Journalist reveals private chat with Ange Postecoglou after viral ‘clown’ argument
The Standard’s Dan Kilpatrick, who was infamously pulled up by Ange Postecoglou in his press conference prior to the Europa League final for suggesting that the Australian would be a “clown” if Tottenham lost, has now shared what he told the Spurs boss after that interaction.
Postecoglou has had to endure intense criticism, which has bordered on disrespect at times this season, which is what would have made the Europa League victory even sweeter for the Australian.
The Tottenham head coach was able to keep his word of always delivering a trophy in his second season, but ahead of the final in Bilbao, there was an extremely touchy moment in a press conference.
Kilpatrick had written an article in The Standard, which suggested in its headline that Postecoglou was “teetering between a hero and clown” ahead of the final.
The 59-year-old gave a stern response to that in the lead-up to the final. Watch how he responded to Kilpatrick’s question below:
Dan Kilpatrick explains his interaction with Ange Postecoglou following Tottenham clown comment
The Standard journalist has now confessed that he made a mistake using the term ‘clown’ in his article, admitting that the situation was made worse when it was used as the headline.
Kilpatrick revealed that he had apologised to Postecoglou soon after the press conference and that the Tottenham boss was very gracious about the incident.
Kilpatrick said on The Lab Podcast: “I remember when I was writing it, I remember deliberating over what word to use, and I think I did consider failure. I put the clown in for kind of effect because I was trying to make a sort of strong point.
“Look, it was a bad decision. It was the wrong decision. I didn’t know it was going to be in the headline. I can’t blame anyone else but myself because it was obviously in the copy, but I think the fact that it was in the headline really exacerbated the situation, to be honest. I wish I’d used another word.
“I messaged Ange and I apologised, and I won’t say what he said, but we had a bit of back and forth, and I think it’s all right to say that he had moved on, and he was very gracious about it.”
The blurring lines between football journalism and social media banter
Kilpatrick deserves credit for holding his hands up and admitting that he got things wrong, and for recognising that it was not appropriate to use that term as a seasoned journalist.
The broader issue here is the blurring of the lines between professional football journalism and social media banter as a result of the industry being increasingly reliant on clicks.
Terms like “clown” and “Spursy” are regularly thrown around by fans on social media and it is sometimes difficult for journalists reporting on the matter to divorce themselves from that discourse and remain professional.
That task is made even harder when the main metric driving online journalism is fan engagement, which is why that headline was used by The Standard.
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