Ruben Amorim has been ‘spotted’ being animated and also doing nothing as he managed Manchester United. More as we get it.
Animation game
They call it the ‘curiosity gap’; it’s a phrase that’s been used in YouTube and copywriting circles for the last couple of years but it’s now entering the publishing mainstream, with Reach audience director Martin Little defining it as “telling the story as it is but withholding the need-to-know piece of information from that headline so that people still feel the need to go and find out more”.
All content publishers try and operate in this curiosity gap. It’s the reason why the two Manchester United players namechecked by Ruben Amorim are not namechecked by us. We absolutely use those techniques; we absolutely have to use those techniques or we would not survive.
But no publisher is as dedicated nor as shameless with this ambition than Reach, who own the Manchester Evening News along with just about every ‘local newspaper website’ that used to be an actual local newspaper.
Headlines like ‘The Italian restaurant near Greater Manchester named the best in England’ are commonplace (Mediawatch literally clicked on that one yesterday, so a massive tick for you, MEN), and money-saving expert Martin Lewis has been publicly vocal after his attention was drawn to just how much Martin Lewis content exists in the realms of Reach.
Just an average day for news about @MartinSLewis on the Reach network! Today former online editor at OK! @RachelMcGrath writes about why writing ever more stories might not be good for readers (or writers) https://t.co/M892JJ0bOc pic.twitter.com/slZnE75vU6
— Dominic Ponsford (@DomPonsford) October 24, 2024
And it’s presumably lodged in this ‘curiosity gap’ where we will find this latest trend, which we noted a fortnight ago in Mediawatch.
To sum up, a writer notes what we can all observe with our own eyes and then the headline begins ‘I saw/watched/spotted’ as if they have instead borne witness to something extraordinary.
What have they seen? What have they spotted?
You might have thought you watched Manchester United manager Ruben Amorim at Portman Road on Sunday (we did) but you didn’t see what they saw…
I spotted Ruben Amorim copying Pep Guardiola during Manchester United draw vs Ipswich Town
Did he corner an opposition player for passive-aggressive post-match praise? Did he look rather fetching in a polo neck?
Did he balls. This is what the MEN ‘spotted’ from Amorim that was just like Guardiola…
Pep Guardiola is probably the most animated manager in the Premier League but Amorim will give him a run for his money.
And that’s it. He was ‘animated’. Like almost every Premier League manager not called Erik ten Hag.
Over at The Sun, they’re not claiming to have spotted anything themselves because that is the sole preserve of the ‘eagle-eyed fans’. They ‘spotted Ruben Amorim’s ice cold reaction to Marcus Rashford’s opening goal in Ipswich clash’.
Now we think we spotted that too – he basically did nothing (unusual for such an animated man) – but we would never describe ourselves as eagle-eyed; we just watched the telly like everybody else.
Even The Sun acknowledge Amorim was ‘caught on camera having a very muted reaction to taking the early lead’.
They know it doesn’t take ‘eagle-eyed fans’ to spot something repeated several times on screen but that’s the curiosity gap: What did they spot that I didn’t? The answer is usually ‘f*** all’ but by the time that ‘need-to-know information’ is revealed, you have already seen 17 ads.
MORE MAN UTD COVERAGE ON F365…
👉 Amorim Watch: New Man Utd manager rubs his nose a lot and we get bored
👉 Mailbox: Ruben Amorim at Man Utd: ‘New Manager Thud anyone?’
👉 Good luck Ruben Amorim; Man Utd are ‘a fat, lazy, bloated corpse of a club’
Animation game 2
‘Rúben Amorim isn’t usually this animated – he knows how hard United job is’ is the headline in The Times atop a Martin Samuel column.
Martin, unless you can compare Amorim’s very first game in charge of Sporting with his very first game in charge of Manchester United, you are not comparing apples with apples.
‘Those who know head coach from Sporting days would have been surprised to see his constant gesticulations and irate finger-wagging – he is under no illusions at Old Trafford.’
They’re not his players, fella. He’s been training them for just a few days and they were playing an entirely different system. This is not A Manchester United Thing; it’s a New Manager Thing.
SEVEN
‘Man Utd player ratings: Casemiro struggles throughout as Andre Onana saves his team-mates with immense display’ – The Sun.
And what mark did this ‘immense display’ earn Onana from Charlie Wyett? A massive 7/10.
Maybe sending a Norwich fan to Portman Road wasn’t such a great idea. He was always going to be a grumpy f***er unless United won 6-0.
