Sunny 2014 in Transfer rumour thread

There was another thread recently; "what would you do if Not606 disappeared forever?" It made me wonder what might happen if the "Summer Transfer rumour thread" disappeared. "Have a lot more free time" seemed to be a common answer. Seems to me like that one thread makes up a great deal of the time spent on here.

It's all meaningless guesswork right up until the moment a deal is announced on the official site. People "In the know" will tell you a load of utter bobbins, time and time again. We have a £30m war-chest. We have no money. Luke's already gone (in a deal bizzarely completed out of the window with only one bidder rather than allowing a bid war to begin). Adam will definitely go, the offers wil be too good. Adam will never go, he's loyal. Morgan is off to Arsenal and his motivation isn't to improve his salary, it's getting a game for France - really? Krueger plans to sell out. We're safe with Katharina. Boruc is being sold. It's all guesswork, can't you see that?

You might as well argue about what the weather is going to be in Transfer, Pennsylvania on August 18th, so what are the guesses? Make up any rumours you may have heard from a bloke down the pub. Claim you have inside information. Be as pessimistic as possible. Whatever you do, try to make sure you are adamant that your view is correct.

I predict sunshine in the morning, with gentle southerly winds bringing in a short period of showers in mid afternoon. Temperatures peaking at 72deg F. Anyone who disagrees with this prediction is a naive optimistic/pessimistic/out of the loop idiot.

Vin

 

The great thing about a rumour thread is that you can put down the same rumours again and again or completely contradictory ones...just leave a few pages gap. Most will never go back and pull you up on it.

 

I know a bloke who works at the BBC who is In The Know, who says it's going to get dark later.

 

Is his name Ron?

 

I would rather believe your cousin who goes to school with the son of the man at the BBC who is ITK. The further is gets from the source, the more authentic it becomes.

 

Another way to gain credibility is to make your first ITK comment. Usage would be "I've heard form someone who's never before claimed to be in the know that Artur has signed for Barcelona". So, less crediility = more credibility.

Vin

 

I don't mind the speculative rumours, it's just a bit of fun.

What I hate about the transfer rumour threads (and the reason I completely gave up on it last summer) is the "matter of fact" views that are posted that xyz player is either the absolute key to us breaking into the top 6 or a player that will never be any good. They normally come alongside a tacit implication that the poster in question has a knowledge of world football that we should all aspire to, given that they spend 36 hours a day watching football from 12 different continents (ok maybe I'm exaggerating a little bit but you get my point). Winds up me. Shouldn't do, I know, but it does.

 

What's your recommendation on that - if people have knowledge on a player that we're being linked to that most other people don't, then isn't it a good idea for them to share it?

 

Boruc has signed for Barcelona!

You're right...it does add credibility.

 

From my ITK source.
Qwerty is signing a new car.

 

At the end of the day, if you don't like the thread you don't have to read it.

 

Funny that, because my ITK source says Mrs Qwerty is looking at signing one and then immediately loaning it out to you. There will be a clause that says she can have it back whenever she wants!

 

There was a time, many years ago, when I read World Soccer and FourFourTwo religiously. FM did actually increase awareness of players names and then the magazines would help back that up.

I don't do that now, so the "knowledge" and opinions of you guys is good for me.

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Thankfully Dan, you were wrong (so far) on Lovren

 

Whether I read it or not it's still pointless.

Vin

 

Sky just said that we will hear from Mauricio about Shaw. What's the betting he says nothing at all.

 

I'm expecting "The player is under contract with us, we've had no official bids and we definitely want to keep him". Something along those lines, anyway.

That's the only problem with it, I suppose. Lovren was horrendous last season and I have no reason to regret pointing that out to people who had no idea, but if that's seen as automatically saying he'll be terrible for years to come then that's the issue. Of course, his recent drop off in form is something Lyon fans might be familiar with... *zips mouth shut*

 

As much information as that? I'm expecting: Don't like to speculate. We are concentrating on this game.

 

I'm only pulling your leg

 

Michael Fish?

 

duh! He said "someone who knows"