March Media Madness Thursday, 9th Mar 2017 11:11 March is one of those months in football when there is not a lot happening that the media can make headlines on, so they have to make up a few of their own. The January transfer window has only been shut a matter of weeks and the summer one doesn't open for another three months, yet already this month the media has claimed that around half a dozen Saints players are heading for pastures anew in the summer. What have they got to base this prediction on ? anything tangible ? No of course not just a few rumours spread by agents and then regurgitating other media outlets stories. That is all well and good, but when you read 15 stories all saying the same thing it starts to get very believable ! But the real truth is there is absolutely no substance in any of these rumours. Take the one about Cedric to Barcelona or Romeu to the same club, the only people who know the real truth about that one are the club themselves, is there any chance of them actually revealing who their transfer targets are to the media ? think about it, the answer is absolutely no chance. So that leaves only two choices, agents or the media itself just making it up to generate headlines. It would not necessarily be the players own agent, there are plenty of agents out there who will try to sell a player to a club who they don't represent, that is a similar situation to the way that Koeman left for Everton. The media just making up stories and then others taking it up is usually the way that most rumours start and then blossom so it seems like they have to be the truth because every media outlet is saying so. Take Oriol Romeu's transfer to Barcelona, as media outlet Sports Witness pointed out, this started as an article in a Catalan sports paper which suggested potential replacements for Sergio Busquets, Romeu was far from the only name mentioned and in truth there were several reasons why it was mere fantasy, firstly Busquets is only 28 and not leaving Barca just yet, secondly with Romeu being only 3 years younger he would not be seen as a replacement. But what started as just a sports paper in Spain considering a few options for Barcelona and highlighting the form of a Spanish player in the Premier League soon turned into a media frenzy in the UK with virtually every big media outlet reporting that Barcelona were targeting Romeu for the summer window. So this one had absolutely no substance whatsoever, it was not even an agents rumour. But the rumour was soon turned back round with Spanish media reporting that Romeu is off to Barcelona, it is headline laundering, putting a headline up enough times so the original source is untraceable and it all suddenly seems plausible because everyone is claiming it to be true. This is how rumours spread and soon they are across social media wit indignant fans frothing at the mouth in Saints case about how we are a selling club etc etc. So far in the last week or so we have seen rumours about. Fraser Forster - Off to join Koeman at Everton Thats over half of our first choice outfield team and there is little actual substance in any of it, indeed the only thing we have heard from the horses mouth so to speak is that Ralph Krueger has stated that there will be no fire sale. Of course we have heard that before, but the difference between now and the past is that with the departure of Fonte we have seen the last of the Cortese signings gone, our current squad bought into this regime not the last one and are all signed up to long term contracts. The reality is that at some point we will get offers we cant refuse and it will be in our best interests to take them, but we are in control of that and we don't have a plethora of players coming into the final years of our contracts. But all these headlines prompt ranting on social media and that again makes it worse than it actually is, if the last few years have taught us all something it should be to be patient, sometimes you have to step back to step forward. So far we have always managed to replace outgoing players with better, "but we cant keep doing that " say the bedwetters ! Well the answer is we can and that is because we have a tried and trusted strategy rather than just stabbing in the dark, of course there will always be failures, but because we are doing our due diligence they will hopefully be few and far between We also have to do it because we have no choice, we cannot compete on wages, the finacial gap between us and the big six clubs is wide and its getting wider, we have to take them on on our terms not theirs. Those who think its as simple as enlarging the stadium to compete with them should look at Newcastle, Sunderland, Villa, Everton or West Ham to name just a few,. So the message is there is no point frothing at the mouth and Les Reed, Ralph Krueger or Katharina Liebherr everytime you see a player linked with a move, they know as much about it as you do. The proof of the pudding will be in the eating and tat cant happen till June. Photo: Action Images Please report offensive, libellous or inappropriate posts by using the links provided.
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