“I thought Koptalk was closed down years ago” – Chris Bascombe, Liverpool Echo

“I thought Koptalk was closed down years ago” – Chris Bascombe, Liverpool Echo

by Rupert Insider

9th August 2006

---

If you are a supporter of Liverpool Football Club, you probably know Chris Bascombe. He writes for the Liverpool Echo. One of the most common phrases you read on net forums in periods of intense rumour and counter-rumour, is: “What does Chris Bascombe say?”For many he is the gold standard of journalism as far as LFC goes. He is known to be close to the club, by virtue of his job, but not so close as to be dependent. He has even been known to be critical. For example, he has written of his disgust at how he and many others were manipulated by Gerard Houllier over certain issues, especially about Robbie Fowler. But that’s another story.

He is of interest to this blog because Duncan Oldham used to claim – prior to October 2001 – that he provided “inside” information to Chris Bascombe and received information from him.

That all changed when Chris Bascombe wrote an article in the Pink Edition of the Football Echo in October 2001 dismissing KopTalk and its outrageous lie about Fowler.

” Robbie only has to breathe these days and someone, somewhere is writing about him.  This week when Robbie wasn’t even playing we saw another example of how, more than any other player, he is the target of rumour. 

I was sent an article in  by a reader which appeared on an unofficial website, which I won’t name because it doesn’t deserve the free ad it probably wants (ok I will.  Apparently it’s called Koptalk or Kopchat or something like that).  They wrote an outrageous lie which dared to suggest that Robbie’s absence on Tuesday wasn’t because he was ill.

As Robbie explained, “I woke up on Tuesday and felt really lousy and light-headed.  I was about to come into training in the afternoon and I called the doc.   The doctor came around to my house examined me and told me to go back to bed.”

The story that Bascombe alluded to was a report by Oldham that Fowler had missed training because of a hangover.  In fact,  it turneddout that he had a very serious chest infection.

Oldham was furious, not so much because a respected journalist had called him a liar, but because he had been vague about the name of the site and the “look what the cat borught in” tone of his references to it.Oldham responded by establishing the domain “kopchat.com” to benefit from any enquiries that the Bascombe reference generated. He also responded on Koptalk several times. He claimed that Bascombe had been  deliberately vague in order to deny him publicity. He proceeded to insult him in other ways that should be familiar to those of you who read my frequent updates of the long list of names Oldham calls those who disagree with him.

From that time on, Oldham pretended he did not know Bascombe’s name or who he was – and even today – five years later – when he steals Bascombe’s stories from the online version of the Liverpool Echo and Daily Post, he does not acknowledge the source or the author. Instead he claims that it is from his own exclusive sources “as confirmed by the local media”.

Given this stand-off, how would Oldham continue to profit from his pre-2001 pretence that he and Bascombe were “colleagues” and “confidants” swapping “inside” information?

Well you should know how. He would insinuate it. You’ve seen all his references as to how he picks up snippets from journalists in a pub, and how various journalists keep him posted about press conferences and events at Anfield and Melwood. He would also insinuate that Chris was a member of the Koptalk Gold Club. He would not correct the assumption of many in the Gold Club, that the poster “Lecter” was none other than Chris Bascombe.

In this blog we encourage people to puncture Oldham’s con by communicating directly with the club, with players and with journalists whom he says or implies or part of his shadowy world.

So yesterday I wrote to Chris Bascombe. I received a quick reply and an invitation to telephone and today we had a long chat.

Chris Bascombe’s first words to me speak volumes: “Koptalk? Is that still around? I thought it was closed down years ago”.

Need I say more?

Since I sent my letter, Chris has read the blog and wants to be kept informed. It was good to chat with him about the issues touched on in the blog especially those of which he has first-hand knowledge. I don’t want to detail all our discussions but can summarize them as being that he appreciated the opportunity the blog has given him to put the record straight and he will be following the blog actively.

In the meantime, he is aware that some of the contributors have been searching for his now famous “Kop Chat” reference and he will look it up and send it in. And by the way, it was deliberate!

