With the Euros over, the UK sports media can now indulge in its favorite summer pastime of inventing, stoking or speculating upon the transfer market, an activity that’s no longer the exclusive domain of the country’s notoriously truth-shy tabloid press. In Tuesday’s “quality” papers, writes Josh Widdicombe, “you will find news of 20-plus transfers, only one of which has actually been confirmed, that of Deco to Chelsea.”
Chelsea, Manchester United, Liverpool and Arsenal inevitably dominate transfer gossip, with rumor “often based on the presumption that the teams below the big four will kowtow to their every whim without batting an eyelid.” Examined more closely, a seasoned observer might ask if Tottenham Hotspur really wanted to kick start its campaign for a Champions League spot by replacing captain Robbie Keane with Peter Crouch, or by selling it best player, Dimitar Berbatov, to Manchester United. “Of course,” he adds, “the truth is that a well placed transfer rumor can be self-fulfilling, [and] once it is out there and the player smells the Champions League, the clubs probably won’t have a choice.”
Still, for all the cynicism about such stories, “only the most curmudgeonly would deny the voyeuristic pleasure in following the salacious details of the transfer market. A brief flick through any club message board shows that fans are as complicit as the papers in spreading and discussing every possible transfer permutation.” And he has not missed the irony of adding an article that, “while acting as media commentary, is probably more concerned with who will be playing up front for Spurs next season.”