Cesc, the hidden truth in the transfer saga in the media – part 2 – Why it suddenly stopped « Untold Arsenal: Arsenal News. Supporting the Lord Wenger; coach of the decade
Note from the editor: This is the follow up on the the first article which you can read here. In fact both articles are part of one big article but because of the length we had to split it in two. For those who haven’t read the first article I would strongly advise to read both of them. It really is worth it.
By Anne, a critical analysis by a Barcelona fan who also supports Arsenal
Back to England. Towards the end of the summer, as the World Cup concluded and the Barcelona players left for their vacations, the sheer volume of “interviews” with Barcelona players appearing in the English media had reached levels that defy belief. Just as one example, the Sun published 5 interviews with different Barcelona players in 10 days. And this was while all the players allegedly “interviewed” were vacationing on various tropical islands, mind you…Did they like the Sun reporters so much that they invited them along? And also, as you would expect by this point, every single one of these five interviews was completely unsourced. All of the interviews said something along these lines:
“LIONEL MESSI has piled even more pressure on Arsenal by urging Cesc Fabregas to join him at Barcelona.
The Argentine forward is the latest Barca star to call on Fabregas to quit the Emirates and echoes similar pleas made by Andres Iniesta, Gerard Pique and Xavi earlier this week.
Now the campaign has even reached Panama, where Messi is set to play in a charity match.
The striker said: ‘I would be delighted if he came. We played together as kids in Barca’s youth team and he knows the club.’
Messi’s comments will cause attitudes to harden at Arsenal, where club bosses are already furious at Barca’s continuing attempts to unsettle their skipper.”
-The Sun, July 14, 2010
See also: Pique, July 4, 2010 (http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/sport/football/worldcup2010/3040426/Gerard-Pique-says-Cesc-Fabregas-is-dreaming-of-a-move-to-Barcelona.html); Xavi, July, 10, 2010
(http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/sport/football/worldcup2010/3048467/Xavi-Cesc-Fabregas-heart-is-already-at-Barcelona.html); Iniesta, July 13, 2010
(http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/sport/football/3052627/Iniesta-I-want-Cesc-at-Barca.html); Busquets, July 15, 2010
Note that the Sun would have us believe that they actually followed Messi to Panama to obtain this “interview,” but I digress…
Now, we have another interesting twist. Because at this point in the summer, we begin to see the same phenomenon that we witnessed earlier with the Spanish media begin to occur in the English media as well. Earlier in the summer, any “interview” with a Barcelona player that appeared in any English publication was immediately picked up and published ad nauseum by all the other papers. However, where the above “interviews” are concerned, we see a significant drop in the number of other publications that picked them up and re-published them. Although a number of footballing websites did pick them up, the other British papers seemed reluctant to do so.
Now, why would that be? Could it be that they had just lost interest in the Fabregas transfer saga by that point? (Doubtful) Or could the explanation possibly be that they were afraid to publish? Did they fear that they were at risk of getting into trouble? Well, if that was the case, they were right. Although you probably never heard that they did get into trouble, because for obvious reasons, none of them was nice enough to tell you about it.
Moving on to the end of the summer. It’s August, and the Barcelona players are returning home from their vacations. It’s at this point that we get the first indications that FC Barcelona has finally realized just how out of hand things have gotten in England, and is attempting to put a stop to it. We first see it in the form of Barcelona players personally coming forward and denying that they made certain statements.
And that brings us back to those two “interviews” in the Sun with Puyol that were quoted earlier in this article. On August 2, 2010, Carles Puyol formally denied giving either interview. This is what he said on his personal blog:
“Hi everyone, in recent days a British news media outlet has published some declarations that are supposedly mine and that are totally false. I’ve just seen them now, and I can assure you that I didn’t say anything nor have I spoken with anyone about this topic. Saludos.” (note my emphasis on that last part)
We also saw David Villa come forward on August 1, 2010, and deny giving an interview that appeared in the Daily Star concerning Fernando Torres transfer rumors:
“Barcelona striker David Villa wants to refute the statements that the British newspaper ‘the Daily Star’ put in his mouth concerning a claim that the Asturian player was surprised that Fernando Torres had not signed for Chelsea and abandoned Liverpool.
‘I’ve never spoken about the future of Fernando Torres with any English publication or with any journalist,’ [Villa] stated categorically.