Internet Watch Foundation FAQ

This blog, through its article and comments, has touched on a lot of things that Mr Duncan Oldham (exec) Editor of Koptalk.com has been up to.

Some things are just funny – his pathetic lie about buying Chris Waddle’s house one of the most memorable.

Some things are annoying – his ways of banning people then claiming they aren’t banned and that they only need to make a phone call.

Some things are sickening to a Liverpool supporter – his support of The Sun and regular attempts, over many years, to slur Liverpool Football club and its players and officials.

Some things are illegal, or seem to be illegal.

I was asked by a reader of the blog to put together a list of the activities Dunk has carried out that come under the category “illegal”. I am working on that now (I’d appreciate any help if anyone’s got time to knock up a list).

I was also provided with this link to help people deal with Dunk’s dodgier activities – how to report him, where to report him to and so on.

http://www.iwf.org.uk/public/page.20.htm is the FAQ page for the Internet Watch Foundation (IWF). On the left of the page are links to information on a list of offences, many of which Mr Oldham has been involved in, some of which even he’s not capable of. As bad as Dunk is there are a lot worse than him out there. Here’s the headings they have information on -

CEOP Centre, Chat Rooms & IM, Child Abuse, Communications, Computer Crime, Consumer issues, Copyright, Domain Names, Education & Awareness, Fraud & Financial Scams, Grooming, Helping the IWF, Hotlines, Identity Theft, Internet Safety, Internet Security/Malware, Internet Stalking, Legal Issues, Lottery Scams, Mobile Internet, Morbid images, Obscene Content, Online Auctions, Online Games, Peer to Peer services, Phishing, Photographs of Children, Premium rate dialers, Preventing Child Abuse, Pro-Anorexia Sites, Racial Issues, Rape Images, Rating & Filtering, Safer Surfing, Spam, Suicide websites, Terrorist Sites, Violence – mobile cameras

If you’ve any doubts about the validity of this link, it was supplied to me by the police.

http://www.iwf.org.uk/public/page.20.htm

More bans means more ranting

Another day, another rant from Dunk. Anyone left inside of the insider must be wondering what’s bugging him. Every day he has a moan about something, and tells anyone left listening that he’s banning troublemakers for the sake of the good guys. Every day a few more people have a search to see what they can find out about these bans. Oh – and Dunk doesn’t ban them actually – “People ban themselves.” he says. Again.

Dunk
Executive Editor
Reged: 20/08/04
Posts: 9134
Loc: KOPTALK
Re: Any jobs?!  [Re: Rhodri]
#1594719 – 08/08/06 11:03 PM          Reply      Quote

People ban themselves. We don’t pick people off for the fun of it because we know it has a knock on effect due to friends of friends. However, the majority always has to come first

——————–
Dunk   Executive Editor
Reged: 20/08/04
Posts: 9134
Loc: KOPTALK
Re: Any jobs?!  [Re: Hustler]
#1594744 – 08/08/06 11:29 PM

Quote:

Dunk,
Am just after watching the video of Steve in the news section…. I need a job!!!!!

Your HQ is my dream. Ill work for free. Please?  raying:

I know im dreaming but it im honest in saying that its the Dogs balls! Fair play. 

Now, wheres tonights podcast 

LOL. Yeh it’s great here mate. It’s a dream job. You can get out of bed when you want, work 1 day a week if you like… sit in the sun or go to the pub… tickets for any game you like… it’s great mate. I’d hate me.

It would be very, very easy to sit back and do nothing. I could put my feet up and grow old with the Mrs but what saddo would want to do that?

The greatest satisfaction I get is the emails from Reds all over the world especially from places like Lebanon and Israel during the latest conflict. They talk to me like I’m a mate and these aren’t just members, they’re visitors from all parts of the site, everyone is as important.

You see the bitterness on the web towards us but nobody sees the thousands of emails and phone calls we take from Reds who really appreciate the site.

