No sooner had the season ended then two publications in particular took it upon themselves to run with a story that Alan Pardew was going to get sacked and replaced with Steve Cotterill. Nicola Cortese was unhappy at failing to make the playoffs and Markus Liebherr was unhappy for the same reason and had boycotted the Southend game in protest. Nicola and Markus were allegedly unhappy enough to sack the manager despite Saints having started with -10, no squad and no pre-season and despite winning the JPT and being the best team in the league since the end of the January transfer window and every bookies favourite to win the league next year. There was to be a board meeting on Wednesday and Pardew was to be fired and then, due to unforeseen reasons, the meeting was to be moved to Thursday. The publications of course are the Southern Daily Echo and The Daily Mail.

Following this statement http://www.saintsfc.co.uk/page/NewsDetail/0,,10280~2051138,00.html made by Nicola Cortese on Thursday, you can see that the esteemed publications got just about everything wrong. Here’s the list.

1) The meeting was on Wednesday after all
2) Markus didn’t boycott
3) Nicola was not unhappy enough to sack the manager
4) Alan Pardew is still our manager for next season
5) Steve Cotterill won’t be our manager next season

In addition, on the Thursday that the statement came out, The Echo carried a story claiming Saints were being hindered by the confusion, the presence of which was totally caused by The Daily Echo. Of course, The Echo put up a new article about the statement and selectively picked out the parts where digs were made at Lawrie Mac and Matt le Tiss which were, in my opinion, a bit unnecessary even if they were basically true. The Echo of course, totally failed to mention the part about themselves which was completely and utterly 100% justified.

This story was totally spun from a comment Cortese made in January / February which was ‘our results haven’t been good enough’ and from the fact that The Daily Echo is banned from St Mary’s, having upset Cortese over a story regarding the new training complex. No other comment has been forthcoming from him since and no comment from Markus Liebherr at all. I don’t really know why the Daily Mail are stirring the shit as well. Martin Samuel (their main footy journo) took a big swipe at Cortese a couple of months ago for the interview he gave on the radio about how the club was being run and also, Charles Sale was allegedly a mate of he who shall not be mentioned but he had his own RL tracksuit (and I’m not talking Rickie Lambert here)

So, despite the lack of any fact at all, the papers spun and to my disappointment but not to my surprise, people swallowed it and we had messageboard meltdown.

Years ago it was called Chinese Whispers where someone would hear a story, misinterpret it or not hear it properly and then pass it on. Now, some people try to give their views more credence by claiming to be ‘In the Know’. These people hardly ever give a source as if they had a source, that kind of implies that they have a friend. The ITKers come in two categories, the first of which is ITK1 – those that try to sound credible and on the whole, manage it. Then we have ITK2 which is those who are complete idiots who haven’t got a clue and it’s totally obvious they need medical help, should not be allowed to drive a car or work with machinery. An ITK3 is a rare thing, someone who is genuinely in the know. If ITK3 exists at all then he is usually obliterated by all the ITK1s and 2s. Then of course, in addition to ITK1,2 and 3, you have the wind up merchants who are deliberately trying to goad people. I actually find these less irritating than the ITKers because you know that they ‘get it’ and are having a laugh.

So, take a quote from 4 months ago, add a bit of Daily Echo, add some Daily Mail, thrown in a couple of hidden agendas and a generous helping of shit, grate in some ITK1s, bring to the boil, add in some diced ITK2s and finally garnish with some Sweet ‘n’ Sour WUMs and voila…. Deep Fried Bollocks with a side order of Bullshit.

We, as fans, have got to have our own mind and find a way to see through all this crap. It’s like surveying the celebrity magazines on a newsagent where on the same day, you could see headlines of ‘Kerry Katona: I’m back’, ‘Kerry says I’m suicidal’, Kerry on Drugs, Kerry is clean, Kerry wants more kids, Kerry can’t have more kids, Kerry is fat again, Kerry is Size 8. None of them ever say the truth which is ‘Kerry is a Fucking Waste of Space who should be Put Down like you do with any Other Useless Old Dog’. I’m not going to suggest anyone boycotts this or that because it’s none of my business (and no one listens to me anyway) but consider the facts before getting all excited / depressed about something you’ve read.

As for Saints – the RL years saw plenty of farcical, negative things happen that were newsworthy and The Echo had a role in bringing those to the fans because otherwise, we wouldn’t have known about them. However, the Liebherr / Cortese ship is very obviously, very well run and there really is ‘nothing to see here’ on the negative side so far. Bad news sells more than good news though and consequently, in the absence of bad news, the media will always feel the need to make up shite, polish it and try and pass it off as a diamond, especially if they have their own agendas.

I like my Club – I like the positive energy coming out of it and I want it to stay that way.