Christian Benteke Injury News Limbo
It must have been a weird position to be in for a journalist attending the pre-match press conference for the Fulham game. When the token injuries question came up, Lambert talked about Gabby Agbonlahor’s bug, El Ahmadi’s fitness struggle and also a fresh knock for Gary Gardner. And that was it.
Five minutes later a reputable Belgian journalist Kristof Terreur tweeted Christian Benteke had torn his Achilles tendon and would miss the rest of the season and the forthcoming World Cup. Awkward for any journalist covering Villa, who despite having asked about injuries with the club’s manager and press team in front of them five minutes earlier, had to then rely on twitter and scrambled phone calls to try and get to the truth of the matter.
Villa supporters were also left in limbo. Surely such news was nonsense? After all, wasn’t April Fools a couple of days ago?
If you ask any journalist who deals with Villa, the situation wasn’t exactly surprising behavior, as access to information and to players for interviews at the best of times is hard to come by. Such is the modern game. But, if it was common knowledge in Belgium and would be broken worldwide in a matter of minutes, why the secrecy?
I can understand holding back any announcement until the extent of the injury was known, for example after a scan, but the Belgian’s clearly knew it was an Achilles tendon injury, which normally means a six month-plus lay-off. Was there any harm in telling the assembled press that? Even, if it was off the record, so at least they could prep for it and avoid the forthcoming confusion. After all, any journalist at the presser’s job is to try and communicate the goings on at Villa to the supporters. Needlessly withholding information just leads to a maelstrom of speculation, and we have to deal with enough of that as supporters at the best of times.
As one local journalist put it ‘Shame things have to be so cloak and dagger’.
Still, what is done is done, and our thoughts are with Benteke at this time, with the injury coming at a particularly cruel time for him personally with potentially one of the best World Cups in the last or next decade or so, around the corner. Lets hope he has a speedy recovery and returns asap next season. UTV
Click here for the pros and cons of the Benteke injury to Villa…
The chair of the villa trust asked me yesterday if I knew what had happened to Chris Herd. I don’t and no one I know does including a mate that has a contact on the ground staff. Sometimes it can be good not to have dirty linen washed in public. SOme clubs are open season for news, and the news is manipulated anyway. Newcastle’s Pardew said this week he can’t motivate his players, they are thinking of summer on the beach.
An excuse for failure? I agree the club’s PR is poor and the image of the club is being damaged. But I am more worried that Faulkner is to sit on an FA committee. Given that he effectively runs the club and the board is basically him and a phone call to LErner, should we not be worried that as with O’Neill too much power is in too few hands and the manager has carte blanche as long as he gets the wages bill down?
How about asking for more Non Executive Directors on the board that could raise issues of concern to fans?
Trevor Fisher.,
After contacting Kristof, the Belgian journalist in the above article, he said he heard about it on Belgian TV (and then got it confirmed after a couple of phone calls), which more than likely means it was announced on their TV while the Villa press conference was on!
Yes can’t say I am happy that PL announced it was unclear that Benteke was badly injured as it seemed innocuous to him then later reading Bentekkers agent saying that the Achilles snapping could be heard 50 yards away. Call me old fashioned but I have experience of Achilles injuries and they are excruciatingly painful, nothing innocuous about it sadly just sheer agony. So much for In Lambert We Trust….I smell BS again
Typical of the Villa these days. Everything seems to be shrouded in secrecy with only good news being released in a honest fashion. Take the season ticket announcements, nothing mentioned of the rise in prices for most tickets. Don’t they realise the damage they are doing to the clubs reputation. Supporters are beginning to wonder why everything appears to be done so sneakily. Without the fans there will be no club. Lets have Honesty from those that are only custodians of OUR club