You are suggesting that the Guardian, home of the feminista, is no longer the highly moral and responsible paper it used to be if the management of LFC can manipulate its reporters with biased facts to help the club to achieve its aims.
I was talking about a proper study that looked at the entire football media to see if in deed there were any correlation between transfer stories published and them actually happening. Google it and you can see for yourself. I can't remember it all off the top of my head but I remember Guardian was ranked statistically the paper that had the biggest success rate (about 30-40% I think) and that Talksport (and I think The Mirror) scored 0%.
The Guardian has no reason to help any club but they have an editorial policy that is strict so if they are told about a bid or move by an Agent they want run it unless the CE0 or Chairman of the club corroborates the story. Indeed the club officials are obviously going to tell them what's beneficial to them, and put their own slant on it, but this doesn't change the quality of the source therefore it is printed. Guardian has no bias to any club. They are used by every club equally in the same way to get THEIR propaganda out-there too.
How do you think they were first to know about Saints rejecting both bids from Utd and LFC and made it clear that the Saints board wanted significantly more money as they really wanted to keep both players? Thats the Saints board using the paper for their advantage too, as both of those articles were very pro-Saints' position (but they obviously then went back to LFC/MUFC chiefs, had rejection confirmed and seems were told by both clubs they would bid higher in due course coz that wouldn't come from Saints as its not in their interests business wise nor is it what they want their fans to read as it just continues the uncertainty).
EVERY club does it. They negotiate through the media basically and the Agents. Been going on since the beginning of the Professional game. I was within that industry (but not as a Journalist I must add) for years until I was able to get out and used to get told all this by the Journo's who worked alongside me who dealt with their local clubs. People think, due to the money involved, its way more sophisticated than this but it isn't. Its THIS basic. Why do you think on FM2014 you can leak info about targets to the media? Because its the STANDARD way of doing business.
Also 'tapping up' doesn't exist. There hasn't been a deal completed in a decade were the player wanted's Agent hasn't been sounded out first to make sure the player is even interested first. This area isn't anything like Footy Manager but thats coz they want the charade to be perpetuated. I don't know why but you'll never get a club official/player/Agent in the game currently who'll go on record and admit this. Its bizarre. Some of it is because, theoretically, there's a chance they could get in a lot of trouble for doing it despite every club acting this way. All aspects of the deal are negotiated informally and only when everything is agreed in principle, THEN the first (and only) 'formal' offer in writing is made for the records/admin.
In terms of Lallana and Shaw if I had to guess what happens next I would say its one of two things. Either something will be leaked to the press by players Agent(s) that makes it crystal clear they want out trying to make their position at the Club (mainly with fans) untenable and put pressure on Saints to do a deal, but will stop short of putting anything formally in writing to the club. Alternatively playrs may decide they can't go this far with the club and the fans so they will back down or agree to stay and this too will be done through the Papers. I reckon something along either these lines will happen within the next week. Just an educated guess though.
Like I said in my post in this thread before this one, keep an eye on the Journalists and their papers between now and the World Cup and you'll certainly get the LFC side of what's happening and it should make things clearer. I imagine Saints will alsv have their 'favoured' Journalists who get the inside track from them. Probably a guy at the BBC or a Broadsheet and Local paper like our Liverpool Echo. You should see both sides using their favoured Journos/papers to get their propaganda/PR/Marketing out.
