You have to hand it to our friends at The Daily Record, right?
Few newspapers in this country can take a series of quotes, spin them or just outright distort them and run a complete story off of it.
Few other papers have the sheer cheek.
Today’s story is that Nir Bitton is set to leave Celtic in the summer for £10 million.
Take note; this doesn’t say “linked with a move” and it doesn’t say “may be the subject of a bid.”
It says set to leave.
They are claiming the deal is done, that Bitton is already saying his goodbyes.
You know, I understand that, in part, we’ve created the circumstances for this kind of report. Too many of our best players have been allowed to leave in the past couple of years, and the idea of us hanging onto one in light of interest from down south must seem refreshing and new.
But this is a player who just signed a new and improved long term deal!
Even for The Record, this is scraping the bottom of the barrel.
This all started with Bitton’s agent talking to a radio station in Israel, claiming he was now worth £10 million. Whenever I hear that the interview was conducted in a foreign tongue I get suspicious; this is The Record’s MO in a nut-shell. It’s their cue to write tripe and then later feign innocence.
Few people could disagree with the central thrust of the claim. Bitton’s a fantastic footballer, and the best midfield player at the club when Scott Brown isn’t fit.
He’s improved, massively, in the last 12 months and clearly has the potential to be a huge talent.
And as we’re dealing with the EPL and its inflated price tags, £10 million seems a fair assessment of what the player is currently worth, albeit I think he’d fetch more if we were playing in the Champions League, which you can wager against on Bet365.
Nir’s agent didn’t say much more than that.
What has happened here is typical, predictable and sad.
The Scottish media, and The Record in particular, have twisted his words every which way. Before long, the agent’s comments were being spun as a “come and get him” plea to the clubs of England, but The Record, as ever, went further and said more.
Today, Celtic has denied the story entirely, which is what you’d expect, but Bitton’s agent, Dudu Dahan – the foundation stone of The Record’s latest piece of fantasy – has also spoken out, and flatly denied ever saying that the player was set to quit Parkhead.
“He’s very happy at Celtic,” he said, before reminding the world of the new contract his client has just signed. He went on to say how much Nir “loves being at Celtic” and how committed he is to the club.
All this is to say that The Record has, again, been engaging in twisting words and manufacturing controversy where none exists.
Scottish football came to a halt over the weekend, as the bad weather saw many of the games called off, so if we were being generous we could put this down to it being a slow news day, and leave it at that.
But, of course, this is much more.
When a national newspaper writes blatant lies and still has the brass neck to stick a price tag on the cover it brings the whole journalistic profession into disrepute.
This story stinks so much that no-one was willing to put his name to it.
It appears, on the website, under the by-line of Record Sports Online.
It says something when no-one even wants to claim “credit” for a story like this, but it’s more about protecting the writers at that rag than protecting the profession itself. Neither the hacks or the editorial team at The Record care overmuch about the reputation of their trade.
I wouldn’t expect them to.
You have to be journalists first.
None of them qualify.
To think a tree was chopped down to make paper for these so called newspapers I despair of any one who buys this rubbish far less believes any thing thats written in them
Of course no mention of the “big” story.green &whytes trial being put back too next year.
They are anti-Celtic, but you do realise they took the quotes from what he said during a radio interview. The quotes are out in the public domain so one of two things have happened. 1. He’s been misquoted, or 2. He and the club are covering their back after they realised what he said. Unless anyone can translate Hebrew, you can’t question the validity of the quotes almost every publication have run with – not just the Daily Record. Just point scoring, really.
He’s denied saying it. Flatly. Openly. Unequivocally.
And no mention that the Records favourite club is being drip fed money every month and the Sfa are turning a blind eye to the lot..Na didn’t think so
The urine soaked rag that call themselves the Daily record and the rats that call themselves journalists couldn’t do a quality piece of sports writing if their diseased ridden life depended on it. Has the Sevco manager been approached for the big UEFA job yet? They have to make things up because the truth is so unwelcome to these Sevco mouthpieces.
