Fabrizio Romano blasted over Leeds United star Raphinha to Barcelona talk, Phil Hay defends him
Phil Hay stuck up for Fabrizio Romano after the transfer guru was criticised for his reporting on Leeds United star Raphinha’s potential move to Barcelona.
The Italian journalist has been at the centre of many reports regarding negotiations between the Brazilian’s agent Deco and the Catalan giants over a move for the 25-year-old.
Romano had to clarify his earlier claims of a release clause in the Whites winger’s contract after Victor Orta rubbished him on Spanish radio, and he took some more flack on The Phil Hay Show this week (1 April), but was defended by the eponymous Leeds reporter.
Host Dan Moylan started: “We’ve seen a lot of noise come out of the Twitter account of Fabrizio Romano, who if you’re not aware is a so-called transfer guru… He puts a lot out there, some of it sticks, some of it doesn’t. He’s been very vocal this week about Raphinha’s potential move to Barcelona.”
After some discussion Hay summed up: “It just seemed odd to me that it’s blown up [the transfer talk] so much in these two weeks because I didn’t see the context for it doing that.”
Moylan returned to the reporter, saying: “Romano was at it. It was like five times in a week, or more. Almost the same story being parroted every day for no good reason.”
Michael Normanton added: “You occasionally see though he has to resort to tweeting something about Scottish football, and you can tell at that point he’s kind of run out of stories. He’ll break a story about Motherwell or something.”
Hay stood up for him, saying: “Barrel-scraping at Tynecastle? He has a lot of stories though. You can’t pretend that he doesn’t have very good contacts.”
Moylan jumped in: “We’re allowed to go in on him Phil when we don’t like what he’s saying.”
“Well feel free, likewise with me as well,” Hay responded.
Journalists’ Union
A reporter is only as good as their sources, and Romano get’s his fair share of good information.
But it has been a rough week for the Guardian man after he was directly criticised by Orta for being incorrect.
Having to backtrack is never easy but that was exactly what he was forced to do on the release clause issue.
Perhaps his sources are better at the Camp Nou than they are at Elland Road, and the word he was getting suited the Spanish giants.
Either way, what was at one point being reported as virtually a foregone conclusion looks to still be a work in progress.
That is a positive for the Whites who clearly want their key players focused on securing Premier League safety.
Raphinha may well move on before too long, but it looks like the club are going to retain a strong say in the situation.
In other Leeds United news, the club are reportedly interested in signing an international player from a European heavyweight.