Rio Ferdinand ‘incident’ masks Joe Cole’s weird Chelsea transfer message

Editor F365
Former Man Utd and England defender Rio Ferdinand

Chelsea are going to struggle to sign good players in the Europa Conference League, but a Rio Ferdinand ‘incident’ is understandably dominating the news.

 

Badge of honour
The performative nonsense of refusing to step on a football club’s badge is on the rise and it is immense fun, making otherwise relatively sensible adult humans seem really quite silly indeed.

The latest example came on Wednesday evening, when Rio Ferdinand posted this on Twitter:

That right there, when put through The Sun website‘s headline churn machine, becomes:

‘Rio Ferdinand orders last minute tweak to BT Sport set as Man Utd legend refuses to disrespect Real Madrid’

And it includes a wonderful line about how this ‘comes just a day after Joao Cancelo avoided stepping on the Manchester City crest on his return to the Etihad’.

Honestly, that ‘just a day after’ is perfect. No notes. But even that has absolutely nothing on this game of spot the difference:

1) ‘The incident came 24 hours after Joao Cancelo opted to not stand on Manchester City ’s badge as he made his first return to the club. The Portuguese youngster was back in Manchester following his loan move to Bayern Munich in the January window’ – Ben Husband, Daily Mirror website, 19.14pm.

2) ‘The incident came 24 hours after Joao Cancelo opted to not stand on Manchester City’s badge as he made his first return to the club.

‘The Portuguese youngster was back in Manchester following his loan move to Bayern Munich in the January window’ – David Wood, MailOnline, 00.36am.

That paragraph break nearly had us fooled. But come on, ‘the incident’!? ’24 hours after’? Majestic. And the subsequent description of 28-year-old father Cancelo as ‘the Portuguese youngster’? *Chef’s kiss*.

 

Chelsea dagger
It was during his punditry duty on BT Sport when Joe Cole said the following:

“We are not talking about ‘who do Chelsea get’, we’re talking ‘who wants to go to Chelsea’ if they are playing in the Europa Conference League? We have to be honest.”

Playing in the Champions League doesn’t seem to have helped them all that much in the transfer market.

And Chelsea were, of course, absolutely knackered the last time they failed to qualify for Europe. They only managed to bring in N’Golo Kante, Marcos Alonso and David Luiz in a summer which transformed them into Premier League champions.

Once more for those in the back: pretending that clubs out of Europe or in a lesser competition than the Champions League will struggle to attract the necessary calibre of player is daft.

 

Kepa of the keys
‘Dani Carvajal curled a superb pass into the path of the Vinicius Jr, who sprinted on to it and flung his left foot at it, guiding it towards the corner of the goal. Kepa Arrizabalaga got down brilliantly to push it away but it rolled into the path of Benzema, who tapped it in’ – Oliver Holt, Daily Mail.

How ‘brilliant’ it was for Kepa to palm a shot straight into the path of Benzema about six yards out.

 

Lang story short
When the Daily Mirror website tells us that ‘Cristiano Ronaldo’s dressing room ally at Man Utd struggling without him,’ the world listens.

The player in question is Anthony Elanga, who is yet to score in 24 appearances this season, most of which have come as a substitute.

And it is a shame to see him ‘struggling without’ Ronaldo. Because apparently Elanga – scorer of three goals in 27 games under Ralf Rangnick last season – was thriving with the Portuguese youngster guiding him.

 

Bale house rock
Sticking with the Daily Mirror website, it seems like a curious time to say ‘Gareth Bale’s reaction when arriving at Man Utd training ground spoke volumes,’ but still. Speaking volumes is the currency right now and they are cashing in.

Except while Bale’s reaction when arriving at Man Utd training ground spoke volumes, he didn’t speak any actual words on the matter. His reaction – and thus the entire crux of this story – was thus:

‘The winger was at the time strongly linked with a move to United and looked both delighted and very much at home while on the club’s training ground.’

Player who really enjoyed representing Wales enjoyed himself while representing Wales.

The only quotes are from Ryan Giggs talking in general terms at the time about a training camp from four years ago. Do the Mirror not know the international break is over and they don’t have to force it quite so much anymore?

Gareth Bale holds a Wales flag up

 

Show and Telles
Completing the Daily Mirror website hat-trick is this:

‘Man Utd star who sparked training brawl returns after being axed by Erik ten Hag’

It’s Alex Telles, whose loan club Sevilla will face Man Utd in the Europa League on Thursday. And sometimes you just have to applaud the clicky sh*thousing.

 

Why you gotta be so Jude?
‘Man Utd told exactly how much it’ll cost to secure Jude Bellingham transfer with Liverpool out of race for Dortmund star’ – The Sun website headline.

‘MANCHESTER UNITED and Manchester City will have to pay as much as £130million to land Jude Bellingham’ – the first paragraph to Ken Lawrence’s exclusive.

Not sure you can claim to reveal ‘exactly how much’ Bellingham will cost if you then say clubs ‘will have to pay as much as’ a certain figure.

Mediawatch Rio Ferdinand