The Ibrox fan sites are now trolling their own readers with bizarre transfer stories.

How do you even process some of what you see as a fan? When your own side is trolling you, how do you account for that? When you get up every day, looking for news about your club, and you find that your own fan sites are the ones most blatantly taking the piss … what then?

Ibrox fans have long been the butt of jokes on football websites.

But those are our football websites, and there’s an unwritten law that says we’re allowed to do that. In fact, it’s almost a requirement. Rivalry demands it, especially when they serve up so much raw material, day after day.

What Ibrox fans don’t expect is to get up in the morning and find their own websites trolling them. Yet that’s exactly what happened last night, with one site in particular, the self-styled Ibrox News. It regularly publishes stuff so ridiculous that I have to double-check I’m not reading its old partner in crime, Ibrox Noise.

But no, this is Ibrox News, a different site—albeit one that churns out the same calamitous drivel. Last night, they outdid themselves with an article about two supposed striker targets for the January window. And no, I’m not talking about Lawrence Shankland, the obvious choice and the one most of us expect them to sign because, let’s face it, he’ll be cheap.

No, the real trolling came with the mention of two other names: Evan Ferguson—yes, the Republic of Ireland international valued at £60 million—and Joe Gelhardt of Leeds United. It’s the sort of story you’d expect from a Celtic fan pretending to be one of them.

Let’s give Ibrox News some credit for their sanity: they’re not claiming Ferguson is coming on a permanent deal. That, at least, keeps them on the right side of the asylum gates. But there are two huge problems with the story.

First, Ferguson isn’t going to Ibrox in a million years. He’s a Republic of Ireland international. Enough said. He’s not going there on loan, either—not when there are better clubs lining up for him.

Second, Brighton, his current club, have categorically denied he’s available for loan in January. That story was doing the rounds last week, with claims Celtic were considering a move for him too. Why we’d bother when we have two quality strikers and Cummings waiting in the wings is beyond me. Frankly, I don’t buy it.

Even Brighton’s manager has put this story to bed. He’s made it clear Ferguson isn’t going anywhere. Brighton rate him highly, and he’s set to play an important role for them. They know what they’ve got. They’re not daft.

On top of that, several English clubs—West Ham, Leicester, and Leeds among them—have asked Brighton about a loan deal. That’s why both Brighton’s CEO and manager have nipped this nonsense in the bud. Ferguson is staying put, and even if he was available there are better moves for him than going to Ibrox.

Now, onto the second target: Joe Gelhardt. This one is comedy gold. According to Ibrox News, he’s “highly rated” at Leeds. Yet, he’s so highly rated that he barely gets a game. This season, he’s made two substitute appearances and hasn’t scored a single goal. If this is their big target, I hope they get him because he’s no better than what they’ve got right now.

Spin like this is pure genius. They’re trying to sell a bargain-bin signing target -a non-playing, non-scoring striker that Leeds can’t offload fast enough—as some sort of coup. It’s laughable. And since none of us are buying it, the article must be aimed at their own fans, who they clearly think are as gullible as we do.

Gelhardt epitomises the mad outlook at that club. Leeds have been trying to loan him out since last season, and nobody has bitten. Ibrox News even claims we were interested in him last year. I don’t believe that for a second. There’s no evidence he could do a job for us. We went for Idah and even when the fee climbed to £9 million in the summer, we went for the guy we really wanted.

Here’s a prediction for you: when Gelhardt finally leaves Leeds, he won’t go for £9 million. If he ends up at Ibrox, it’ll be for far, far less. This is too funny to be real.