Don’t Trust a Blog as far as you can Throw it

It happens almost daily during the transfer period. You come across an asinine transfer rumor in one of the papers and you can only scratch your head and wonder who in the world came up with that one. Sometimes it is a rumor planted by an agent or a club. Other times papers just pull them out of their collective asses in an effort to capture your eyeballs and your money. And there is always the possibility that the “news” has been generated by a person living in his parent’s basement with a decent Internet connection.

Case in point. It was widely reported yesterday that Arsenal were going to land Rodrigo Palacio from Boca Juniors. It turns out the story was little more than a prank put forth by a blog in Argentina.

A blog claiming to be run by and on behalf of Boca Juniors fans began by reporting that the Gunners were interested in Argentinian Rodrigo Palacio, a striker who has scored 39 goals in 79 appearances for Boca and has won five caps for his country. Various Arsenal forums were also spammed with the rumours.

It didn’t take long for the national press to jump on the bandwagon.

‘Palacio, 25, will fly into London tomorrow after Boca accepted the Gunners’ offer’ announced the Daily Telegraph, who published the story on Tuesday. They were far from alone – the BBC, The Independent and the Daily Mail all ran the news.

The Sun were amongst the hardest stung within the British media, announcing on Monday that ‘all obstacles have been removed after Arsenal came in with a record-breaking offer’, while Sky Sports News announced it as a done deal.

Doh. Talk about a smackdown. Those tricky blogs. Never trust them. Stick to the conventional media for your fabricated stories.

By the way, you might think that the picture of Palacio has been doctored and that it too is a prank. I can safely confirm that the rat tail is 100% redneck certified real.

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Category: South America, World Football