Idiot Wind

Journalistic standards on television are not relevant in today's world. In fact, we're not getting much journalism on television - we're getting entertainment and therapy and voyeurism, but not credibility, restraint when necessary and a fundamental belief that there's a difference between reporting the news and leaving the camera turned on. Football agents are crass, venal, opportunistic and self-promoting. They have too much money, bend the rules and are in many cases pathological narcissists. So when the two worlds collide, as they did outside Upton Park this afternoon, the result is a particularly unedifying experience.

West Ham had called an official press conference to introduce new signing Lucas Neill and confirm the capture of Spanish loan signer Kepa Blanco. The main event was then reduced to a sideshow when Tony Finnigan arrived and loudly announced to the assembled journalists that he was Reo-Coker’s representative and was here for a meeting. Premeditated and meticulously stage-managed for maximum exposure, Finnigan emerged several hours later to grandiosely inform the press that his client intends to “give his all as he always does in the next 14 games and at the end of the season we will have a look at it.” It’s nice to know our club captain has every intention of giving his best on the pitch for at least the next 14 games of his lengthy and very lucrative contract. If that constitutes news then we are in even more trouble than I thought.