Who do you trust for transfer news?
Silly season is very much in full swing and with it comes the never-ending stream of effluent produced on mass by certain unreputable media outlets and individuals.
Not a great source of transfer gossip but Trump has been approached by several high-profile goalkeepers to help them build a defensive wall
While it's good to stay up to date with your chosen team's wheelings and dealings in the transfer market, it's can be very difficult to pick fact from fiction, fake news from real and codswallop from cold hard journalism. So who do you trust?
Here are my list of reputable news sources
BBC Sport - in general once a story hits the BBC website then you know that it is based on actual events as opposed to wild speculation. However, the BBC site itself tends to only report completed or very nearly completed deals so it's good to delve a little deeper and look at a few of their reporters and football correspondents many of whom have established links with clubs in a specific region.
David Ornstein, BBC - Is an excellent source of news in regards London clubs and being a Spurs fan myself I generally look to see what if anything he is reporting on a breaking transfer story. For example, I heard rumblings yesterday about Spurs trying to steal in with a late bid for this defender (never heard of him until Friday morning) but until Ornstein reported it I took it with a pinch of salt. Now the real question is are we really in for this guy or are we just fucking with Arsenal who have a limited budget and a crisis at centre back following Koscielny's hissy fit?
https://twitter.com/bbcsport_david/status/1149662314104156160
Lyall Thomas , Sky - Another decent source of Spurs-related news is Lyall Thomas at Sky Sports. Something fresh off the press from him in regards Kieran Trippier's likely departure from the club. It interests me that he is attracting attention from outside the EPL with a couple of clubs in Italy also rumoured to be interested in man who got a fair bit of flack for his abject performances last season.
https://twitter.com/SkySportsLyall/status/1150109192172244993
Ed Aarons, The Guardian - Has his ear to the ground on a lot of things football and I've found him particularly reliable on Spurs transfer news. A lot of what he publishes doesn't go through his personal twitter feed but rather the Guardian Sport account. Poor old Christian seems like he's rather shot himself in the foot by playing like a complete and utter tosser for large parts of last season. Note to all "professional" footballers, if you want a move to a higher profile side then it's best to play like you belong at one!
https://twitter.com/guardian_sport/status/1150105552359428096
You can be fairly certain that news coming out of most broadsheets at least has some basis of fact but I've also found that most of them have given in to temptation and are quite happy to post click bait on their sites as well. They will generally source anything that isn't their own work so just be sure to check where they are getting their info from.
If that info is from a British tabloid then it's generally crap! These guys will just plain makeup stories, rehash old news or otherwise just reprint other gobbledygook that they will have pinched from equally unreputable sources.
Of course, it isn't always the media's fault. Players, agents and clubs will plant phoney baloney stories out there in order to drum up potential interest or otherwise assist with ongoing contract negotiations - look, everyone is interested in signing me, pay me double what you were or I'm off......
It's a minefield out there.
Who are your top tips for qualified reporting on transfer deals?
Definitely not Sky Sports!
For Liverpool, James Pearce and Melissa Reddy are the top sources. If they report it, its happening. There are a few others I trust like Paul Joyce who are reliable, but outside that lot I don't tend to take much notice.
Yeah, i don't think that Sky in general are great but a few individuals who work for them know their stuff including Lyall Thomas.
I guess with Sky you kind of have to take the good with the bad. I doubt Paul Merson can even butter his toast in the morning let alone comprehend the inner workings of a multi-million pound transfer deal it's gotta be slightly embarrassing for actual journos who work there to hear him slurring like the brain dead Gooner twat in the same office as them.
The other thing with Sky is everything is building towards the god awful end of window show that they run where they will literally dry hump the shit out of any piece of "news" factual or otherwise that they can find. Gotta fill those minutes!
Yep, that's exactly it. Ugh, they'll soon be wheeling out Jim White in his shit yellow tie so he can cream his pants every time a car goes past a stadium.
Simon Stone from BBC is one that I follow for Manchester United transfer news. Especially in the Wan Bissaka saga he was quite patient before pulling the trigger and announcing the deal as compete on Twitter. It was obvious the deal was going to happen but most twitter handles jumped the gun a week before it was announced.
As a United fan you can imagine we are linked with pretty much every available player. I was interested in Eriksen until I watched him in the Champions league final. While I had a vested interest that the results went against Liverpool I was appalled at how lackluster Eriksens performance was. He was rubbish.
I don't want him any where near United. I would have Fellaini over him any day... lol
Haha, I am semi-glad that other supporters have seen Eriksen's performances that way. The Champions League Final was probably the most glaringly obvious example but to be honsest he was crap for much of the later stages of last season i.e. once he'd made his mind up to move elsewhere. Rumour is that Spurs were looking for in excess of £100million for him but have since cut that amount dramatically in a bid to shift his useless arse. The alternative is that he either signs a new contract or leaves on a free - that's what you call a lose ,lose situation!