Constructing a transfer story: How the press do it

Cesc Fabregas

The best example for the first half of the above is the number of alleged quotes the Spanish press carried nearly every day regarding a return to the Camp Nou for Cesc Fabregas throughout the summer of 2010.

Right from the start of Spain’s World Cup preparations, Marca, El Pais et al. would carry articles with quotations from a host of Barcelona players and staff and Fabregas’ fellow Spain internationals regarding the same. Although Cesc did indeed move a year later, Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger compared the propaganda machine employed by the media to nothing but ‘noise’.

Bear in mind, however, that a large number of transfer stories are fictitious and will probably never happen, but that is something you all already know. In the winter of 2012, the Daily Mail released a story regarding Robert Lewandowski telling his friends he would be joining Manchester United. No move took place, however.

How did the Mail know so? Unless they have a mole amongst his friends, there is no way they could have done so. No source has been mentioned in the article and there is therefore no way it carries any believability. Unless, of course, Lewandowski mentioned it to his agent, who in turn would have reported it to one of his contacts.

The same contacts that some journalists actually have within clubs, which is how they sometimes break transfer news. These are the same ‘sources’ that Sky News and the rest refer to when they do lift the lid on stories. They cannot, however, reveal the same because of the cloak and dagger nature of transfer news. They do not have to either.

Clause 14 of the Editors’ Code of Practice as laid out by the UK’s Press Complaints Commission states that journalists have a moral duty to protect confidential sources of information. Other nations have similar laws.

But a story that is released to the press is not always published immediately. There is always a legal rider that states that a story can only be made public after that rider has reached its expiration date.

Wayne Rooney, for example, is set to sign a new contract at United, if he behaves himself, but given the public nature of his fallout with David Moyes, there are surely some conditions. What those conditions are cannot be revealed because of legal issues, because they would have been revealed had it not been for the same issue.

Agents are always on the lookout for a paper to carry a story about the players they represent because it means they get a cut of the money a player’s transfer fee generates and more the hype surrounding a player, the greater the transfer fee. Most agents only exist to fill their pockets and what the likes of Mino Raiola, Jorge Mendes and Darren Dein are looking for at the end of the day is a big payout for themselves.

The arrival of Twitter has further eroded the trust people have in newspapers. Twitter is filled with people who claim to have contacts inside the club and while some are genuine, there are those who claim to be in the know, which means they allegedly have people who operate behind the scenes giving them information (ITK).

People’s desperation to find out news before the papers report them makes them trust these people without question and they are left with egg on their face when they are duped.

In August 2012, a user with the Twitter handle @FootballAgent49 revealed himself to be an 18-year-old who had duped several national newspapers with claims of deals including one between Radamel Falcao and Chelsea and another involving a Kaka loan move to Manchester United from Real Madrid.

It is, therefore, hard to separate the truth from lies. What goes on on the football pitch is but a mere fraction of what takes place behind the scenes. It is difficult to not let your emotions come up to the surface because of the bond that is present between football club and football fan, but not letting yourself get carried away with the same can be summed up with that old British adage.

Keep Calm and Carry On.