39 in three weeks

A bit about the ground rules I've laid for myself this Silly Season. There have to be limits, or the rumours are too many, the workload to heavy and the point of the blog too hard to catch.

My goal is to poke fun at the traditionally trustworthy papers, broadsheets or tabloids, who all seem to throw caution (and ethics) to the wind during Silly Season. Agents, friends and relatives, men in pubs and tarts in ponds, they all suddenly act as iron-clad sources if the paper has a need for a back page story on a possible football transfer.

This summer, I refuse to quote papers whose ethics are in doubt throughout the year, because they are likely to print fairy tales outside the Silly Season as well. I also refuse to link to papers with a paywall, but I'll include the rumour without a link if I'm tipped off.

And I won't repeat just every rumour appearing on the web, it has to be published in a proper paper, a broadcast or on a website. Case in point: Ricardo Alvarez. An Argentinian suddenly linked to Arsenal "everywhere" in the blogosphere, accredited to Fox Sports in the US.

While the Fox network may have questionable journalistic standards elsewhere, their sports coverage are serious enough. The problem, however, what that no search on their website - or with Google - gave any result. The whole rumour seems like a hoax. So consider the rumour mentioned here, it won't appear in the Summer 2011 roundup... that is, until someone "serious" decides to print it anyway!

For me (and for practical reasons only) this Silly Season started May 1st. And in the three weeks that has followed, I've compiled the names of 39 players linked with Arsenal. So, still a fraction below a name and a half a day...