That's what annoys me. There is close to no regulations governing the kind of bullsh1t that emanates from newspapers. They should at least provide some suitable proof before printing/posting. "My mate told me" rumour isn't good enough, especially from a so called well respected newspaper.
That's one of the areas the Leveson recommendations were supposed to address, before it was quietly dropped due to pressure from the press and government, and then greater freedom was given to the press instead. I mean look at all the ridiculous stuff printed about Jeremy Corbyn, and the sustained propaganda campaign against him by all of the national newspapers.
It is ridiculous in footballing terms how a newspaper will see a twitter post from a ITK, or a vague reference (or worse a Talksport article!) and then create a huge article off it, then other newspapers, instead of doing any digging or work, will just recreate or reference the 1st BS article and keep snowballing the BS, until us poor saps are convinced a major signing is just around the corner - while the papers are printing contradictory article at the same time.
I mean if all the articles were true we'd have a strike force of Benzema, Cavani, Ibrahimovic, Giroud, Welbeck, Higuain, Walcott, Aubameyang! True that is one hell of a strikeforce, and certainly will get you goals, but it's fantasy land for Football Manager players, let alone the real world!