LFC signed Downing after seeing fake Downing youtube clip...

[juniormember]

Err... So is moneyball based on analyzing endless stats or some dickhead owners seeing some youtube clips and being impressed by CG balls?


http://soccernet.espn.go.com/columns/story/_/id/1013251/off-the-ball:-kevin-prince-boateng-sidelined-by-too-much-sex?cc=4716

Reds paid £20m after seeing fake Downing video


When Off the Ball heard this week that Liverpool decided to fork out £20 million for Stewart Downing after being duped by fake YouTube footage of the winger showing off his skills,
it was instantly dismissed as a huge steaming pile of codswallop. 'Nobody can be that stupid,' we thought.

But after trawling through numerous reports we stumbled across the following quotes from Liverpool chairman Tom Werner and Off the Ball's jaw dropped so far and so fast that we've
had to have it wired back together by a hugely expensive orthognathic surgeon and can only drink soup through a straw for the next two months.

"There was some footage of Stewart where he was, from 30 yards away, kicking a football into five different trash cans and it was brilliant," Werner is quoted as saying in the Liverpool Echo.
"[Liverpool owner] John [Henry] and I said: 'Oh my God, this player is brilliant, we've got to figure out a way to make a deal with him'."

Read that again.

Off the Ball has the telephone number of a good surgeon if you need it.

It was only later that Werner and Henry realised the footage had been digitally enhanced as part of a campaign to boost season ticket sales at Downing's then club Aston Villa. Since moving to
Anfield in the summer, Downing has scored no goals and provided zero assists in 22 Premier League games.

Stewart Downing Pin Point Accuracy

 

[Squiggles]

 

[kingjulian]

It's just a glib comment from the owners....take a chill pill.....

It doesn't mean anything other than "for a moment we thought that video was real"

 

[juniormember]

[quote author=kingjulian link=topic=48486.msg1473273#msg1473273 date=1327857506]
It's just a glib comment from the owners....take a chill pill.....

It doesn't mean anything other than "for a moment we thought that video was real"
[/quote]

I'll have a couple of pills ready when you get your head out of the sand...

Your sentence wasn't complete. "for a moment we thought that video was real... and thought 'Oh my God, this player is brilliant, we've got to figure out a way to make a deal with him'."
Bolded bit being his ACTUAL QUOTE.

I'm not getting excited over this at all. Just feel that they're a lot more amateurish than I'd imagined, coming out with a comment that G&H would have been proud of.

 

[iseered]

You can't possibly be taking these comments seriously. Some people just love being outraged I guess.

 

[gkmacca]

The next time glib Brits claim that Americans don't have a sense of irony, they should be shown these reports. Then beat them about the head and neck with Carry on DVDs and Chuckle Brother annuals and then shove their heads down the loos and flush.

 

[kingjulian]

[quote author=gkmacca link=topic=48486.msg1473313#msg1473313 date=1327861743]
The next time glib Brits claim that Americans don't have a sense of irony, they should be shown these reports. Then beat them about the head and neck with Carry on DVDs and Chuckle Brother annuals and then shove their heads down the loos and flush.
[/quote]

Hahaha...

 

[themn]

Does juniormember work for 'Central News' ?

 

[Farkmaster]

Some guy just died just a few minutes after cutting their fingernails. It clearly killed them.

This makes a great story, and that's about it.

 

[mark1975]

[quote author=juniormember link=topic=48486.msg1473281#msg1473281 date=1327858785]
[quote author=kingjulian link=topic=48486.msg1473273#msg1473273 date=1327857506]
It's just a glib comment from the owners....take a chill pill.....

It doesn't mean anything other than "for a moment we thought that video was real"
[/quote]

I'll have a couple of pills ready when you get your head out of the sand...

Your sentence wasn't complete. "for a moment we thought that video was real... and thought 'Oh my God, this player is brilliant, we've got to figure out a way to make a deal with him'."
Bolded bit being his ACTUAL QUOTE.

I'm not getting excited over this at all. Just feel that they're a lot more amateurish than I'd imagined, coming out with a comment that G&H would have been proud of.
[/quote]

You'd don't half have a habit of getting carried away over stuff.

