Tito Vilanova ‘story’ deserves to be treated with respect and humanity, not as transfer speculation

Tito Vilanova: Doesn’t he deserve some humane treatment?

Firstly, I say ‘story’ deliberately because the way that certain sections of the English media have treated the resignation of Tito Vilanova as Barcelona coach has highlighted the troubles in the vulture-like pursuit of ‘stories’ above all else. Rather than reporting on the fact that the coach of one of the biggest and most prestigious clubs in the world has had to give up the job he has dreamed of and worked his whole career for in order to fight for his life against a relapse of cancer, sections of the English media have decided to focus on two other things.

Firstly, who will replace him at Barcelona. Secondly, and disgracefully, what impact this might have on Manchester United’s attempt to sign Cesc Fabregas. Have they really lost sight of what is important here? Tito Vilanova is just 44 years old and is having to come to terms with facing up to cancer. He has expressly stated that he wants to focus all of his energy on fighting this horrendous disease for the sake of his two children and his wife. He is a human being, not just some man who can be treated as yesterday’s news.

Spurs boss Andre Villas-Boas’s comments summed things up nicely. To his obvious horror, he was asked just yesterday, within hours of Vilanova resigning, as to whether he would be interested in taking up the role. To his great credit, rather than the usual ‘it’s a great honour but I’m happy where I am’ type comments, Villas-Boas said this:

“At this time, all my wishes are with Tito. If he has to resign over illness, it’s not the time to speak about speculation. We’re speaking about a person’s health, it’s not even a question.”

Quite right too. But still, that didn’t stop some major outlets in the UK doing exactly that. For the sake of not getting myself in to trouble I won’t name them, but the coverage can be found. One, with a rolling news ticker, had the news that Vilanova resigned, followed not by kind words from Barcelona and reassurances as to the man’s health, but a slide that said ‘New Manager to be appointed next week’. Who cares?

Another outlet decided that the best way to deal with the news was to put up an article speculating on a list of managers who might be best suited to the role. Now, of course, this can be talked about in due course, but this was put up within two hours of the news. So either someone has watched the press conference and thought ‘I know what will get our website some hits’ and knocked that up straight away without a second thought for a man suffering from cancer. Or, probably even worse, they took advantage of the leak in the news that this was expected, and rather than using the time to prepare something looking at his fight, they chose to write that.

As tasteless and disrespectful as speculation on his successor was, it is, to an extent, understandable. Not quite so soon of course, but inevitably. What is beyond comprehension is one newspaper’s decision that they would focus on how this could accelerate a possible transfer for Cesc Fabregas to Man United. Never mind the realities or otherwise of this, just think about that for a second. When you get the news that a young man with a young family has had a relapse of cancer, your first thought is ‘this could mean Man United get Cesc Fabregas’. Now, that’s bad enough, but the way it was handled and written was literally beyond comprehension.

The news was addressed with two puns in a headline with a frankly worrying lack of humanity: ‘TATA TITO … it’s Vilan-over for Barca boss. United will be hoping to take advantage of the uncertainty that has engulfed the Catalan giants and convince Fabregas to push for a move’.

Where do we start? Two puns about a man who is resigning because his cancer has returned meaning he can no longer work in his dream job? Or the fact that they believe Manchester United, a club steeped in history and with a great understanding of loss of their own, would be classless enough to take advantage of this and get Cesc Fabregas, who loves Barcelona, to force his way out of the club because of it? With a startling lack of irony, they even include the Villas-Boas quote in the same article. The last thing either United or Fabregas would want is to be associated with this in any way.

Fabregas would not want to be involved in any transfer speculation when the club is going through such a tough time

Perhaps it is just because these events are happening overseas that the attitude is quite so appallingly callous. Bearing in mind some of the tributes managers get here when they resign or are sacked, the disrespectful and inhuman treatment of Tito Vilanova’s predicament looks even worse.

Ultimately, the only ‘story’ here is this: a 44-year-old man with a wife and two children has had to resign from the job he always dreamed of having because he has cruelly been struck down by cancer, a disease which will, in some way, impact the lives of 1 in 3 people. No one should care about who will replace him or how it impacts a possible transfer. Have some human decency and heed Barcelona’s words ‘We ask you all, especially the media, to respect him (Tito) and his privacy’.

The final word is a tweet from Barcelona’s fiercest rivals Real Madrid: ‘We would like to send our support, affection, and solidarity to Tito Vilanova, his family, friends, and FC Barcelona. #GetWellSoonTito’

Rather than speculating on what’s happening at Barcelona, wouldn’t it be better to spend the same time and donate to Cancer Research to eliminate this life-wrecking disease?