So, today as we approach the biggest game of the season so far, the BBC is running a story that says Olivier Ntcham’s agents are in talks with Porto. They are calling it gossip; since when does gossip belong on the sports pages of the national broadcaster?
The report says that no bid has been submitted. Well if no bid has been submitted what are agents doing talking to club officials? That’s not gossip, that’s tapping so why is the national broadcaster not defending a national club and screaming about that?
Could it be because all involved know what this story actually is; a pack of lies?
If you thought the English transfer window being closed meant we no longer had to deal with flagrant nonsense such as this, think again. This is all depressingly familiar. Do you think the media would run stories from Turkey or elsewhere about renewed interest in Morelos prior to Thursday night? Would they Hell. They would park those stories as being nothing more than useless tittle-tattle and unworthy of reproduction.
Say an offer landed for Ntcham; it would be rejected.
West Ham made a tentative inquiry some weeks ago and were told to look elsewhere. Case closed. Porto would get the same answer, as everyone knows full well, so it’s not even believable tittle-tattle, it’s the kind of “slow news day” nonsense that makes real journalists despair.
Olivier Ntcham has been at Celtic a year.
He has a long time left on his contract.
He is happy at the club, surrounded by good team-mates including two fellow countrymen.
He enjoys working under Brendan Rodgers.
He wants to be part of the next phase in our history making endeavours.
He looks more and more like a first choice.
Those are the facts of the case and they are undisputed.
The rest is just lies, and we can do without them, especially right now.