The Press meeting before a game

David Edgar said:
The problem is, as has been mentioned before, is that people think press conferences are robust exchanges of views. They are not. They are totally controlled, obligatory PR events.

If you ask a question a manager doesn’t want to answer, he won’t answer it. It’s that simple.

If you start ranting after a defeat (which is what people really want when they come out with the disingenuous ‘difficult questions’ line) you will literally be ignored, it will be clipped by opponents of the club and fans of other clubs will piss themselves laughing at it.

I very rarely go to press conferences because they are generally the same thing. All that comes out of a presser of note is injuries/squad.

These threads should be titled ‘I’m in the huff about our form and upset that nobody has told the manager I hate player X and Y’.
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Spot on. This notion that fan media don't ask difficult questions, is bullshit as well. I always point to the Motherwell draw a couple seasons ago. 2 nil up and drew 2-2 late on. It stands out because everyone was fuming after the game.

Manager was asked directly about the lack of mentality in the squad, why he played Lundstram out of position, why he took so long to make subs and the mistakes Allan McGregor was making.

All of them asked by fan media outlets. All of them swatted away by Gio.

These guys are completely schooled. They will give nothing away they don't want to.
 
mdingwall said:
I wasn't there yesterday - I was in a dentist's chair having x-rays and for Friday's press conference I will be back in said chair having a temp crown fitted.
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Mark. You have more important stuff to do than sitting in a comfy chair and that is ministering to us poor souls. Ignore the pain and get back out there. bleeding wuss… :)) B-D
 
Press conferences are maybe the biggest waste of time for any sports team. Just release a post on social media listing the injuries a la NFL teams having to update their injury list every day. Only thing people care about.
 
"Am I going to drop Tav and Goldson? Aye, mate, I haven't told them yet, but I'm going to tell you. Would you like the team now as well? I mean, yeah I'm going to drop the club captain, who single handedly dragged us back into the Kilmarnock away game, oh and scored the only goal in our Cup Final this season"
 
Crown_Defender said:
Spot on. This notion that fan media don't ask difficult questions, is bullshit as well. I always point to the Motherwell draw a couple seasons ago. 2 nil up and drew 2-2 late on. It stands out because everyone was fuming after the game.

Manager was asked directly about the lack of mentality in the squad, why he played Lundstram out of position, why he took so long to make subs and the mistakes Allan McGregor was making.

All of them asked by fan media outlets. All of them swatted away by Gio.

These guys are completely schooled. They will give nothing away they don't want to.
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Agree - as David said - it's just an obligatory media session. Reality is there isn't really a format to ask difficult questions and then have a chance to follow up. Look at the farce of the Q&A at the AGM.
 
thevietnambear said:
Do any of the people who attend actually ask any difficult questions.
At times you can't even hear what the question is.
Anybody attended on of these meetings.
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Still waiting on one of them asking Clement his thoughts on our complete inability to take a decent corner or attack the ball if we do get one?
 
SuperGers07 said:
Tav won’t be dropped. He has good faith in the bank.


But there’s absolutely no reason why Goldson should continue in the line up. He’s regressed massively this season.

Parting of the ways in summer best for all
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Despite his deficiencies, Tav is still capable of big moments, in big games.

Goldson isn't...
 
I'd love somebody to ask a question about dropping Tav and Goldson and then get Clement's death stare for about 15 seconds :D

I don't disagree about Goldson though, problem is who would buy him in the summer? he's on stupid wages more likely and I don't think too many PL teams are going to be looking in his direction
 
David Edgar said:
The problem is, as has been mentioned before, is that people think press conferences are robust exchanges of views. They are not. They are totally controlled, obligatory PR events...These threads should be titled ‘I’m in the huff about our form and upset that nobody has told the manager I hate player X and Y’.
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Based on the fact the OP's recently posted in the Lounge telling people not to go to Spain and is now telling people who are at press conferences how to interview people maybe a better one might be:

"Think I am externalizing. Anyone know a good psychiatrist?" B-D
 
Rangers_2001 said:
I think folk expected fan media to go in and start asking ridiculous questions like you mention above. As you say, if you don’t toe the party line you will just be ignored. Not much you can do about it really.
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It’s nothing to do with “toeing the party line” there is no party line, there’s not rules laid out in advance (except for written press embargos) it’s about being sensible and asking a question that’s going to get the most concise answer and more of the managers time. That’s the only value in attending.

