The club's corporate comms function isn't very good

judging on what we've seen the last several years.

If something is completely outlandish, crazy, or from someone no-one's ever heard of or likely to listen to, then it's safe to ignore it. Indeed by responding you risk giving it the oxygen of publicity.

This doesn't fall into that camp. Many people take what TSF says as gospel. If you don't respond you allow the rumour to grow and feed on itself. Best thing is a simple, straight rebuttal. Given the medium, even just a tweet saying something like

@DaveKitson The club is not in financial crisis. The owners are not looking to move on. There will be no fire sale. There are no credit issues. You're right, though, that Aviva is no longer shirt sponsor and we'll be announcing the replacement in due course (or as announced their replacement is Angry Birds or whatever)

would suffice. No need to go overboard, just straight, clear, crisp and timely communication.

Posted By: Old Man, May 17, 16:58:36