Man Utd v Spurs Draw Is El Sackico By Breakfast And National Emergency By Elevenses
Philippa Crane · Media Editor · Reading time: one pint
Manchester United and ten-man Spurs drew at Old Trafford, and one match report's description of the game as El Sackico has since been repeated on five further websites, none of which watched anything the first did not.
A Tottenham man at a kitchen table in the north of the borough was shown the same account of Manchester United's draw with ten-man Spurs five times before 8am, each time with the same facts and a slightly larger noun.
The Herald has traced the matter to a single match report, which described the fixture at Old Trafford as El Sackico, a meeting of a United side in need of a win and a Spurs side bottom of the league and winless. Nothing has been added to the report by anyone since.
The first website restated it in its own words and called the performance abject. The second called the draw a disaster. The third, which the Herald believes did not watch the match, called it a crisis.
By the fourth it was understood that the situation was critical. The fifth led with a question mark, which this newspaper accepts as a new angle.
It said the same thing on my phone, then on the radio, then on my wife's phone. It was louder on the radio.
The report also recalls Gary Neville describing United as "absolutely pathetic" at Fulham, a public remark that three of the five websites have since moved quietly into the present tense. A sixth added the word meltdown, which appears nowhere in the original.
The Herald has audited all five versions line by line and can confirm they contain nothing new, though the headlines are now collectively about forty per cent longer.
The man has finished his tea and been told the situation is developing.
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