Saturday, Cov at Wembley on the Sunday) Szmidt, Brno, Czech Rep

Loving the Parker interview
Fantastic interview and article with Paul Parker.

I think if you only capitalise it when referring to morons then we can safely say that Paul Parker is a proper football man in all the best senses of the phrase.
Plato – MUFC

Football debate commandments
What’s that? Frustrated with constant endless footy debates with morons? Who is the better player? Did Mourinho choose the wrong team or were they just unlucky? Why not have some rules to govern our footy debates and be more civilized? No? Well, here are a list of three rules I thought of anyways. Following should be banned from all opinion pieces, arguments and debates from here on:

1) Use of trophy-counts when comparing players: This one is the most nonsensical in the list and really should be quite obvious, but isn’t. Even the usually level-headed Winty used it yesterday to prove that Aguero is better than Van Persie because he’s won one extra league title. Really? What’s next? Cleverely is better than Gerrard because of all the medals? Obviously not.

Who is to say Van Persie would not have won more medals with CIty or Aguero would have won any at all with Arsenal. This one really is a no-brainer and non-controversial. So I nominate this to be the first and foremost commandment of footy debates.

2) Win percentage with/without player: Quoting one of the great philosophers of modern times, statistics are like mini-skirts, they conceal more than they reveal. This one is simply a statistics anomaly, as we all know you need at least a sample of size of 30 to draw any conclusions without any significant random error but here we go seeing win/loss records being thrown around for 6 games, proving the importance of a certain player.

I’ll stop here again as going by my extensive research in the dark underbellies of internet comments section, this statistic is universally despised and hence should be banned.

3) Result-based reviews/conclusions: This is one of my pet peeves and a bit left-field but also the inspiration behind this mail, so hear me out. It first irked me in an annoying way after Man Utd lost the title to City in 2012 on goal difference. There were a plethora of articles on all that Man Utd had done wrong that season, how they were a spent force and needed a massive upheaval if they were to challenge City again. On the other end, there were opinions on all that had gone right for City.

Had Aguerooooooo not happened or Man United had not lose their three-goal lead against Everton, there would not have been those articles, I can bet my house on it. Man Utd had 89 points that season – good enough to finish top in almost every other year. And sure behold Man Utd did win the league next year by ten points.

On a more weekly level this constantly happens in match reports. Hence Klopp got it right at Old Trafford last month and came out with a draw – even though they scored only through a baffling handball penalty from the $100million man. This is also seen every week when football writers award the MoM to the goalscorer or judge the whole match based on a last minute winner.

Solution: Have football writers watch games on record and have someone delete the goals. Imagine that – Daniel Storey simply watches the game sans the goals – and writes review on tactics based on that – completely unbiased of silly penalties, or a random set piece goal. As Johnny Nicholson once said “Football is chaos” – there are plenty of moving variables that a control the result of a game and there is no point in trying to explain everything simply because one team scored a deflected own goal in the 89th minute.
(MC – A lovely – if a bit odd – idea, but nobody would read these pieces.)

So there was my rant, would like other seasoned mailboxers and the editor rip through my suggestions and / or introduce new rules.
Raman (using fan poll results to prove your point is completely acceptable though), NYC