Asking something stupid just cos FF want to hear something negative about Goldson asked etc is just going to get no answer and is a waste of everyone’s time most importantly mine.
 
MrStruth said:
Still waiting on one of them asking Clement his thoughts on our complete inability to take a decent corner or attack the ball if we do get one?
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Then you don’t watch the press conferences. He’s been asked about corners several times over the last few months and even about a set-piece coach.

So I think what you mean is ‘I haven’t seen it’ but it’s easier to come on and claim people aren’t asking things they quite literally are.

www.rangersreview.co.uk

Clement on why he won't employ set-piece coach and why Butland deserves England call

Read every word the Rangers manager had to say ahead of the trip to Perth to face St Johnstone.
www.rangersreview.co.uk www.rangersreview.co.uk
 

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thevietnambear said:
Maybe Stevie could have asked are you dropping Tav & Goldson directly.
To me thats a Fan media question most want to know.
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Come on now.

So you want them to ask questions that are disrespectful to the manager and put him in a position where he might paint himself into a corner, lose the dressing room or ultimately make an arse if himself in public? And that's FAN media?

Look at it from another perspective. If the tims fan media were asking Rodgers "difficult" questions and he was giving answers that end up looking bad for him or his team, either in the moment or in hindsight, we'd be laughing our arses off and winding them up over it.

You want our own fan media basically being confrontational and snidey with the manager every time there's a bad result?

If you asked anyone on here a few weeks ago about the title race you'd get the "a few twists and turns to go" answer.

Well, Sunday was a twist and here we are having a tantrum because we really meant "the tims might drop unexpected points but we better not".

If the manager publicly throws Goldson or Tav under the bus now then we really can forget about it. Who would even replace them in the team anyway?
 
David Edgar said:
I once asked Walter privately why he kept picking certain players during a rough spell in his second time as boss. He looked at me as if I was stupid and said witheringly ‘because I think they’ll help us win the game. Is it no obvious?’

That really is the reason. And managers aren’t going to walk away from a presser saying ‘I was going to pick this player but that guy just told me some folk on FF don’t want me to so I won’t now’.
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At least you never got the "what kind of question is that?, were you up aw night thinking that up? Are you telling me that X,Y players are no good enough...Ffs, Archie!!! come and listen tae this!!":))
 
legalbeagle said:
Particularly with Tavernier, the attitude towards our captain, and clearly our best player is utterly extraordinary.
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The last 10 days has really shown up all the people who have an irrational dislike for him. It's almost been like an explosion of pent up frustration as he's not done anything for them to have a go at him for quite a long time, and now it's all came bursting out.
 
RangersLad1983 said:
If you heard him he is not dropping his captain,he said he had a bad game against Ross County and Tav knows he had but no mention of his usual nightmare against the scum,every time me we play them.
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Could you genuinely imagine Clement coming out and saying "He has had a bad game on Sunday and as usual he never plays well against Celtic and that's why we never win anything."

You say no mention of his performances against the tims as though you really think the manager should be out there slaughtering the players like he's posting on an FF matchday thread.

We already know these players aren't good enough. Do we really need the manager to spell it out in a press conference for us?

Or would it be better for the manager to actually protect his players and try to boost their confidence as best as he can?

I would argue that the manager HAS to back his players publicly. That's actually part of the job, I would say.
 
thevietnambear said:
Maybe Stevie could have asked are you dropping Tav & Goldson directly.
To me thats a Fan media question most want to know.
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Goldson I get as his form is rotten and has been for months to the point its reasonable to wonder if the other cbs we have might do better but why do people just lump him and Tav together? It's beyond weird!

Tav is out of form last couple games but we don't have a replacement who brings what he brings. Not even close. It's genuinely weird and lazy behaviour.

It's not a question most fans want asked. It's a question that would just make whoever asked it look stupid.
 
