While the Internet may be a football journalist's fastest resource, it has also become his worst enemy. An inexhaustible stock of cliches always comes in handy, but until now a journalist's most valuable quality has been his ability to ingratiate himself with the stars, gaining inside information, exclusive interviews and scorching scoops.
But now footballers are building their own home pages, addressing fans directly and effectively cutting out the middleman. Is the media still the message if the message is "we don't need the media"?
Take Holland's Michael Reizeger, for example. He revealed in the run-up to the World Cup clash with Ireland that his team-mates were planning to deliberately get Roy Keane sent off. Had he divulged that to a reporter, it would have been screamed from the backpages; but instead he announced it on his own website - so fans found out before the newsman.
Frenchmen David Ginola and Nicolas Anelka also used their home pages to announce world exclusives. They were both at the centre of controversial transfers this summer, and both unveiled the outcomes to their site-visitors before anyone else.
It's not, of course, just about the speed information is disseminated from player to supporter, but also the quality of the presentation. "This is my platform and I will use it appropriately and responsibly," says Liverpool goalkeeper Sander Westerweld on his home page ". . . in having my own site, I can contact supporters directly when I want and on the subjects I want."
There are scores of other footballers like Westerweld who maintain their own sites ) and who are clearly chuffed at being able to set their own agenda, to control their own image. And that's a new form of media entertainment in itself.
Because while some pros restrict themselves to commenting on matches, others stop at nothing to endear themselves to their fans. For example, another Liverpool player, Vladimir Smicer of the Czech Republic, has become so intimate with his readers that he posted a detailed account of a particularly devastating dose of diarrhoea he contracted during the off-season, and concluded his eloquent soliloquy by revealing that "my wife also suffered these symptoms".
Other players have launched home pages but prefer to let trusted proxies maintain them on their behalf. And here too, it's the Czech players who seem the most frank. For instance, star striker Jan Koller apparently has no fear of his coach, allowing his deputies to broadcast his penchant for hooking up with pals "to drink very much alcohol and have a lot of fun".
Nevertheless, some of Koller's other revelations are considerably less startling: "After school he went to Pisek to study auto-mechanics. Pisek is 20km from Smetanova. He went by rail."
Perhaps this is an effort by Koller to show his fans that he is a humble man from a simple background. David Ginola apparently has similar concerns, as the people who run his site tell us "he is a family man, he loves spending time with his fashion model wife" . . . and, to make sure fans appreciate just how ordinary this makes him, they point out his homeliness is all "despite the fact he is adored by female football fans all over the world".
Players' "official websites" are usually less intriguing than home pages as they tend to be spawned not by a player's wish to mingle with supporters, but rather by some sponsor's desire to squeeze as much money from a famous name as possible.
So, Emmanuel Petit's site contains a list of his "favourite books" accompanied by reviews that sound suspiciously like publishers' blurbs and a token banality from the player himself ("this is one of the best books I've read in a long time" being a typically incisive example).
Petit is just one of the all-conquering French squad to have an official website sponsored and designed by Canal + . - Zinedine Zidane, Lilian Thuram, and Bixente Lizarazu are others - and it's always worth tuning into their respective sites after a France match to see how remarkably similar their views on it are.
And while you're there, you may just choose to buy some of the official player memorabilia on sale, such as the splendid Canal + T-shirts.
It's a big surprise, therefore, that David Beckham is still home pageless. Just think how much he could earn by selling advertising spaces in his "favourites" list - surely Ferrari's sales would be boosted massively if Beckham's home page had a link to its website. Though if he decided to put in a "my favourite music" section, diplomacy, rather than money, should dictate what comes Number One. Even if his wife can afford to pay.
It is a pity Beckham does not have a home page. Not just because if he launched one, dozens of glossy magazines would immediately go bankrupt, but also because it would be the perfect forum for him to reject the cult of hate that has sprung up around him like an hysterical revenant.
Nicolas Anelka is someone who understands this arm of the Internet. Following his bitter split with Arsenal and a period of intense brooding at Real Madrid, Anelka realised he was being depicted by many mediamen as a spoilt and surly brat. But from the giddy and, some would say, unctuous demeanour of his home page, it's obvious he's eager to dispel this impression.
Anelka regularly updates his online diary, remembering to mention how much he enjoys receiving e-mails from fans and inviting those "who have always dreamed of talking to me" to email any question they would like him to answer. And the answers he provides are at least as profound as the questions posed; for example, to the teaser "how do you feel after scoring a goal?", Anelka replies - exclusively remember! - "I feel happy".
So we see that, as Sander Westerweld so rightly said, home pages allow stars to talk about "the subjects they want". Maybe it's not quite time to red-card football journalists just yet. After all, someone has to be objective. Said the journalist.
Paul Doyle can be contacted at pdoyle@irish-times.com