Instead of doing 9-5 5 days a week which we could if we wanted, we do 7 days. A typical day for Steve starts at 6 or 7 and runs until 1 or 2am the next day. I’ve done it myself but he takes the pressure off now. Now I go to work when I feel like it or when I need to. Once there we don’t stop. There’s no scheduled breaks. And when we get home (like I am now) we continue again.

This isn’t a job, this is a life. Supporting LFC and having this site is amazing. This is my baby and interacting with Reds like you – be it here or on the main site – is great. We just move the idiots on from our forums to other sites and concentrate our time on people like you that appreciate it and can (hopefully) see that we do what we can with the limited abilities we have as an unofficial fans site.

As for the podcast mate… there won’t be one this evening, we’re doing it in the morning and maybe another in the evening

——————–
To contact KOPTALK, please open a support ticket at www.koptalk.misinfo or call us on +44 (0)7962 475020. Please do not post messages on the forums for our attention. If you ever receive an email claiming to be from KOPTALK, make sure that when you hit reply that support@koptalk.com is displayed.

Steve’s hours have gone up – he’s now working up to 20 hours a day, 7 days a week. 140 hours work every week for no pay. Good ol’ Duncan.

“You see the bitterness on web towards us” says Dunk. “Where?” say hundreds of readers. “Look on Google” they think. And so they find the blog and Koptalk loses more members.

Dunk’s lack of knowledge on the Internet is frightening considering how long he’s been doing it. He’s probably still not clicked that he messed up with changing his email addresses when he was pretending to be Del Johnson the pirate Sky Card seller. He certainly doesn’t acknowledge it. Now he thinks that because a mail says “support@koptalk.com” in the “Reply To” field it’s unquestionable proof that he sent it. But it isn’t – faking a from address is slightly harder, but changing the “Reply To” field is very, very easy indeed.

Dunk made a promise

Thanks to one of our blog readers who sent me one of Dunk’s editorials from the past. In it he makes a promise we hope he’s going to keep, but we expect as ever he’ll deny it and wriggle out of it.

We think we should hold him to it. He said -

“In fact I’m going to make a promise which will be welcomed by many. If there’s no finance secured by the opening day of the season, I’m going to hang up my keyboard and close KOPTALK down. I’ll see that the Gold Club and Insider features plus the forums at koptalk.com/forums remain online and operational but as far as my involvement goes, forget it. Maybe then I could get me book out and shut a few people up!” 

Trying to work out when it was from, we followed a link to the “next” article on his site, which was this -

Liverpool FC confirm investment talks – more to follow

Liverpool Football Club have issued a statement confirming that they are holding talks with potential investors.

A statement issued by the board read:  “The board of Liverpool FC has noted the recent press speculation concerning possible third-party investment into the club and can confirm that it is continuing discussions with a number of parties regarding a potential investment of new funds into the club.

“Although the structure of any such investment is uncertain, it may include an offer for the entire share capital of the club. Shareholders will be kept updated as appropriate.”

Now is a good time to be an Insider member…. if you’re not an Insider member and you don’t want to support us or can’t, just read yesterday’s editorial by Dunk and look out for fresh updates later today.

We’re miles ahead of the media on this one and we know exactly who wants in. Do you?

www.koptalkinsider.coN”

I’ve worked the date out of the article after searching for those quotes, which also appeared on the LFC website, in the mediawatch section, dated March 29th 2006. Click here.

So should we class today as the start of the season, with the first competitive fixture? Or this weekend’s Community Shield, as the first domestic fixture? Or should we be really kind, and let him wait for the Sheffield United fixture, the first league fixture of the season? Let’s be kind – Dunk, you’re allowed to keep Koptalk until we kick off against Sheffield United. But, no investment by then = no website.

Dunk’s article had THREE links to the Insider welcome pages in it. THREE! How many people reading the blog today remember this story? Worse still remember it actually being the reason they joined the Insider site? Of course you now know it was all bullshit, but did you even suspect it then?

