Last week I decided to take Twitter a bit more seriously and follow some football journalists that I like. I searched for a few and came up with Henry Winter from the Telegraph, Patrick Barclay from the Times and Gabriel Marcotti.
And it's been great.
One, because I hear about rumours of managerial sackings, then have them confirmed without needing to search on the internet. Like today.
Two, because they all start arguing with each other - or get mad collectively and have a go at... say... FIFA.
Three, because they retweet footballers, which got me following Rio Ferdinand.
Rio tweets a lot. Most of it is not greatly interesting. But, over the last few days, I've had a great insight into when Rio is sitting on his sofa, if he has trained, what he's doing with his kids and what he likes on TV.
I would have thought this would be boring, but it's great.
Why?
As you know, I write books about football. Footballers are often characters. They've usually been murdered, burgled or kidnapped, but they're still characters. Following the humdrum life of footballers away from the MOTD cameras is excellent research. Detail.
Twitter is excellent for keeping up to date with the world of football. I follow Times Journalist, George Caulkin on there and found through twitter that my club inexplicably sacked Chris Hughton today. And so the Newcastle rollercoaster begins anew...
ReplyDeleteIs Simon Barnes on Twitter? His piece in The Times yesterday about all the Fifa board being barking mad was hilarious.
ReplyDeleteI don't do Twitter (maybe I should start) but I imagine Jonathan Wilson would be well worth following. His books and articles are fascinating if you're a tactics anorak like me.
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