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I’m Not Sure What’s Worse, The State Of Villa Or Modern Journalism

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The Mirror have officially outdone themselves this week.

More than a decade ago Villa fans were talking about the accuracy of their ‘exclusives’ given they claimed Gustavo Cisneros was flying over to complete a deal with Doug Ellis and we can only presume that he’s still on that plane as he was never mentioned again. The Mirror had moved onto other things – Cisneros won’t mean anything to anybody who doesn’t remember the takeover nonsense relatively well when Doug was selling up and Randy was the then Knight in Shining Armour.

It doesn’t really matter, it’s just one of the many completely irrelevant things stuck in my head and published by the outlet over the years.

In recent times given the shift in the press full stop, I know the instruction comes from their bosses as they re-imagine click bait as something to be proud of, but one such story, well it wasn’t even a story, it was a wibble on their transfer ticker that it appears not everybody on the interweb realises is a load of guff. It sparked the now endless rehashes stating that Tottenham have already agreed terms with Jack Grealish, but are yet to agree a fee with Aston Villa itself.

It’s an insult to both clubs.

Now don’t get me wrong, we all know ‘agents’ and the role they play and nobody is naive enough to think deals aren’t done 100% of the time with the full knowledge of the selling club. But to state it as fact given the regulations that surround tapping up, whilst playing the line ‘Steve Bruce is resigned’ to losing him and not even suggesting as an afterthought that permission has been given…it’s flat out shoddy from an outlet who should know better.

It stokes up both fanbases and causes issues where none should exist, all because they want an extra click or two. Sports, especially football journalism has long been an oxymoron, these days it seems some have forgotten what that word even means as they sink to new lows.

Who knows, a deal could be done, it could be on the verge of being done with the complete knowledge of whoever the hell is now running our club (they have my sympathy given the mess they have been asked to clean up) but would somebody really run to the Mirror to break this ‘exclusive news’?

It doesn’t strengthen Spurs’ position, it doesn’t help Jack’s if he wants out and it doesn’t help us in selling him if that decision has been made. Such an ‘exclusive’ here benefits only one irrelevant party – it simply keeps a tabloid operating.

As for the sites on Friday claiming ‘exclusives’ about Leeds United and Jonathan Kodjia…Christ, I’m off to boil my head. Did they accidentally stumble across one the many thousands of comments from Villa fans on the internet wondering which club he might be off to if an offer came in.

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