David Edgar said:
The problem is, as has been mentioned before, is that people think press conferences are robust exchanges of views. They are not. They are totally controlled, obligatory PR events.

If you ask a question a manager doesn’t want to answer, he won’t answer it. It’s that simple.

If you start ranting after a defeat (which is what people really want when they come out with the disingenuous ‘difficult questions’ line) you will literally be ignored, it will be clipped by opponents of the club and fans of other clubs will piss themselves laughing at it.

I very rarely go to press conferences because they are generally the same thing. All that comes out of a presser of note is injuries/squad.

These threads should be titled ‘I’m in the huff about our form and upset that nobody has told the manager I hate player X and Y’.
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I agree that's what happens but I don't understand why people won't just ask interesting questions. You and the other podders must do umpteen ours of content a week and manage to talk about stuff yet you get a chance here weekly or biweekly to put something in front of the manager and just ask about injuries. Then claim not to ask anything else because it won't be answered. Sorry but it's a bit lazy. There is an area in between injuries and putting the management on the spot about selection questions.

Ask football questions.

What's dundees strong point
Despite the poor performance last game what area did you feel worked well
Can you tell us why you make subs around the time you do
What traits/skills does X player bring to the side
Do you see x area of the team needing improvement in the summer
Tactically/shape the team has been very consistent are you someone who changes/alters tactics mid season etc
What should the fans look out for in the next match
Is there training around stopping counter attacks and how does that look
What have you done in the past with teams set pieces.

Literally anything about football would be fine.
 
David Edgar said:
I once asked Walter privately why he kept picking certain players during a rough spell in his second time as boss. He looked at me as if I was stupid and said witheringly ‘because I think they’ll help us win the game. Is it no obvious?’

That really is the reason. And managers aren’t going to walk away from a presser saying ‘I was going to pick this player but that guy just told me some folk on FF don’t want me to so I won’t now’.
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The thing is that it's such an obvious and simple response.

When you look at the players in a squad and consider the injuries, suspensions and other unseen issues there's probably not all that much scope for a manager to change things, really.

His best option is to pick the guys he thinks will get the job done then try to get them to follow a game plan then motivate them to give 100%.

One of the big takeaways I had from paying attention to the B team is that the young guys really do struggle against older players even at a lower level. So while we all love the idea of teaching the big earing players a harsh lesson and playing the youths it wouldn't work too well in reality.
 
David Edgar said:
I once asked Walter privately why he kept picking certain players during a rough spell in his second time as boss. He looked at me as if I was stupid and said witheringly ‘because I think they’ll help us win the game. Is it no obvious?’

That really is the reason. And managers aren’t going to walk away from a presser saying ‘I was going to pick this player but that guy just told me some folk on FF don’t want me to so I won’t now’.
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Why do you think he will help us/what do you think he brings to the table.

I don't think we're looking for revelationary information with every question, we're looking to hear the managers words, feelings and thoughts about current and ongoing events. It doesn't have to be breaking news
 
Stepupandplay said:
Why do you think he will help us/what do you think he brings to the table.

I don't think we're looking for revelationary information with every question, we're looking to hear the managers words, feelings and thoughts about current and ongoing events. It doesn't have to be breaking news
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Don't you get that? That's literally what we hear from them.

They say what they want to say. I've been at a few including one with Strachan whilst he was Celtic manager and he said a lot off the record that was interesting.

On the record, they put out to the public only what they want.

So there's no point asking questions and getting made to look stupid.
 
Stepupandplay said:
I agree that's what happens but I don't understand why people won't just ask interesting questions. You and the other podders must do umpteen ours of content a week and manage to talk about stuff yet you get a chance here weekly or biweekly to put something in front of the manager and just ask about injuries. Then claim not to ask anything else because it won't be answered. Sorry but it's a bit lazy. There is an area in between injuries and putting the management on the spot about selection questions.

Ask football questions.

