Josh – fair enough. I’d suggest you read this, then the link above.

I guess the ‘chelsea bashing ahead’ disclaimer will need to be explained next time…

And in reality, I couldn’t agree more with what you are saying about Drogba and his diving, but if you were indeed a neutral biased blogger you wouldn’t feel the need for the “sly digs”, so to speak.

I also agree with what you say about how the comments were made in jest. I indeed, did find them amusing, it’s hardly like I missed the point. I was just pointing out the bias which tends to nark me, as although in this article the bias isn’t that strong, other blogs you find that the bias is ridiculous. I suppose that this was just my way of venting it. =)

And in fact, I would have certainly disagreed with any of the sly digs against Newcastle, Given (pun intended?) that I am a Newcastle fan myself. But as I said before, finding a large site like yourself endorsing bias in your articles was what did encourage me to comment on, it wasn’t that I disagreed with what you are staying.

In my studies I’ve learnt that Music and Sports share a common trait. That is that its supporters tend to “own” what they support. They take things very personally.
Eg. If someone criticise a song that you like, you tend to feel that they’re criticising you as a person. The same with sports. Because of this, it will be virtually impossible to have a ‘passionate’, ‘un-baised’ discussion on either of those 2 topics.

Oh hell, this is what happens in football blogging. I leave it up to you to distinguish between ‘digs’ and facts. That is, if you can set aside your bias long enough to accept facts as they are.

The type of statements that you point out are provocative not because I’m biased, but because I’m exaggerating certain faults of the player.

With reference to Drogba – his infamous “sometimes I dive, sometimes I don’t” interview, plus a frustrating knack for messing up scoring opportunities makes me write 2 of the 3 things in brackets. I’m exaggerating, yes, but in essence what I’m saying is also in jest. You may disagree with that, but let me assure you it is to poke fun at the player and at other clubs rather than an overt dislike of the player/club.

Opinion articles are not without bias, sure enough. But I write here as a fan and as someone who enjoys writing, and as a result I will write something that I find funny or significant about a person / club.

You will (as do many other people) dislike what I say about Chelsea but perhaps agree with the comments I make about Newcastle or Liverpool (find me a club you’re not fond off and comments from me in a similar vein about that club will be agreeable to you). So who is biased then?

“In all fairness, Drogba has still to justify his high price-tag but is a quality player and does what he is asked to do (fall over, create chances for his teammates, miss the goal by miles) very, very well.”

The stuff in brackets seems unnessecary. If the reporter was neutral, he would just say the part surrounding the brackets. When you begin to include the things in brackets it goes from a good article to an opinion based article, and as we can see, no opinion based article ever fails to include bias.

Also, if you can, guess which team I support.

And “two-bit armchair expert”? Couldn’t agree more.

Bias? It’s a shame every two-bit armchair expert likes to mouth off before trying to digest something that disagrees with him.

But if you think there is bias, please point it out and I’ll argue the point with you here.

once again, my bad for that mistake, fixing it now.

But I’d like to refer you to prior to the World Cup where England beat Jamaica, not Trinidad & Tobago, 6-0.

Seems you really know your stuff.

And it’s a shame, you can’t read amateur articles nowadays without the use of bias. Sucks.

Besides, when we win the premiership this season, I want to boast “Manchester United beat the best”.

Smith was bought as a center forward. When Fergie bought him, he promised Smith that he would get used as a Center Forward, because in Fergie’s view (at the time), Smith seemed like a “classical center forward”.