This is what happens when BBC Sport employs kids – Absolutely embarrassing | OneFootball

I have written about this before on The Mag, the plummeting ‘quality’ of the standard on BBC Sport.

The cynical chase for money (see below) at the expense of credibility.

As well as that cynical chase for the cash, the actual ‘journalism’ just gets ever worse.

This is what you get when BBC Sport employs kids (***Obviously I am not referring to using child labour here! I am using ‘kids’ here as in very young clueless journalists who are clearly in their 20s, as opposed to proper experienced journos who know their stuff), absolutely embarrassing.

The BBC Sport journalist tasked with doing a write up after Newcastle 5 Crystal Palace 0, wrote this…

‘The Magpies, who have already qualified for the Europa Conference League with their Carabao Cup victory, are five points clear of sixth-placed Chelsea and well placed to make it to Europe’s elite club competition.

They visit seventh-placed Aston Villa on Saturday before games against Ipswich, Brighton, Chelsea, Arsenal and Everton, and remain on course to at least match their best-ever Premier League finish of third from 2002-03, especially with their front three in such fine fettle.’

If you are clueless and have no idea what you are writing about on the subject you are tasked with (Newcastle United!), then at least check your facts.

The ‘fact’ that somebody is given a prominent public role on BBC Sport as a journalist, who isn’t even aware that Newcastle United finished runners-up in 1996/97 and 1997/78, is embarrassing enough. However, to then not even check to see if what you are claiming (best ever PL finish of third in 2002/03, which coincidentally also happened in 1993/94) is true, is beyond woeful. Again though, if BBC Sport are employing clueless kids and are allowing such low standards, why should you be surprised?

I think fair to say then that this BBC Sport journalist won’t even have heard of Kevin Keegan, if he knows nothing of what happened in the 1990s at Newcastle United. Totally unaware of KK as a player and manager, Keegan winning it all back in the day as a player, European Cups and League titles, the only Englishman to pick up the Ballon d’Or best player in the world award twice.

I know it is not just this clown who doesn’t realise football existed before the 1990s (well the 2000s in his case!), but it is still horrific this obsession with wanting to ignore everything that happened before the Premier League era. For example, the fact that along with Aston Villa, before we got into the 1970s, Newcastle United and they (Villa) were the two most successful clubs in the history of English football. Newcastle United’s trophy haul including four top tier titles, not a best ever third.

Sadly, this is just yet another example of the plummeting standards at BBC Sport…

There was a time when the BBC Sport site represented quality, something you could rely on in a sea of overwhelmingly online nonsense.

Sadly, that boat sailed long ago.

If anything sums up their standards falling off the edge of a cliff, it is the BBC Sport transfer gossip page.

Where they cynically repeat a load of absolute transfer nonsense produced by media/websites specialising in…transfer nonsense.

Media/sites from home and abroad.

It doesn’t matter to BBC Sport, they will publish any old nonsense from anywhere.

The fact is, the transfer gossip page is the most popular thing on BBC Sport.

A lot of people totally unaware that BBC Sport make serious money from it, if you visit their transfer gossip page from abroad you get served with adverts, as indeed you do with anything else on BBC Sport if viewing from another country.

No wonder BBC Sport are prepared to publish their transfer gossip nonsense, they have massive incentives to do so, now that they don’t care about upholding the standards that built their reputation in the past.

BBC Sport journalist writing after Newcastle 5 Crystal Palace 0:

Examples are below of their cynical transfer gossip pushing rubbish.

Their latest one though went up at 9am this morning, only hours after Newcastle smashed Palace 5-0 to go third in the table and massive favourites now to get Champions League football, on top of that trophy win last month.

Yet BBC Sport think it is appropriate to put this cynical nonsense up, knowing fine well it has zero substance:

So, ‘Juventus line up Tonali move’…

The Italian media run this story on a daily basis, Tonali going to move back to play in Serie A, not because they (Italian media) believe it is going to happen, but because they know the football fans in Italy want it to happen, so they cynically run the story day after day AND BBC Sport cynically repeat that bogus reporting on a regular basis.

Sandro Tonali is now the best midfielder in the Premier League, is on a lengthy contract at NUFC who would refuse to sell him anyway, is at a club now winning silverware and set to play in the Champions League again, yet all of these laughable Italian media stories will talk of him having a valuation now of £50m-£55m, the same (£55m) or even less than Newcastle paid for Tonali two years ago when he was unproven in the Premier League. The reason they refuse to give his true valuation (£100m+) in these ridiculous zero substance return to Serie A tales, is because of course they (Italian media) and the Italian football fans know that no Serie A club could afford Sandro Tonali’s transfer fee (f for some bizarre reason NUFC were willing to sell), never mind his wages on top.

