Liverpool Echo - The Reliable Source It Once Was?

Ever since Bascombe left I feel the Echo has really gone down hill in it's coverage of Liverpool FC. I haven't forgotten the sensationalist manner in which Tony Barrett reported the whole Rafa/Hicks debacle in the middle of the season, at a time when the national media were stirring the pot enough & we could have really done without it.

The latest story today is this:

Liverpool tell John Arne Riise he will be sold

May 30 2008
by Tony Barrett, Liverpool Echo
 
JOHN ARNE RIISE has been told he will be sold this summer should Liverpool receive a suitable offer for his services.

The out of favour left back claims he is in the dark about what lies in store for him at Anfield, even though the ECHO understands Riise has already been informed that he has no future at the club.

In an interview with a Scandinavian newspaper Riise revealed he has instructed his agent to speak to the club on his behalf in a last ditch attempt to find out whether or not he has any chance of extending his Liverpool career to an eighth season.

“My agent is set to find out what is happening,” he said. “I have to get things sorted out before pre-season starts.

“Those who have played internationals are due to meet up on July 7. I can’t wait and wait for an answer. I have to get an answer now.”

With Rafa Benitez already in the market for a new left back, the promising Emiliano Insua emerging from the reserve ranks and Brazilian Fabio Aurelio now back to full fitness, the likelihood is that Riise has played his last game for Liverpool and will be sold this summer.

Several clubs are interested in signing the Norwegian, although the Reds are yet to receive a firm offer.

This to me just stinks of more lazy sensationalist journalism, not what we've come to expect from the Echo over the years. It has an attention grabbing headline & opening statement, but when you actually read the article there is no evidence to support the original claim that the club has 'told' him he will be sold.

There was a time you could guarantee if something about the club was written in the Echo then it was gonna happen, but that no longer seems to be the case. Is it just me, or has the publication indeed gone down a step or two in terms of its reporting?
 

I aren't a long time reader of the Liverpool Echo, I only started following it's articles since I have been posting on this forum, so I can only fairly comment on recent stories. I agree however with your "dissection" of this one: the headline is bold and attention grabbing, which also is mis-leading when we read further into the actual facts. Further, the headline itself is deliberately portraying the club in a negative light regarding it's treatment of Riise without any genuine reason to do so.

Many players come to the end, or latter stages, of their contracts and unfortunately they are not renewed as the clubs needs have changed or evolved. Yes, Liverpool are looking to sell Riise should the right offer come in, but if Riise needs any further clarification of the situation he should just address the club or manager directly instead of the papers, he'd be more likely to find his answers there. All the rest is just blah-blah to make a story more interesting.

I hope The Echo will return to writing decent articles based on facts instead of this kind of Cinderella crap about "poor" Riise vs. nasty Liverpool FC.

I think the contents of the Riise story are common knowledge and Riise will indeed go if a suitable offer comes in but nobody at the club is going to make such a public statement about him going while he still under contract. Well Rafa would be the first to anyway and I believe he would only do this having received a direct bid. Otherwise he compromises his own position should an offer not come in. His place is obviously under threat and I can defo see him goin.

As for the Echo, I'd still trust it as the first line of accurate News for LFC but at the same time you have to understand they need to sell papers also and so will have the occasion story pulled from the tabloids.

By the sounds of it you're well used to the Echo's coverage and like myself you know what to look for amongst stories to deem if there is any ellement of fact about them or they are mere speculation.

I dont think its changed much since Bascombe's days but maybe we just dont trust Bascombe's replacement as much yet, and for that matter maybe Tony Barrett at the same time does not have as many connections as Bascombe once had.

I dont think its changed much since Bascombe's days but maybe we just dont trust Bascombe's replacement as much yet, and for that matter maybe Tony Barrett at the same time does not have as many connections as Bascombe once had.

I'd say it's probably the latter mate. Maybe I am just taking a rose tinted view of the past, but it genuinely does seem to me that the reporting isn't what it once used to be. If it is a case of Barrett not having the connections that Bacombe did, or indeed possibly G+H having stopped the club feeding any news to the Echo, then speculation is all he'd have to go on really I suppose. Still I don't like to read stories like the one posted above, with a headline that says one thing but content that doesn't say the same, I've come to expect it from the tabloids but don't expect to see it written in the Echo.

I always said Tony Barrett was a c**t. 

No I whole heatedly agree.  The Echo was always the paper that got the story first, and that they normally got it spot on.  Not anymore.

Chris Bascombe couldn't even be brought back after the embarrassment he has put on himself by joining The Sun on Sunday (NOTW).  We need a good reporter that is reliable because it's just not the F***ing case anymore.

Even if he buys Liverpool fans pints, he's still a lazy self centered pr**k.  And I stand by that.  He needs to pull his head out of his arse, because half of his columns and news reports are not even worth glancing at anymore.

Maybe a little harsh with your choice of words there Court (pot, kettle, black, I know), I'm not too sure how much of it is Tony Barrett's fault, he is expected to write something & if he doesn't have anything solid he will have to go with speculation. He should really steer away from misleading headlines like the one above though, if it's speculation then he should make it clear, rather than posting an attention grabber like that & then offering nothing to back it up in the article.

Tony Barrett is a great writer, but he's just hampered because he doesn't have the same contacts within the club that Chris Bascombe had. 

i dont like how he says that Riise CLAIMS to be unsure of his future while LFC has apparently told the 'obviously unsensationalist' journo that they informed Riise he's a goner. hmmmmm dont like thisa kind of sports journalism. belongs in the S*N newspaper were no red will have to see it

The only thing i trust in the Liverpool Echo is John Aldo"s column. Always gives his personal view in full, doesnt hide behind anything or try to glaze over a bad situation. He writes like a rea fan, and the Echo should hire more of the Aldo type. No maybe or ifs with him. Straight to the point.

The Liverpool Echo and the Liverpool Daily Post usually go hand in hand and in the past have been reliable sources for LFC News however I was dissapointed to read in the Post last Thursday morning that once we have Barry sorted we'll be going for Bentley.

Then later in the afternoon I read in the Echo that despite speculation the Echo believes Rafa Benitez is not interested in David Bentley!

Contradicting stories from basically the same source