Man City Club Focus - Deadline day tedium driving City to distraction
Wednesday 01 February 2012
This technological age we exist in submerges us with information. The nature of the media is such that each minute of the day must be filled with content. As newspapers and dedicated television channels alike compete for airspace and attention, even the most mundane of happenings are dressed with a veneer of importance. The viewer must dislocate from reality, immersing themselves in the belief that they are witnessing history happen before their eyes. In a world where revealing the story first takes precedence over creating a narrative which befits the event, hyperbole is king.
In football terms, never is this more apparent than during the final few days of the transfer window. The rumour pages teem with gossip which fuels pub and office conversation alike. ‘Swoops’ are ‘mooted’ and ‘last minute bargains’ are ‘thrashed out’, all played before the public eye. On Sky Sports News the yellow ‘Breaking News’ ticker is non-stop. Announcing impending deals and contract talks it never leaves the bottom of the screen, relaying news with all the enthusiasm that Jim White – a man constantly on the verge of spontaneously combusting – can muster. Somehow, inexplicably, that yellow ticker and the excitable Scottish man epitomise a world in which a West Bromwich Albion press conference holds as much importance as the moon landings.
A world where airspace needs to be filled and column inches cry out to be written provides the context in which Manchester City’s lack of interest in signing Andy Carroll makes BIG NEWS. The Premier League leaders – a team which, in Sergio Aguero and Edin Dzeko, contains two of the most potent forwards in the league – in not being interested in a giant lumbering galoot shock horror! Whatever next? Roberto Mancini declares that Titus Bramble is not the man to fill City’s defensive void? Rumour and the purveyance of tittle-tattle really has reached a new low.
Only one thing defeats the idiotic rumour for mid-winter inanity: the long-running transfer-saga. Cesc Fabregas, Patrick Vieira and Fernando Torres have all in the past bored us with their wanton flirtation with potential suitors. With all the subtlety, and even less of the ‘hilarity’ of the Rachel and Ross ‘will-they, won’t-they’ storyline, we have been fed each and every twist and turn; an endless contradictory stream of ‘come-and-get-me’ pleas followed by professions of undying love for their employers.
Carlos Tevez is the latest fascination. Liverpool, AC Milan, Paris Saint Germain, Boca Juniors and Corinthians are united by their interest in the most odious of dressing-room influences. Yet somehow, despite the fact that he has been inconspicuous by his absence as City have strode to the Premier League summit, despite the goals of Aguero and Dzeko ensuring his absence is irrelevant, news of his future is bestowed an importance greater than that of the team. Little wonder so many managers count down the hours to the end of January with relish.
The 1-0 defeat to Everton and the closure of the transfer window impending means City fans will breathe a sigh of relief to see in February. Performances have declined as the speculation has heated up; a once imperious lead at the Premier League’s summit has been squandered. Now January is over, Citizens everywhere can be forgiven for breathing a sigh of relief and looking towards a calmer February, free of distraction.
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