Glasgow Live – the “sister publication” of The Daily Record’s discredited online website – is running another of its ground-breaking storylines tonight, with the claim that Moussa Dembele has turned down a £65,000 a week deal – rising quickly to £100,000 – for his services because he wouldn’t be a guaranteed starter at the club.
They claim that Chelsea reps met with the player’s own agent and tried, and failed, to get him to agree to the move.
“His decision is a big boost for Brendan Rodgers,” the report says.
Because clearly Brendan wants to keep the player at Celtic Park.
But that’s where I have difficulty with the article; if Brendan wanted to keep him here over overtures from Chelsea he’d simply do what he did with Craig Gordon, wouldn’t he, and reject the bid?
The article doesn’t mention a bid, though.
Which my own sources (and I have some good ones unlike the writers on that site) tell me isn’t exactly a shock as there hasn’t been one …
If my guys are right, and their “sources” – and you wonder exactly what “sources” in the Premier League are available to a Glasgow based local website with no reach beyond this city – are also correct then they ought to contact our club (as we do play here, in Glasgow, last time I checked) with that information because I’m fairly sure this fits the text book definition of tapping and it can result in quite severe sanctions for the club involved.
And you’d think that would be the bigger story here.
That Chelsea had tried, and failed, to tap up our player.
I would expect something like that to be a major exclusive.
To have repercussions, and to be a pretty big deal for the writer, Gregor Kyle.
That’s a big feather in a writer’s cap, a story like that, especially if you look at his output on the site including such award winning pieces as “Where to find the best comfort food in Glasgow” and “Glasgow restaurateur exposed as owner of city sex parlour.”
Of course, all of this presupposes that these sources are real, that the story itself has merit, that the tale told isn’t simply a bunch of made up garbage.
If that’s the case then someone should be pulling Mr Kyle aside and giving him a crash course in journalistic ethics; even on a slow new days you aren’t just allowed to simply Make Stuff Up.
They have pretty severe sanctions for that too.