For those who say that BBC Sport are only repeating transfer gossip, I would say why are BBC Sport doing so (for money!), why is it acceptable (it isn’t)? As I said earlier, BBC Sport used to represent the highest standards, now by pushing this baseless nonsense they are no better than the gutter press and clickbait transfer stories (that BBC Sport repeat simply to make money!) dreamt up by ‘journalists’ employed to simply make transfer stories up.

What about this previous BBC Sport nonsense on Alexander Isak – 18 February 2025:

Other previous BBC Sport nonsense on Alexander Isak – 18 February 2025:

It is relentless from BBC Sport, these are only some of numerous past examples of shameful embarrassing speculation that has zero basis in truth.

What about this on Monday 24 March 2025, at it again as usual, this was their ‘top’ main story on the BBC Sport transfer gossip page:

This is what BBC Sport actually say in this latest ‘top’ story on Newcastle United and Alexander Isak:

‘Newcastle striker Alexander Isak would prefer a move to Liverpool over Barcelona, Kevin De Bruyne holds talks with San Diego, while Harry Kane is considering leaving Bayern Munich for Liverpool.

Newcastle striker Alexander Isak is open to a move to Barcelona but would prefer to join Liverpool if they make a move for the 25-year-old Sweden international this summer. (El Nacional – in Spanish)’

Where is the BBC Sport integrity, does anybody seriously believe for one second that this random website in Spain had the faintest idea of what Alexander Isak is thinking???

They (the random Spanish site) are just cynically making this nonsense up to try and get attention/clicks, then even more embarrassing is the fact that BBC Sport are prepared to do the same. They know fully well that this is just part of an endless production line of made up Alexander Isak headlines and stories, simply to try and get those clicks and bank the money.

It is quite sickening that BBC Sport are more than happy to do the same, repeating and running these baseless transfer rubbish stories day after day, simply to get the attention, the clicks and the money.

It also feels like a concerted effort from those at BBC Sport to try and unsettle Alexander Isak and destabilise things at Newcastle United.

What exactly is their justification for running countless negative Newcastle United headlines and stories? Especially when they know fine well that pretty much all of it is groundless invention.

Do BBC Sport or indeed anybody else, truly believe that these random sites have ‘sources’ with confidential information on what Alexander Isak intends to do? The thing is, these sites claim the same on pretty much every club, every player, their sources/sauces telling them whatever.

The trouble is, people read this rubbish on BBC Sport and because that is where they see it, so many of them see it as then having credibility. I regularly speak to other Newcastle fans who come out with ridiculous stuff that they have ‘heard’ is going to happen and so often it ends up they are then quoting what they have read on BBC Sport.

Newcastle United fans and those of other English clubs, also make the fatal mistake of believing that media in other countries is better than what we have here, that they don’t go to the same desperate lengths of clickbait and so on.

Sadly, they are at least as bad in the likes of Spain, Italy and so on.

As summed up by that one from Spain above that BBC Sport was shamelessly pushing.

What makes me laugh even more with this embarrassing nonsense from BBC Sport. Is that as well as pushing these fictional NUFC stories on their main transfer gossip page, they then also put those clickbait Newcastle United going to sell Isak, Bruno, Tonali, Gordon, whoever on the dedicated BBC Sport Newcastle United page as well!

So as an NUFC fan, you go on BBC Sport and click on their Newcastle United page, then this is what you get, ridiculous fantasy tales of how Newcastle are going to sell our very best players to countless supposed clubs, at often ludicrously low claimed transfer fee prices.

Newcastle 5 Crystal Palace 0 – Wednesday 16 April 2025 7.30pm

(Stats via BBC Sport)

Goals:

Newcastle United:

Murphy 14, Guehi OG 38, Barnes 45+2, Schar 45+8, Isak 58

Palace@

Possession was Newcastle 60% Palace 40%

Total shots were Newcastle 14 Palace 11

Shots on target were Newcastle 7 Palace 4

Corners were Newcastle 5 Palace 4

Touches in the box Newcastle 18 Palace 28

Newcastle team v Palace:

Pope, Trippier (Krafth 79), Schar, Burn, Livramento, Joelinton (Willock 62), Tonali, Bruno (Longstaff 72), Barnes, Isak (Wilson 72), Murphy (Gordon 62)

Unused subs:

Dubravka, Targett, Osula, Miley

(Match Report – JT’s Mags, Here to compete – Read HERE)

(BBC Sport comments from ‘neutrals’ – Interesting on Newcastle United after 5-0 v Crystal Palace – Read HERE)