The truth behind Carrick’s one-word Manchester United ‘dig’ at Amorim over Fernandes | OneFootball

One Sun scribe has made up a Michael Carrick quote to pretend the Manchester United boss aimed a ‘dig’ at Ruben Amorim over Bruno Fernandes.

It somehow bears repeating that quote marks should only be used for quotes.

And there is some inexcusable doling out of the ‘former Premier League star’ tag.

Pull the other John

‘Scandals, social media faux pas and snubs from Saudi Arabian clubs – why Chelsea are ignoring John Terry’s come-and-get-me pleas, writes RIATH AL-SAMARRAI’ – MailOnline.

Hint: it might be because John Terry has literally never been a manager, was last as much as a full-time assistant for Aston Villa in 2021, save for a couple of months relegating Leicester with Dean Smith in 2023, and even this ridiculous iteration of Chelsea don’t fancy signing off on letting him do work experience.

As Luck would have it

Mediawatch has long since accepted that the battle to make sure quote marks denote actual quotes was lost ages ago.

But this from Samuel Luckhurst of The Sun feels like quite a flagrant transgression from someone whose very profession and background means they really ought to know better.

‘Michael Carrick aims dig at Man Utd predecessor Ruben Amorim after Bruno Fernandes’ stunning form’ is the headline, which basically needs this opening paragraph to actually work as a construct:

That absolutely does sound like a ‘dig’. No complaints there. Carrick saying a player who is currently thriving under his coaching was “constrained” under the previous regime definitely qualifies as a ‘dig’.

But there is a caveat: Carrick does need to have actually said that. Especially the bit in quote marks. That’s really important.

And yet he said no such thing. Carrick at no point says Fernandes was “constrained”. No other outlet uses that word when covering what Carrick said; it is not uttered at any point during the manager’s pre-match press conference.

Luckhurst doesn’t even quote Carrick as saying Fernandes was “constrained” beyond that opening paragraph – because he didn’t say it. And Luckhurst knows that, hence he writes about how Carrick merely ‘suggested’ it.

And Carrick only ‘suggested’ that by saying “we’ve given Bruno the platform to go and perform, like all the players,” and that “I like seeing Bruno in attacking positions with a little bit of freedom”.

A quick check of the antonyms for ‘freedom’ and Luckhurst lands upon ‘constrained’. Which is absolutely fine, but putting it in quote marks to pretend Carrick has had a ‘dig’ at Amorim is not.

Iraola’s Eleven

We will probably never tire of the ‘How Crisis Club X could line up under Prospective New Manager Y’ trope. It is unimprovable, meaningless, hypothetical nonsense and it is glorious.

And The Sun website does not disappoint when predicting Chelsea’s future with Andoni Iraola, whose only actual new signings worthy of the starting XI will obviously just be two Bournemouth players because the Spaniard is famously painfully unimaginative.

Not sure Emmanuel Emegha is particularly ready to lead the line for a club with such ambitions either, on the back of a season in which muscle injuries have restricted him to just eight appearances.

Good luck with that aggressive Iraola press, pal.

Chelsea smile

But the Daily Mirror website has some good Iraola-to-Chelsea-themed news:

Seasoned readers will know that ‘as’ can mask all manner of headline-based chicanery. And this is no disappointment, as the ‘manager agreement reached’ is between Edin Terzic and Athletic Club, who Iraola had been linked with.

It has been assumed for a while that Iraola is more likely to stay in the Premier League but sure, have your ‘major boost’.

We don’t talk about Bruno

Andy Dunn of the Daily Mirror is very possibly being classily rebuked as we type for this opinion on Bruno Fernandes:

He’s not won a f**king thing, Andy. You know the rule; it’s Marc Guehi’s to lose.

Claud nine

The MailOnline is on an absurd run of JUST DAYS form.

They caught Crystal Palace stars ‘partying just days’ before a crucial game against West Ham (which they drew), and were flabbergasted at Bournemouth announcing Marco Rose as their new manager ‘just days’ after Iraola revealed he would be leaving.

And now this…

We’re not entirely sure what they’re getting at. But it’s provocative, it gets the people going.

‘Former Prem star’ of the day

‘Former Prem star becomes manager of World Cup team weeks before tournament’ – The Sun website.

Not even the immediate family of Georgios Donis would describe him and his 21-game English top-flight career contained entirely within Blackburn’s 1996/97 season as enough to qualify for ‘Former Prem star’ status.

…actually

Donis is somehow not the most egregious example of former Premier League ‘star’ status being bestowed upon someone, thanks to the MailOnline:

Ross McCormack apparently ‘starred for Fulham in the Premier League’, which might be news to both McCormack and Fulham; he never played in the Premier League for them or indeed literally anyone. Just ask Steve Bruce.

Football Woke-us

A quick question: how has the MailOnline taken the biggest story of the day?

These headlines offer an idea…

One of those stories links to an entire subsection of the website dedicated to compiling the thoughts of people complaining about how ‘woke’ culture has ruined Silent Witness, Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons and Brum. It is a fascinating corner of the internet which should be both enshrined forever and killed with fire.