Sportingo.com’s Mark Apostolou brings daily coverage of the Premier League’s hot gossip.
So it’s another international week (yawn) and also a pretty slow one on the rumours front so I decided to wade through what the club message boards and fanzine sites had to offer in terms of supposed genuine stories, and boy was I shocked at what I found!
Let’s start with the most realistic of rumours that I found, and even this one has an air of fantasy about it. Didier Drogba is apparently on Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger’s summer ’08 shopping list. The Chelsea goal machine apparently on his way out at Stamford Bridge but wants to stay in the Premier League as he seems to have gotten the hang of scoring shed loads of goals in the last 18 months.
Some cheeky scousers have given me a good laugh with a rumour they swore to be true and that was the imminent swap between Liverpool and Everton of two of their prized possessions. Toffees fans might want to sit down for this one. Apparently, and I am sure there is absolutely no grain of truth to this one at all, flying winger Harry Kewell is attracting the interest of David Moyes who may be willing to make a swap with their industrious assist-making engine Mikel Arteta.
To be fair, the comment on the message board did say that money would also be handed over by Rafa’s side, but let’s face it, this is just a pre-derby wind-up and a pretty funny one at that.
Not sure if the next rumour is as ridiculous as the Merseyside one, but it gives it a pretty good run for it’s money. Tottenham, resplendent with their own bungler in goal in the shape of Paul Robinson, have been considering a move for Arsenal’s Jens Lehmann.
This idea is also amusing and almost certainly dreamed up by an Arsenal fan with a sense of humour who has decided to sign in on a Spurs forum in an attempt to goad his rival fans. Paul Robinson is a quality keeper, it’s just that he is going through a bad patch. He has become prone to dropping clangers in recent weeks but overall he is still one of the better keepers in the Premier League.
Jens on the other hand is a bit crazy! A great goalkeeper in his day, but not worth the risk now, and the sooner he leaves the better, especially given his rather petty attacks on Gunners current number one Manuel Almunia.
Now we all know that message boards are all a bit of a laugh and the constant references to seeing players in the vicinity of their club’s ground. Or they heard it from a man in the know that the latest sensation was about to seal a deal to sign up.
However, in all honesty I remember reading on a West Ham site that some fan had been told by an insider that they were about to sign Carlos Tevez and Javier Mascherano, I thought that was a joke and it proved to be all too true. In other words, don’t believe everything you read, but equally don’t be surprised if one in a hundred of these rumours turns out to be on the money.