The “editorial” he refers to was the one sent to me including that promise.Have a read -

Why I stayed in my LFC bed (ED)

Having a matching Liverpool FC bed set at the age of 31 is probably a bit sad to some people, but when I looked at the clock this morning and saw it was 9am, I loved every inch (or should that be yard!) of it when I rolled back over safe in the knowledge that my Sky+ system would record ‘Trisha’ for me.

I was dreaming of winning the title…

I knew that madness would break today on the financial front. Like clockwork, Steve was calling and texting me telling to get my arse into KOPTALK HQ. Balls to that. Investment stuff bores me senseless. It has become such a long running saga that I could throttle anyone that brings the subject up.

In fact I’m going to make a promise which will be welcomed by many. If there’s no finance secured by the opening day of the season, I’m going to hang up my keyboard and close KOPTALK down. I’ll see that the Gold Club and Insider features plus the forums at koptalk.com/forums remain online and operational but as far as my involvement goes, forget it. Maybe then I could get me book out and shut a few people up!

I’ve been doing this lark for too long now. It’s boring. I sat down with the Mrs last night and said I was sick of it. She was like, “Well what would you do, you’ll be bored?” and yeh, I guess I would but surely there’s more to life than sat typing away all day. It’s funny because on my keyboard i have no letters that spell out LIVERPOOL because they’re used that much lol!

Contrary to what critics may suggest, KOPTALK isn’t run to make a profit. I’d be better off financially if I didn’t have this round my neck. It’s just a hobby t hat got out of hand. Do I need the hassle? The thought of never knowing anything about the club again would be like a dream come true for me. I’d love to go back to just reading yesterday’s news in a paper.

There’s some great Reds out there but there’s also some real loons too. Maybe it’s an age thing? I dunno. You see a username on the forums and they could be 14 or 40. It’s difficult sometimes working out why some Reds can be so stupid. Are they just thick or just young?

Take this finance stuff again. For example, people are obsessed with figures. It’s just not that simple. We’re talking long term strategic plans. It’s not good saying “Here’s £50m Rafa, go spend it”. If clubs think we have money, we’ll get ripped off. If we spend it but don’t earn another £50m, we’re back in the same situation again.

For me, it’s about the people at the top. It’s about injecting some youthful ideas in to the club with a blend of proven marketing experience. It’s not about handing over an open cheque book to Rafa because whoever comes in, that is not going to happen and I don’t want it to happen.

There’s also the issue of the new stadium. People are assuming that potential investors have that covered as part of what they’re bringing to the table and this may not be the case. Don’t jump to conclusions.

Personally I’d rather see the two kept separate. For me the ideal scenario would be an investor, a shake-up at the top of the club and someone else brought in to pay for stadium naming rights. Throw in some marketing brains and we’re laughing. I don’t want one person or group to buy into the club and to also have some ownership of the stadium. I think that’d be dodgy.

You may have noticed that all week updates have started later than they normally do. This is because I’m knackered, bored and because I know all the finance stuff was set to crop up even though Rick Parry recently claimed there was nothing around the corner.

On Friday I’m taking the afternoon off. I’m going horse racing with the lads for the first time in ages. I can’t wait to let me hair down… ****, I haven’t got any… well you know what I mean. I’m just glad it’s a 5.15pm kick-off on Saturday. Join me on KOPTALK RADIO for the match as I’m sure the issue of investment will be heavily debated!!!

It’s 11.40am now. I’ve injected some coffee and I’m about to do some graft. Then this afternoon I’ll try and inform our Insider members just exactly what the **** is happening!

I’ve imported the blog post where we covered his insider nonsense (it was on another blog hosting provider). You can view it here http://koptalkinsider.wordpress.com/2006/03/29/oh_lordy/ – but it’s quite a long one.

So come on Dunk – who are you handing it all over to? I’ll buy it off you for 10p and a maxi-size bag of Walkers. And that will save you the hassle, as you say (above), “Contrary to what critics may suggest, KOPTALK isn’t run to make a profit. I’d be better off financially if I didn’t have this round my neck. “  So take my bag of crisps and 10p and everyone’s happy. You lose the burden, Liverpool FC get their Kop back.