If you like your sport factual – you will NEVER buy this trash – if you do you are supporting Sevco directly.
Brian Marjoribanks at the Scottish Daily Mail also joined the party
BOG ROLL
HH
This is a very bitter piece. Dahan said it, if you can translate Hebrew and prove the quotes to be false, which a lot of media outlets have used, then go ahead.
And The Record is full of people who can do that, eah?
No one who claims to be a Celtic fan should be buying this excuse for a newspaper
Your points are all very valid, however here we are talking about the Daily Record. Job done as far as they’re concerned.
Whole truth and nothing but the truth oooooops sorry its the daily rag we’re talking about HH
Do not buy it,do not look it on supermarket stands or on line,starve them out end of.
Hate the record and sun Keith Jackson is a clown
I stopped reading when it said Scott Brown is the best midfielder at Celtic. If late tackles & staring at people is your thing fair enough.
Usual rubbish from the usual suspects. This is not about putting a spin or being liberal with the truth. We all realise that the papers have to grab your attention. But to downright lie to the punters that buy their rag is a brutal assault on the intelligence of the Scottish public. I THINK THAT THE AGENT SHOULD SUE THEM.See a retraction soon enough. They think that is sufficient a little bit at the bottom of a page. Go after them,don’t buy their crap , the advertisers will soon fall away as quick as their subscription.
Absolute garbage. That said we could sell him and buy Sevco with that money, knock it all down build a Tesco and still turn a pound on it.
Tomoirow’s sensational story in the Daily Record Efe Ambrose and Deryk Boyata to Barcelona to Barcelona for combined fee of £50,000,000 You heard it first in your Daily Record er Ranger er Scotland’s national newspaper er comic er toilet paper emm whatever
It’s quite revealing that we can openly refer to the MSSM as corrupt, complicit and colluding in all things Rangers without fear of legal action, the truth is not slander nor libelous.
The same applies to our football authorities who are inadequate in every respect, not fit for purpose and a boil on the backside of Scottish football.
We now have the fall out from the Rangers AGM with the media frantically peddling the Level 5 line.
This sort of blanket exposure is not cheap, a great earner for Level 5, but at huge expense to the football club/company.
We seem to have lost sight of the EBT scandal or been distracted by the media from it.
Let’s be 100% clear here. Regardless of a fresh appeal/ no appeal, tax avoidancd/tax evasion, EBT scheme legal or illegal, none of this matters a jot.
The SFA already have more than enough proof that the EBT payments formed no part of the player contracts lodged with Bryson. Every match that an EBT recipient played in should be voided and awarded 3-0 to the opposing team.
As a result if that means that every trophy won by Rangers shoukd be stripped from them immediately, that means now.
There is absolute no need to wait on the results of an appeal, if any is allowed.
The rules have been broken, not by a simple admin error, missed signature, wrong date on a form, but by deliberate lying and cheating over a decade or more.
This fraud was carried out in the full knowledge of senior officials at the SFA, of that there is no doubt. This could not have happened without the aid and collusion of those officials.
It’s not a judicial enquiry that’s needed, it’s not another LNS pre determined investigation, no it’s a case for Police Scotland, plain and simple.
This is fraud, not some petty crime. Hundreds of thousands of pounds have been gained or lost as a result.
Oh and while the fraud squad are on the job perhaps they could also investigate Res 12, that should take about 10 minutes to establish the facts. Would anyone be surprised to see the same names popping up here as well?
I’ve no idea why Celtic are playing soft ball on this one.
Everyone is aware of the facts, Broadfoot doesn’t even bother to defend the indefendisible anymore. When it’s at the stage where SFA officials stop digging a bigger hole for themselves then the game is well and truly up.
We should not have to wait for Whyte, Green or King to expose the rotten underbelly of our football authorities in the forthcoming series of trials, make no mistake Celtic should call in the police now.
end
LOL
Totally agree Joe, why don’t you give Police Scotland a call see what they say.
Well said Joe.