Villa, who is vacationing with his family, said he was shocked when he heard the information that had been published by this English newspaper and echoed in some Spanish media outlets. Villa assured that he had never made such declarations.”
http://www.marca.com/2010/08/01/futbol/futbol_internacional/premier_league/1280677352.html
In September, 2010, Gerrard Pique issued a similar denial:
“Barcelona defender Gerard Pique has denied giving an interview to a British tabloid in which he is quoted saying Liverpool’s ‘sub-standard’ football is ‘embarrassing’ for Fernando Torres, according to reports in Spain.
Pique was quoted by the Daily Star as saying the Reds were ‘really testing Nando’s loyalty’ and that the club ‘looks completely unstable’ and ‘hadn’t delivered on their promises’.
However, the former Manchester United player has since told Spanish journalist Guillem Balague he ‘strenuously denies making comments attributed to him’ and ‘did not even give an interview to the journalist in question’.”
Note that the statements attributed to Pique concerning Torres and Liverpool greatly resemble similar comments attributed to Barcelona players concerning Cesc and Arsenal.
Although I’ve been unable to find any other personal denials by Barcelona players aside from the three above, it’s entirely possible that there are more out there. They’re very difficult to find, due to the fact that the publications that engage in the mischief don’t like to publicize it when they get caught. But as far as I can document, the personal responses from Barcelona players stopped after this last denial by Pique.
However, within that same time period, and following these public denials, the transfer saga died down as well. By the early fall, nearly all of the reporting had come to a halt, and interviews with Barcelona players about transfer rumors had largely ceased appearing. You’d still have the occasional, odd “interview” (as we still see now), but the volume had dramatically decreased.
This is a trend that has continued into the current transfer season as well. Although the media is still pushing the Cesc transfer rumors to some extent, what’s missing is the influx of “tapping up” comments allegedly made by Barcelona players that were so prevalent last summer. And the question is, what changed? Well, to answer that question, the logical thing to do would be to go back to the time that the changed occurred; namely, the late summer and early fall of 2010, and ask what happened.
As I documented above, one thing that we know happened around that time was that several Barcelona players formally accused the Sun and the Daily Star of publishing fabricated interviews, in which insulting comments regarding transfer rumors were attributed to those players . But was that all? Could it be that there was also something ELSE occurring behind the scenes? Something that would explain why such “interviews” ceased appearing at that time? Well, as it happens, there WAS something else occurring. However, the full details have never been released to the public.
What we do know comes from the following statement that appeared on FC Barcelona’s official website on October 21, 2010:
“Clarification
In recent weeks a number of invented interviews with the club’s players have appeared in the Daily Star and the Daily Star Sunday. FC Barcelona wish to make it known that none of these interviews are attributable to the players therein cited and also to explain to our supporters throughout the world that the information and declarations made in these articles are totally and absolutely false.
FC Barcelona has officially sent the media outlets concerned a formal complaint and warned them that it will not allow any further situations like this to be repeated. Should this happen, the club will not hesitate to act in defence of its own image and the honour of its players.”
http://www.fcbarcelona.com/web/english/noticies/club/temporada10-11/10/21/n101021113563.html
So, now we know! Between August and October of 2010, FC Barcelona was taking legal action against English tabloids, and formally threatening them with litigation. Although the Daily Star was the only publication that they named publicly, I strongly suspect that others were also threatened (remember that Puyol did formally deny making statements to the Sun, as well). It’s worth noting here that, between them, the Daily Star and the Sun were the original sources for a substantial majority of the Cesc “tapping up” comments that appeared last Summer. Although the Star was by far the worst offender.
In the end, we’ll probably never know the details of everything that went on behind the scenes. However, there’s one thing that we do know: Ever since FC Barcelona threatened the Daily Star with legal action, we’ve had no more Cesc transfer saga. Or at least, it’s not what it was before. I’ll let you draw your own conclusions about the implications of that…
To sum up, I know that this article is not sufficient to debunk the entire transfer saga. It’s actually just the beginning of an effort to do that, and it barely scratches the surface. But I hope that it will get you thinking nonetheless.
Final note from the temporary editor: I would like to thank Anne for her great article(s) on this subject. The first article got a big reception and some great comments. I think after reading the whole article (if I can speak in my name) nothing is the same when I read something in the press.
If you have an article you would like to have published on Untold Arsenal you can send it to the mail address mentioned on the site. If it is something you want to get published as soon as possible you can send it to my mail address walterbroeckx(at)hotmail.com. Next week Tony will be back and will take the site back in his hands.