Roddy Forsyth. Aaaah.
There’s a name that conjures up thoughts of Sunday mornings.
Old time ones, when I was often so hungover I couldn’t get out of bed except to crawl to the bathroom to be sick. I think it’s fair to say I will never be a fan. Reading him is oftentimes worse than reading Michael Gannon; you can actually feel IQ points being deleted in your brain.
Today’s article, in The Telegraph, is a beauty. Even if the paper were not a right-wing rag, I would not pay for a subscription whilst Forsyth was working in the building. (Another good step might be getting rid of their two ex “Labour” eejits, my former local MP and preening prat Tom Harris and the unbearable but unintentionally hilarious John McTernan, a man who is to political campaigns what Ally McCoist was to football management.)
Let me tell you why the article is so bad.
It starts out with a precis of where we are in regards to Stuart Armstrong; nowhere, although Brendan is now at the end of his patience and wants the matter resolved. There’s nothing new in those paragraphs; they could have been copy and paste jobs.
The next bit is, and with an anti-Celtic twist.
The next section focuses on our alleged fear of losing Kieran Tierney – where you have to ignore the manager’s actual words to arrive at the point Forsyth is making – which is that giving him the captains armband in midweek was part of a desperate bid to keep him from the hovering clubs in England, not one of whom, by the way, has actually made a bid.
You can tie that section to the first part of the piece, on Armstrong, where the intent is quite obvious; our midfielder is fraying under the speculation. The objective is to try to push Kieran into the same self-doubts and concerns. Nice try.
It then highlights our impressive start to the season, but notes that, in fact, we’re not top of the league as Hibs have scored more away from home. Except Hibs are third. It’s St Johnstone who sit in front of us at the moment. The fact-checker must be on holiday.
It then veers into a defence of Sevco’s performance yesterday, highlighting the red card as a turning point. Here’s my favourite bit; it says “Hibs capitalised on their numerical superiority when Simon Murray broke from space to elude James Tavernier for a low strike beyond Wes Foderingham.” Except that Hibs’ equaliser was before the red card …
Blame that on the fact-checker too? Or is it what it looks like; a brazen attempt to spin a dire performance and ignore the fact Hibs were on the ascendancy before Jack was sent to the stand? Does it really matter?
What newspaper which respected its audience allowed that to go to print?
It’s amazing that you can fit so much into a 500 word piece, but he manages it and congratulations to him for it. He’s one of those guys who can’t hide his bitterness for very long, or his allegiances. He wears them out there, on his sleeve.
This is why Dave King trusts him so, why he’s always on the guest list for the wee sit downs and private briefings. For the rest of us, he’s another bitter hack living on that most obvious wishful thinking trip of all, that our squad will be dismantled and our manager will get so sick of it that he’ll head for the hills.
Keep on dreaming folks.