Two stories, 18 mentions

Today brings two separate Arsenal transfer rumours: one that Arsenal have bid £18m for Juan Mata, the Valencia and Spain forward, and the other that Cesc Fábregas will be allowed to leave if Barcelona up their offer with a few million.

The Mata rumour was first reported in the Daily Mail, and was a proper bombshell for Gooners long tired of the protracted Gervinho and Chris Samba stories. You can only keep up interest for so long. Whether there is any hold in the story, noone knows. Mata is already a target for Chelsea and Manchester City among others, so an agent would definitely see it in his client's best interest to have a story like that published in a major paper.

The Daily Mail article has been re-written and expanded first by the Press Association, and that item in turn has been turned into web articles on just about any website thinkable. With this blog's fairly narrow choice of transfer rumour sources, I still count six mentions of Mata in one day.

But speaking of protracted stories, the exclusive today by the BBC Sport website about Arsenal's sudden willingness to at least accept the idea of selling Cesc looks to have something about it. The reporter, Dan Roan, isn't known for publishing just anything. He quotes a 'senior Arsenal official' as his source, which is probably a good one. He describes the decision to sell as a board decision, not a manager decision, which is likely in this case.

However, the story still hangs on Barcelona's willingness (or no) to bid enough for Arsenal to accept. It may not take all those millions of pounds that have been banded about before, but there is still a solid amount of money between the two clubs' evalutations.

So that part isn't new. Still, the story, quoted or not, gathers an incredible twelve - 12 - mentions in the British online news media in one day. And that's NOT counting the Independent and the like, who publish the PA story as it is.

It reminds us, that whichever player Arsenal are trying to sign at whatever price, it's still not as big a story as Cesc going home or not. Vieira and Henry, anyone?