What's dundees strong point
Despite the poor performance last game what area did you feel worked well
Can you tell us why you make subs around the time you do
What traits/skills does X player bring to the side
Do you see x area of the team needing improvement in the summer
Tactically/shape the team has been very consistent are you someone who changes/alters tactics mid season etc
What should the fans look out for in the next match
Is there training around stopping counter attacks and how does that look
What have you done in the past with teams set pieces.

Literally anything about football would be fine.
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I didn’t claim not to ask anything else. This is what I mean, you made an incorrect assumption based on a preconceived notion to base a point off. I said all that comes out of a presser interesting is usually squad updates…because managers are too clever and guarded.

Our tactics guy Adam once asked Gerrard a question about his tactics and he said ‘tactics have nothing to do with it’ and moved on. There’s not really a lot you can do there.

That’s all stuff we ask, so I’m not really sure why you haven’t heard it. I know I always try to focus on football.

But I’ve asked pretty much every question on your list, as have our other podders and fan media.

Therefore, you must not be happy with the responses because as stated, managers shut them down. It’s the kind of thing you can get deeper with in a 20 minute interview but they don’t get given to FM.
 
We should start doing what other big clubs do and announce the injuries in separate updates.

PSG/barca/madrid do this. Saves a lot of time.

Also something like medical advice Diomande unable to play after surgery - keeps it simple and stops the idiots saying he doesn’t want to play due to a sore thumb
 
Stepupandplay said:
I agree that's what happens but I don't understand why people won't just ask interesting questions. You and the other podders must do umpteen ours of content a week and manage to talk about stuff yet you get a chance here weekly or biweekly to put something in front of the manager and just ask about injuries. Then claim not to ask anything else because it won't be answered. Sorry but it's a bit lazy. There is an area in between injuries and putting the management on the spot about selection questions.

Ask football questions.

What's dundees strong point
Despite the poor performance last game what area did you feel worked well
Can you tell us why you make subs around the time you do
What traits/skills does X player bring to the side
Do you see x area of the team needing improvement in the summer
Tactically/shape the team has been very consistent are you someone who changes/alters tactics mid season etc
What should the fans look out for in the next match
Is there training around stopping counter attacks and how does that look
What have you done in the past with teams set pieces.

Literally anything about football would be fine.
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The problem here is that a lot of these questions might be seen as trying play a bit of "chess" with the manager and managers with good media skills will be wise to this.

For example "can you tell us why you make subs around the time you do" seems completely fine out of context but two weeks down the line when we have a bad result and the subs either failed to change the match or were too late/too early then you know this will be brought back as a stick to beat the manager with.

You know stuff like players giving answers in matchday programs from FIVE seasons ago still be used against them to this day.

Or a manger speculating on how long a player might be injured and people going apeshit because it turned out to be longer than that.

GVB couldn't even get away with saying "um" and "eh" too often in his replies.

At a minimum the questions being asked by fan media should be asked in good faith.
 
David Edgar said:
I didn’t claim not to ask anything else. This is what I mean, you made an incorrect assumption based on a preconceived notion to base a point off. I said all that comes out of a presser interesting is usually squad updates…because managers are too clever and guarded.

Our tactics guy Adam once asked Gerrard a question about his tactics and he said ‘tactics have nothing to do with it’ and moved on. There’s not really a lot you can do there.

That’s all stuff we ask, so I’m not really sure why you haven’t heard it. I know I always try to focus on football.

But I’ve asked pretty much every question on your list, as have our other podders and fan media.

Therefore, you must not be happy with the responses because as stated, managers shut them down. It’s the kind of thing you can get deeper with in a 20 minute interview but they don’t get given to FM.
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I'm talking generally about the whole of fan media rather than you personally.

I also don't think it's completely trash, I do see some decent questions like the one Stevie asked yesterday. But we also see the bland stuff too much. I'm not one asking for the manager to be berated or to be asked difficult ones, I do hear decent questions from time to time. You seem quite cynical about the pressers being organised pr moves but I still see a massive difference than that.

I base a lot of my opinion on how the management are doing off these events as well as on the park. If they shut down loads of questions too often then that's on them. I expect bit of back and forth. Sometimes they'll be guarded but when Gerrard said that he should be called out. It's such an arrogant thing to say and you wouldn't get away with it in another job. Those are the ones that could do with being bolder and just saying why does tactics not matter etc.