I'm sure the basis of us signing Downing, who everyone knew and has seen for years, was that we thought that video was real. I mean, just watch Kenny's interviews, be fucking real.

Whether he's been good enough isn't the point, there's no fucking WAY that a deal was struck because of this. And as for the comments, well they're old anyway and the owners (surprise surprise! Being from America and all) are new to the sport, at the end of the day they've provided the funds for the players the manager and staff want to sign, their knowledge of the game is neither here nor there providing they back us where it matters. Didn't G&H bang on about how they'd steeped themselves in the history of the club by watching countless DVD's and reading up everything there was to know? Just goes to show that unless you know and love the sport, it's difficult to really have an understanding of it, but I'm sure they didn't come into the Sport because of their love of the game, at the end of the day. So who gives? As long as they continue to write the cheques and not spin us a load of bullshit, I couldn't give a fuck how mildly cringe-worthy they are or how slightly stupid a few comments may be.

I certainly wouldn't be labelling them 'dickheads' anyway.

 

[the count]

Happy now drama queens?


Werner scotches Downing rumour
Liverpool chairman Tom Werner has described rumours that Liverpool signed Stewart Downing on the basis of a YouTube video as "ridiculous".

Stories this week emerged that Werner and the club's principal owner, John W Henry, decided last summer to push through an eventual £20million deal for the former Aston Villa winger after seeing clips on the internet.

The Liverpool hierarchy were said to have been dazzled by a doctored video featuring Downing slotting balls into five wheelie bins from long range, and quotes from Werner, from a dated interview with Liverpool's television channel, were used to support the story.

But Werner on Sunday dismissed the suggestion and was disappointed key details were left out of the original report.

"Someone told me about this," the American told Liverpool's official website. "It's a great story, but unfortunately for the person who wrote the piece, it isn't true.

"It actually comes from an interview I did five months ago with (Liverpool managing director) Ian Ayre for our club TV channel in which I said that when we first talked about signing Stewart, we'd found a video of him kicking footballs into some trash cans.

"I explained in that interview back in August we knew the footage had been doctored, but I guess that detail doesn't really help stand up the story.

"The amount of people involved and the work that goes into a signing a player is huge so the suggestion that we'd buy someone on the back of one doctored video is ridiculous."

 

[iseered]

[quote author=the count link=topic=48486.msg1473455#msg1473455 date=1327878337]
"The amount of people involved and the work that goes into a signing a player is huge so the suggestion that we'd buy someone on the back of one doctored video is ridiculous."
[/quote]
Well duh. Shame we seem to perform in the transfer market as if the story was true though.

 

[Farkmaster]

So now that this has been predictably rubbished, could anyone explain why it is that supporters actually WANT to believe shit like this?

 

[iseered]

I blame rageaholism.

 

[doctor_mac]

[quote author=Farkmaster link=topic=48486.msg1473521#msg1473521 date=1327898032]
So now that this has been predictably rubbished, could anyone explain why it is that supporters actually WANT to believe shit like this?
[/quote]

It is a fact that people would generally tend to believe the funnier or more sensationalist version of any story, because people like those sorts of stories.

 

[kingjulian]

[quote author=Farkmaster link=topic=48486.msg1473521#msg1473521 date=1327898032]
So now that this has been predictably rubbished, could anyone explain why it is that supporters actually WANT to believe shit like this?
[/quote]

It seems only junior member believed it.

 

[Bradley]

Hope the owners watch some of that Remy dude from youtube. His free kicks are worth £10 alone.

 

[themn]

So I don't get to wave my 'Yankee Dickheads Out !' banner ?

 

[themn]

[quote author=Bradley link=topic=48486.msg1473545#msg1473545 date=1327912249]
Hope the owners watch some of that Remy dude from youtube. His free kicks are worth £10 alone.
[/quote]

Very good.

 

[RedStar]

If he can hit a massive bin from anywhere on the field then how come he has such a problem finding Carroll with the ball

 

[mark1975]

Whooosh!