The latest Kyogo “transfer rumour” is scrapings from the stuff below the bottom of the barrel.

What an absolutely dreadful publication Football Insider is.

I don’t need to spell out my contempt for it—everyone who reads my work already knows how low my opinion is of it. I’ve said many times it’s the worst outlet in the entire Scottish sports media, and yesterday they delivered yet another laughably false story.

According to their latest piece of fiction, Manchester City held talks with Kyogo in the summer and might go back for him in January.

Where do I even begin with how absurd this claim is? We know that sources can be credible or not. And then there’s Football Insider, which doesn’t seem to have any sources at all. They are nothing more than a clickbait factory, recycling old rumours and spinning fantasy.

The initial rumour did originate from a more credible platform, with actual journalists involved. Even then, I thought it was a stretch. It felt like a case of people putting two and two together and coming up with five. There was also a whiff of agent tactics at play.

It’s no coincidence that Kyogo switched agents just before this rumour surfaced. It’s fairly obvious that someone was trying to stir the pot for their own ends, and to drum up real interest in a player we would never have sold regardless.

Of course, we can’t entirely discount lazy journalism either.

With Kyogo’s former manager now at City, it’s easy to see how the connection might be overblown. That’s how lazy journalists work—they latch onto small bits of fact and inflate them into something significant. Have City discussed Kyogo internally? Maybe.

It’s possible someone mentioned him in passing. Probably and the guy might even have recommended him as a backup option, a “break glass in event of …” signing. Celtic’s valuation, in excess of £15 million, ended that talk immediately.

Did I ever seriously believe a club that can sign just about any player in world football would spend £20 million on someone from the Scottish Premiership? No. I didn’t believe it then, and I don’t believe it now. Some people had fun with the story, but it was essentially a non-starter with no more truth than those stories about Saudi interest in James Tavernier.

I definitely don’t believe it when it comes from Football Insider.

If they published a piece claiming the sky was blue and the grass was green, I’d still double-check. Their stable of writers has always been so atrocious that it’s almost comical. They’re the people who couldn’t land jobs in the mainstream media—and that should really make you think about how bad they are. We’re talking about the stuff beneath the scum beneath the bottom of the barrel here.

Of course, that doesn’t mean that there won’t be a real story about Kyogo one day.

Celtic will have to make a decision about Kyogo’s future at some point. He’s approaching his 30s, and he may want to try his luck elsewhere before he hangs up his boots. When that time comes, the club will have to decide when to sell. But I doubt it’ll happen in January. Next summer, though? That’s a more likely scenario. I was mentally prepared for it this past window, and if we’d signed another striker alongside Adam Idah, I could have seen it happen then.

But a lot of dominos have to fall before we’d even countenance it.

That’s why this latest rumour is just pathetic. It’s a desperate attempt at clickbait from a website with nothing else to write about now the transfer window has closed. They’re recycling stories that have already been debunked. The whole thing is a joke.

If this rumour was barely credible before, it’s even less so now.

That said, discussions about Kyogo’s future are inevitable. The club will have to think long-term, and we all know Kyogo may believe he has one last big move left in him. That’s fair enough. The important thing for Celtic is to ensure we’ve lined up his successor in good time, so the transition is smooth, and we get a decent price for him.

Players hitting 30 don’t automatically lose value these days. Elite players command big fees well into their 30s, and we shouldn’t sell Kyogo for less than he’s worth.

When there’s a real story to tell, we’ll hear about it. But it certainly won’t come from Football Insider, the worst of the worst. They know nothing at all.