Insight

There's a Twitter account I see retweeted quite often (I'm not sure of the name, it might be more than one account, I'm just lumping them together) which seems to always be saying what's going to happen with transfers in great detail - "so and so will sign for them, announcement at 2pm" and then nothing happens.  Most of the time it's obvious nothing's going to happen because the transfer touted is so ridiculous.  So I'm left wondering whether this Twitter account is a subtle satire on the papers' treatment of transfer windows - just keep printing rubbish, ignore the things you get wrong and trumpet very loudly the odd thing you get right - if you print enough rubbish something's bound to stick.  If it is satire, it's genius.

Today is one of those days when everything explodes in a big bang of frenzied lying.  No one can get there stories straight.

Nasri is the name on everyone's lips, and as I'm doing a paper review of things that were printed last night there's every chance that the rubbish I'm talking about will have been replaced with different rubbish by the time you read this.  The Sun get far too excited by everything, shouting loudly, "City in AMAZING swoop for Sam" Which you might think meant something had happened. It hasn't.  The amazing swoop boils down to:

"City are planning the first big move for Nasri"

Yes, nothing has actually happened.  And if they did put a bid in, would that actually be amazing?  Really?  Or pretty bog-standard, considering how many names have already been linked with City.

Here's the same story in the slightly less sensational language of The Independent:

Though Sir Alex Ferguson is back at his desk, United's progress on the Nasri front is not likely to advance until next week and there were no signs last night that City are intent on setting the pace for a player who Arsenal will fight to keep.

No discussions took place at a significant level between City and Nasri yesterday and none are currently scheduled, though it is unclear whether exploratory discussions between intermediaries have been undertaken.

Truly AMAZING I'm sure you'll agree.

The Daily Star just ignore City and claim: 

Starsport understands United officials held talks with associates of Samir Nasri last week and are confident of a deal

A bit duller, maybe amazing...

The Mirror join in the same rubbish talk, but with a different player, proclaiming O'Shea is on his way to Arsenal:

The Republic of Ireland international is not interested in joining Sunderland, who expressed interest a fortnight ago and also want United's Darron Gibson.

But O'Shea has been made aware of Arsenal's interest and sources close to the player say he will consider a move to London.

Here's the more likely version from The Guardian:

The Manchester United defender John O'Shea is expected to sign forSunderland early next week. Sir Alex Ferguson agreed to sell the Irishman, as well as Wes Brown and Darron Gibson, to the Wearside club last month. O'Shea is the first of the three players to accept a deal.

The Mirror just made something up?  Shocked... oh...

They do it again, claiming Nani "thought about leaving Man United"  The actual quote:

“It’s true that the rumours about interest from Real Madrid, Barcelona, Juventus and Bayern Munich forced me to think,” said Nani.

“But I am at the best club in the world right now. In the future, things are never certain.

“To play in Spain would be a very good experience, but I prefer the Premier League."

They really are the worst paper for football gossip (or the best, if you like reading absolute trash, but at least it's something...), and that's saying something.

We've apparently upset Fiorentina by signing a young keeper:

Fiorentina's sporting director Pantaleo Corvino is unhappy with Manchester United for convincing their Italy Under-17 goalkeeper Pierluigi Gollini to leave the club for Old Trafford.

Corvino, reacting after Gollini revealed he had accepted an offer to join United's academy, said more of his young players were targeted by English clubs but had chosen to remain with Fiorentina

Storm in a teacup.

Finally, The Daily Mail has some quotes from Evra who, surprisingly perhaps, thinks our new signings are quite-good-actually:

‘I think they are great signings,’ said Evra, speaking on a club trophy promotional tour in China. 

‘We will give them all a nice welcome. I think they’ll be important and I’m very confident about the future.

‘After we lost the Champions League final I said that we had lost just a game. 

‘But I’m confident about the future, especially with our great new signings, and I think we are going to win it next year. 

‘We hope to retain the title but also to win the Champions League.’

Insightful.