Media Muppets: Aston Villa Red Bull and Dembele and Dempsey Bull
A load of Aston Villa Red Bull with a topping of Dembele & Dempsey bull
Since we have to wait until Monday for the next Villa action, we thought we might as well cover the stories that failed to make the cut of the last Media Muppets’ article earlier in the week. The Aston Villa Red Bull rumour and the Clint Dempsey talk simply made our eyes roll, while Dembele was more wishful thinking and further proof that journalists still haven’t quite grasped the type of player Lambert buys.
The Metro takes time out to declare those Aston Villa Red Bull rumours are silly and then explain in detail, why Villa fans shouldn’t entertain them, even though they aren’t true.
Headline:
Why Aston Villa fans should have no thirst for any Red Bull takeover
Spiel:
But of all the whispers surrounding Aston Villa of late, a particularly bizarre one seems to have gathered momentum – or, should I say, grown wings.
It stemmed from a report last month that Red Bull was considering buying a Premier League club. There was very little detail in it, but the fact former Villa boss Gerard Houllier is the drinks firm’s ‘head of global soccer’ set Midlands’ tongues wagging.
While Villa fans are largely supportive of the Paul Lambert project, Randy Lerner’s austerity drive has been blamed for the club’s lack of competitiveness in recent years.
Evaluation:
1. I think we were the only Aston Villa blog who didn’t even bother mentioning the ‘Aston Villa Red Bull’ scandal story. Not even a tweet on Twitter. Why? Well, what do you get when you mix a red herring and a bulls**t? Simple – Red Bull
2. The Metro got it spot on when they opened their article with the header – ‘Each international break these days is like a mini ‘silly season’ where barrels are scraped to their very last shaving in an attempt to quench the thirst for rumours’. That should maybe have been the whole article there in a few lines. But no, they couldn’t resist the temptation to follow suit of the Aston Villa community (which they probably cribbed off) and pontificate about the hypothetical situation. It’s good they are so self referential with their intro though.
3. You can understand Villa blogs discussing the ‘what if’ nature of the story, but the Metro seemed to be the only newspaper out there who even bothered with it. Somebody in the office obviously needed to look busy that day.
Media Muppet Score: 6/10
David Wright of the Sunday Express is wrong about Mousa Dembélé
Headline:
Newcastle and Aston Villa interested in wantaway Tottenham midfielder Dembele
Spiel:
The Belgium international has fallen out-of-favour at White Hart Lane since Spurs’ defeat to West Ham, starting just two of the last five games and was brought off at half-time in their latest loss against Newcastle.
Premier League sides are eager to take advantage of the 26-year-old’s situation, with the likes of Newcastle, Aston Villa, Southampton, Cardiff and Swansea interested parties.
Evaluation Points:
1. A player gets substituted at half-time when a team is losing and it’s suddenly a crisis? Spurs paid £15 million for Dembele only a year ago . They are hardly going to let him go likely, especially when they are aiming for Champions League qualification and are also in the Europa League, as they’ll need squad depth to compete.
2. Dembele moaning about needing to play to impress in the World Cup year? Well, it’s going to be tough for him anyway with Marouane Fellaini, Axel Witsel, Eden Hazard, Steven Defour, Nacer Chadli and Kevin De Bruyne to compete with for a midfield berth in Belgium’s team. He better man-up quickly.
3. Surely Dembele’s wages would put him off Villa’s radar for starters. Will these rumour mongers ever learn? Lambert signs young players, whose focus is on Villa and will eventually turn a sell-on profit, which Villa wouldn’t get with Dembele.
4. It’s a shame, that Villa wouldn’t be in for Dembele. So please, stop reminding us of the fact!
Media Muppet rating: 8/10
Daily Star on the Dempsey rehash
Headline:
Tottenham, Everton, Aston Villa and Fulham vying to sign Clint Dempsey on loan deal
Spiel:
Midfielder Dempsey netted 12 goals in 43 games for Spurs, who have the first option to re-sign him. And if they don’t take up the chance, Everton, Aston Villa and Fulham will battle it out for his signature.
Evaluation Points:
1. A lazy link to the fact that Paul Lambert had previously shown an interest on the summer deadline day last season. While being a fan of the then Spurs striker, Lambert was put off by Dempsey’s attitude towards playing for Villa. It’s very unlikely that Lambert would overlook that and then pay out to top up Dempsey’s already decent annual income.
2. Google Clint Dempsey and you’ll see claims that ‘Spurs have first refusal on the player’, ‘West Ham are the favourites to land him’, ‘Newcastle lead the chase for Dempsey’, ‘Villa are competing with Fulham and Everton for Dempsey’ etc, etc. It must be good to be so popular.
It seems that the media is smart in not just wasting transfer rumours on one club when they can be ever giving. You can almost imagine the conversations between staff at the sports desks of newspapers: ‘Er, just run that Dempsey loan story again, but just change the name of the club”.
Media Muppet rating: 9/10
If you’ve spotted an article that is just lazy journalism, or worse, and perfect for Media Muppets then leave the link in the comments below or send it to us via twitter @oldmansaid.