Silly question, but what is a “good customer” when nobody is selling anything? Jurgen Geril, the Het Nieuwsblad journalist who covers Anderlecht, wrote it about Vitor Bruno, according to VoetbalPrimeur: “For us journalists, Vitor Bruno is obviously a good customer. We speak against our own shop when we advise him to be a bit more rational.”
I opened a new tab in my notebook. It’s called “Shop”. Basketball has press conferences too, I looked, but nobody calls them a shop.
So I made a list of what’s on the shelves, based on what Geril recalls. After the 3-0 defeat against Union SG, the coach stood in front of the purple and white supporters and took all the blame. After the narrow win against Cercle Brugge, he said he would always sign for a result, then argued that his sentence had been taken out of context. After the exit from the Croky Cup (Belgium’s domestic cup), he wondered why there was no VAR in the round of 32. And in the summer, when Anderlecht were doing well in the European qualifiers, he had suggested playing league matches on Mondays.
According to Geril, all this is often meant to protect the group. I find that rather kind as a strategy: he talks a lot so the players get some peace. It’s the umbrella principle, only chattier.
What surprised me most is Geril’s last sentence: “We’re not only looking forward to those matches, but also to the press conferences afterwards.” So there are two matches per evening. The second one is played sitting down.
Me, after a match, I say “well played” and I close the bar. Nobody has ever waited for my press conference. The club delegate, maybe.
The week matters, according to him: Anderlecht face Jagiellonia Białystok and KAA Gent. I’ve noted both matches, and underneath, in smaller writing, “press conf x2”.
Anyway, I still have a lot to learn.
It’s true, we checked: VoetbalPrimeur.be.
