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The “£6 Million Offer For Barrie McKay” Story Has Been Blown. Shame. It Was Comedy Gold.

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Continuing my focus on the journalistic standards at The Daily Record, what a joy it is to read a story that doesn’t make me furious but instead forces me to confront the fact that there are one or two talented people at that paper.

When it comes to comedy writing a few have a real, genuine gift.

The story today about Barrie McKay is a case in point.

That story has just been blown apart. What a pity. It was a beauty.

Before I start, I want to say that I find it amusing to note how many people are advising the player to move to Germany if the offer comes along. I said this almost never happens with Sevco players whereas Celtic players have to listen to it all the time. But this doesn’t prove that the media is unbiased; in fact, it reveals how desperate for money Sevco actually is. This effort to hawk their one saleable asset is transparent and should infuriate their fans.

When their fans begged RB Leipzig to pump money into the club I’m not convinced that this is the way they had in mind. A big offer for their best player? Definitely not part of the plan. They wanted bankrolled and for stars to be brought in. They should be so lucky. Neither of those things – the sugar daddy owner or the big transfer offer – is going to happen. The story has more holes in it than a UKIP manifesto. The whole thing stinks of a PR man’s sweat.

I read the piece, chortling away, yes even on the day Donald Trump is sworn in to the most powerful office on the planet. I laughed because sometimes you just have to, because the world is less bitter (or at least seems less bitter) when you do. But I also did it because the article was genuinely funny; comedy gold like this doesn’t come along often and I speak as someone who was in London last weekend watching the geniuses of Impractical Jokers.

Well I am assured that The Record’s piece was meant in all seriousness.

Nothing that I can write sums up the weirdness of that paper’s editorial policy than that.

The article talks about “sources at Leipzig.” So The Record has sources like that, does it?

That explains how they missed the Twitter past of their latest crack reporter. No sources in Scotland, then, but all across the remainder of the world. Like their “sources in Spain” who said Madrid and Barcelona wanted big Moussa last month. Wow.

Notice that aside from these “sources” there are no direct quotes from anyone at either club.

I’m not suggesting that the writer made this stuff up, but when you consider some of the trash that papers has printed over the last couple of years how could we tell? Do they even have a “fact checking” process over there, or is it like the saying says; “don’t let them get in the way of a good story”?

We know now there were precious little facts in it, save for that Leipzig do indeed play in Germany and they did, in fact, skelp Sevco 4-0.

The article says McKay was the “most impressive” of their players in the one sided beating Leipzig gave them in last week’s friendly. That wouldn’t be hard, considering the utterly shambolic nature of the display. It could have a double digits defeat. Apparently it prompted Leipzig to “look into his contract situation.” That must have taken about 60 seconds, and the information is freely available online for anyone who wants to look for it.

This is where it gets surreal though.

“McKay is the right age and with only 18 months left on his contract at Rangers he could be available at the right price. Leipzig believe they could get this player for somewhere between £5m and £7m. For that sort of money this would seem like a sensible investment.”

Now, either The Record’s reporter was knocking back too much of the old cough medicine or the “Leipzig source” was. Paying that kind of fee for someone who has one good game in five, on the basis of a single viewing in a match his club lost 4-0, and when he has 18 months left on his contract which is held by a club that is skint and would chain the negotiator to a radiator until the cheque cleared if he offered even a third of that … it’s a sensible investment?

I mean, really. Who believes this cobblers?

This paragraph might give you a clue as to what’s really going on.

“McKay has only 18 months left on his Rangers deal and Rangnick believes he can get in ahead of any bidders down south by making an offer now rather than waiting for the market to open up again in the summer …”

This is an effort to start a bidding war.

A poor one. A pitiful one.

But that’s what it is.

It’s also an attempt to bump someone into making a bid now, rather than wait until the guy only has a year left on his deal. Because at that point the clock is ticking until he leaves for free and the club would want to get something – anything – for him before that happened.

Nobody really believes any club, anywhere, will pay £6 million for Barrie McKay; indeed Sky confirms they’ve had no offers for him at all, but his club is desperate to bring in cash for someone and they think a couple of weeks of positive coverage for this guy has opened up possibilities. It hasn’t.

Because even as I was writing this The Record story was being shot full of holes.

Someone on the internet, claiming to be a Scottish journalist (I bet he didn’t say he worked at The Record though) has actually gotten a response from the German club which confirms that the story is garbage. I would advise them not to start a mole hunt to find the “source.”

He’s not in Germany. I suspect, instead, that he’s propping up a bar in some Bridgeton Cross dive, probably mourning the loss of his writing job.

Or didn’t you hear?

The Record has dispensed with Mr Alan Clark’s services following today’s revelations about his Twitter past.

I won’t comment on that except to say they ought to consider sacking, instead, the person who gave him the gig in the first place.

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