Okay.
Well, first all, I haven't mentioned this fact in here because I don't want eyes rolling and people thinking that I think I am an 'ITK' because of it. So let me get this out of the way early doors. I am not ITK and I don't pretend to be.
I've been a football journalist for over 12-years. I work for national newspaper titles. One predominantly and a couple more on a freelance basis. I work on Premier League reporting and really enjoy it. It's not what it used to be, it's getting a bit more tedious and boring now...but I still like what I do. Newspaper journalism's become less interesting and less important because all football clubs keep their distance from media of all sorts these days for reasons I will mention a little later in this post and I am also having to write pretty meaningless pieces for online content, such as Top 10 this or that and Combined X1 nonsense. I'm not a really moral person so I don't in any way think 'my art is at stake'. I've got a good job and I like what I do, so I'm continuing to do it, even though it is a profession well under attack due to a reason mentioned below. But I do want to stress I am not a preacher of 'ITK' material nor never will be on these forums. I have been a Manchester United fan from birth, through family and I consider that one hell of a fecking blessing.
Anyway, take it from me, someone who knows all of the national reporters well (at least I know how they operate) in the UK that Pilib De Brun is absolutely 100% nailed on to be known as an absolute spoofer. There is no such thing as an 'in the know' journalist such as De Brun for loads of different reasons but let me give you the one main reason why national newspaper journalists such as even your top dogs that appear on Sunday Supplement don't know much any more, let alone Philip De bloody Brun. Years and years ago, football clubs needed 'media' (newspapers mostly) to inform their fans of any information they wanted to know. That's what the word 'media' means - medium, it's the middle man, the bridge between business (the club) and the customer (the fan). So if a club wanted to release information they'd ring up their favourite journalists or maybe send out press releases to the newspapers to try to get their information across to their fans. These days, clubs no longer need the media (they no longer need a middle man). If a football club like Manchester United wants to reach their fans with information, they do so in a multitude of new-age ways. A Tweet is the new press release. Nobody needs to call Shaun Custis about anything anymore. Years ago - even maybe 12-15 years ago - journalists used to have a rollerdex of phone numbers of professional footballers. That shit don't happen anymore. Footballers, coaches, high-echelon positions at clubs, nobody needs a journalist anymore. I mean, it happens in some ways, agents like to use journalists, not for any exclusive chats or anything, just to get a spin on a story out there - such as 'A club are looking at my player'..just because that agent is currently in negotiations with the current club over a new deal - that shit happens and we know it happens and we know when it is and isn''t bullshit). But nobody uses journalists to offer 'inside information'. It. Just. Does. Not. Happen. Anymore. Guaranteed. It's a dying form of media and it is very critically dying, too. Newspaper sales are at a massive low and are getting worse by the day. There is little or no value in newspaper journalism. Being a newspaper journalist does not mean you are ahead of the game in any respect whatsoever. The only reason I believe I may be a little ahead of the average fan on the street is that I know which journalists are talking shit and which ones can be trusted with certain bits of information. But when it comes to having 'inside information' - I have zero REAL inside information or sources and neither do the 'top dogs' of football journalism. It's well-known and talked about much among journalists on a regular basis....we just don't have any inside sources. Football doesn't operate that way anymore.
De Brun is nowhere near considered to know anything about anything. Genuinely. He's a laughing stock among reporters.