Another Outlet Shoots Down A Celtic Transfer Story Which Only Existed In The Media.

“Czech club Banik Ostrava have broken their silence on reported Celtic interest in top striker prospect Ladislav Almasi and insisted he won’t leave this month,” reads the article in The Herald today, and there are a few things wrong with that opening.

First, they didn’t “break their silence.”

Because they didn’t know there was a story to comment on, as their sporting director makes abundantly clear.

“To tell you the truth, I don’t know anything about this interest from Scotland,” he said. “I don’t think anyone contacted the club directly from (Celtic). I know about there was some interest from Slavia Prague, but it soon eased off. Apart from that, there has been nothing concrete.”

So no “silence” there, and no news either.

This is the media commenting on a story that they invented in the first place.

This is another in a long line of “Celtic missed today …” as someone they had erroneously linked us with went to another club.

The writer of this tosh is a guy called Mark Walker.

Just last week, he wrote this; “Celtic target Aissa Laidouni has slammed the door shut on any possible move to Parkhead…because he wants to play in Europe this season.” That he was actually a “Celtic target” would have been news to everyone at our club, since they’re busy trying to sign a striker and Laidouni is a midfielder.

So is this his specialist subject or what? Players his own paper linked with Celtic going somewhere else allowing him to write a “Celtic snubbed” or “Celtic lose out” story? He’s not the only one who indulges in this. Every outlet carries at least one every single week during the transfer window. It’s tiresome sifting through it all.

“Casper Tengstedt Celtic transfer setback as Benfica ‘close in’ on Rosenborg star with fee revealed” was the headline in Glasgow World and other outlets on 10 January. He, at least, is a forward but the £10 million fee strongly suggests he was never a target to begin with.

No wonder the boss himself had to point out that 80% of what is in the public domain is simply not true.

Following transfer rumours is like watching a blindfolded darts player; he might hit the board every once in a while, and maybe even the bullseye if he’s got his feet under him, but you wouldn’t put him up against even the rawest Sunday League competitor.

This is a classic example of what I was talking about last night; the mainstream press is still where we’re most likely to read about who the number one target actually is, probably shortly before he signs … but in their need to keep shovelling up content they reproduce everything they hear everywhere, and when that doesn’t suffice they invent it themselves.