I still think there could be an improvement on the types of football related questions. Across the board.

It does get difficult to track who's asking what mind. I don't keep a record of it day to day and it begins to conflate with trash like Roman asking sensationalist tripe.
 
Press conferences are boring, they tell you nothing other than injury updates, even then it is just available/not available. DE alluded to it this week on the HAH DU.

The last time any press conferences were entertaining were Mourinho first time round at Chelsea.
 
atcolin said:
It’s nothing to do with “toeing the party line” there is no party line, there’s not rules laid out in advance (except for written press embargos) it’s about being sensible and asking a question that’s going to get the most concise answer and more of the managers time. That’s the only value in attending.

Asking something stupid just cos FF want to hear something negative about Goldson asked etc is just going to get no answer and is a waste of everyone’s time most importantly mine.
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I know that. I never suggested doing that. I think with these things there’s only so much you can really ask. Maybe toeing the party line was the wrong expression.
 
Stepupandplay said:
I'm talking generally about the whole of fan media rather than you personally.

I also don't think it's completely trash, I do see some decent questions like the one Stevie asked yesterday. But we also see the bland stuff too much. I'm not one asking for the manager to be berated or to be asked difficult ones, I do hear decent questions from time to time. You seem quite cynical about the pressers being organised pr moves but I still see a massive difference than that.

I base a lot of my opinion on how the management are doing off these events as well as on the park. If they shut down loads of questions too often then that's on them. I expect bit of back and forth. Sometimes they'll be guarded but when Gerrard said that he should be called out. It's such an arrogant thing to say and you wouldn't get away with it in another job. Those are the ones that could do with being bolder and just saying why does tactics not matter etc.

I still think there could be an improvement on the types of football related questions. Across the board.

It does get difficult to track who's asking what mind. I don't keep a record of it day to day and it begins to conflate with trash like Roman asking sensationalist tripe.
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I agree on a lot of that.

All I’m saying is anyone asking questions at a presser is up against a situation where the person responding doesn’t really want to give anything away, doesn’t have to, is in complete control of the situation and is actively trained on how not to give anything away by paid professionals.

It’s a lot to break through with one question, no matter how well structured!
 
Crown_Defender said:
Spot on. This notion that fan media don't ask difficult questions, is bullshit as well. I always point to the Motherwell draw a couple seasons ago. 2 nil up and drew 2-2 late on. It stands out because everyone was fuming after the game.

Manager was asked directly about the lack of mentality in the squad, why he played Lundstram out of position, why he took so long to make subs and the mistakes Allan McGregor was making.

All of them asked by fan media outlets. All of them swatted away by Gio.

These guys are completely schooled. They will give nothing away they don't want to.
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Bullshit peddled by the likes of Jackson then regurgitated by the very people who claim not to buy papers (but conveniently have the exact same opinion as the 'hard-hitting' columnists).

Meanwhile, the trad media are asking questions like "a disappointing performance today Philippe, just how disappointing is it to have a disappointing day, and how disappointed are you by the result?"
 
When you’re letting the bbc in they’re CV requirements are:

1- your aunt is your sister and your maw.
2- you follow all and any terrorist organisations.
3- you doneded NQ Journos at Cardee College - doesn’t matter if you passed or not.
 
Youtube, Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, Rangers website, RTV.

Plenty channels of communication that we can feed out info from.

No need to sit in a dingy room facing the press/media, going through the motions receiving and answering the same mundane questions time after time.
 
rfcally91 said:
We should start doing what other big clubs do and announce the injuries in separate updates.

PSG/barca/madrid do this. Saves a lot of time.

Also something like medical advice Diomande unable to play after surgery - keeps it simple and stops the idiots saying he doesn’t want to play due to a sore thumb
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I agree. However then you get people demanding to know what the surgery was (we're entitled to know is the usual response). Don't forget some fans forced the club to give details about Roy Makaay being given compassionate leave cause they were 'entitled to know why our assistant manager isn't in the dugout'.

Doesn't matter what info people get, it's never good enough
 
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