Transfer Rumours-The Truth

by NiallQuinnsdiscoPants Wed Jun 13, 2012 11:21 am

Another forum I read decided they'd try and get a transfer rumour started.

Eventually they decided to chose Newcastle as the interested club, and North Korean striker Jong Il Gwan as the transfer target.

Originally they just changed around an article from a Korean newspaper and said Newcastle had been tracking him since he won the Asian footballer of the year award a year or two ago. They even said he was the best young prospect since Kim Jong-Il, you would think that would be a give away but no.

They then tweeted the said doctored article with a YouTube video of him scoring a hat trick against Australia to a few Newcastle blogs and fansites who took the bait and the rumour started to spread. They had Mark Douglas (north-east journalist) saying he didn't know about Gwan specifically but that he knew that the mags were scouting in Asia for talent. That meant that the rumours started to develop on Newcastle forums and members there started discussing how he could be a bargain considering Carr's recent scouting record. There was this supposed Newcastle ITK called carr or something like that on Twitter who claimed he had heard from his ''sources'' that he would be signed for the development squad. Apparently this fella is a well know Newcastle ITK

A couple of days later in the Daily Mail their ''insider'' claimed the move had a 3/5 chance of happening ():

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/foo...=feeds-newsxml

Newcastle rewarded scout Graham Carr with a new eight-year contract today and he continues to have that knack of finding talent. One of the latest targets of his attention is North Korea international striker Jong Il-Gwan. The 19-year-old has been linked with PSV Eindhoven and Partizan Belgrade but Newcastle have been keeping an eye on him since his hat-trick for North Korea in the Asian Youth Championship against Australia in 2010. Alan Pardew wants to build up his squad and will invest around £10m on second string players who can step up. The added bonus would be the commercial revenue a player such as Il-Gwan could generate.

The following day, a Serbian news site took the doctored article and printed it adding that Partizan Belgrade were interested along with Newcastle and PSV and claimed that their manager has lots of contact with the Korean market:

http://www.mozzartsport.com/vesti/pa...azijskim-cudom

More and more Serbian websites started to pick it up and then claimed Trazponspor were interested too. It kept going for about another week but then fizzed out completely.

Here's a list of some of the articles if anyone's bothered, there's loads more:

English:
NUFC Blog - http://www.nufcblog.com/2012/06/06/n...orean-striker/
Tribal Football - http://www.tribalfootball.com/articl...l-gwan-3222841
Daily Mail - http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/foo...=feeds-newsxml
http://thespectatorsview.com/2012/06...h-korea-video/

Serbian:
Balkan Sport http://balkan-sport.net/2012/06/jong...n-u-partizanu/
Mondo article 2 http://www.mondo.rs/s247362/Sport/Fu...znom_roku.html
Sportske article 2 http://www.sportske.net/vest/domaci-...ihi-82190.html

PSV:
Voetbal4U http://www.voetbal4u.com/2012/06/08/...reaanse-spits/

Trabzonspor:
http://calciocorea.altervista.org/tag/jong-il-gwan/

So basically a transfer rumour that started as a complete piss take ended up with the the Daily Mail's insider reporting that there was a very good chance of a deal, a Mag ITK claiming he would be signed for the development squad, Serbian newspapers making up rumours that Partizan were interested in him, the same with PSV and Trabzsponsor and a YouTube video with over 20,000 views. A couple of weeks ago I doubt there was many of them that had even heard of him.

Proof that you shouldn't take transfer rumours too seriously

by Zealous Wed Jun 13, 2012 11:28 am

We should totally try this.

Although the Madrid section has already done this with Sahin :coffee:

by Great Leader Sprucenuce Wed Jun 13, 2012 11:33 am

i lol'd so hard when i first heard this, the original link was so blatently fake it was ridiculous how it caught on was beyond me Laughing

The price for him worked out to something like 5p Laughing

Just shows how easy it is to start a transfer rumor.

by Art Morte Wed Jun 13, 2012 11:47 am

Thanks for sharing, discopants, I've been wanting for something like this, to balance out all the vain rumours, I guess Thumbs up

And yes, we should try do the same eco smile

by Adit Wed Jun 13, 2012 11:52 am

This is how Newcastle scouts Laughing

by Great Leader Sprucenuce Wed Jun 13, 2012 11:54 am

Adit wrote:This is how Newcastle scouts

Worked out pretty well so far would'nt you say :coffee:

by Mr Nick09 Wed Jun 13, 2012 12:07 pm

Well i think it looks obvious that websites like Caughtoffside operate that way, with people making up links and transfer rumors all day long.

Marca is another paper like that which specialize in inventing transfer rumors every week to be relevant, and to sell paper. Thing is, they are so big that every little rag on the internet will pick up and say that Mourinho is desperate to sign X player.

For example we are looking for a RB, it's well known. So first some agent tricked them into thinking that RM had made contacts for some noob in brazil called Mario Fernandes (now he is gone to CSKA for 15m Laughing

).

Then they announced the well known EPL RBs as our targets, Johnson and Walker, the usual dutch suspect Van der Wiel. And it went on and on...

When Juanfran is called up for the Euros, few days later Marca is saying that Mourinho wants him at Madrid.

When Danilo plays a good friendly with Brazil, he pops into Marca like a desired target of the Mister.

When Maicon's agent announced his player was leaving, Marca concluded that Mourinho had called him already to sign him.

When Joao Pereira will beast, they will probably announce that Mouinrho hijacked his deal to Valencia to bring his fellow portuguese with him... lol

by NiallQuinnsdiscoPants Wed Jun 13, 2012 12:19 pm

This is another one years ago from the Sunderland message board

Crying or Very sad

Im actually quite disappointed it was a hoax but I hoped for us to sign him at the time lol.

It was years ago, I think McCarthy was in charge at the time and it was just as we got promoted back to the Premier League for our wonderful 15 point season.

It was well before twitter or facebook so it was all spread the old fashioned way. Some of the lads off here (I think there were 6 or 12 of them) decided to link us with Koller and started spreading the rumours independently. It then got spread on here, and then ended up in the Echo. It then went national on sky sports news and international. It ended up with a denial from his agent. Pretty impressive and funny stuff considering there was no social media bollocks to do it with. I'm sure there used to be a thread in the Gold forum but not sure if it got lost when all the threads got deleted a few years back.

Here is something off the internet as its still a well known hoax

"Bored by lack of football news following the end of the season in England, some supporters of Sunderland decided to make up a transfer rumour . They posted bogus claims on various fan sites that Czech international Jan Koller was in negotiations with Sunderland — and equally bogus claims that the news was on his current (German) club’s web site — and then sat back to see if the media would bite.

Within hours the local paper ran the story on its back page (’Cats want Koller - AMBITIOUS Sunderland want to sign giant Czech striker Jan Koller [...] But enquiries are still at the very early stage for the Borussia Dortmund forward…’). The following day the best selling tabloids picked it up, including The Sun (’Cats eye giant Jan - Sunderland want giant striker Jan Koller to fire them to Premiership safety. The Black Cats are having talks with Borussia Dortmund in a bid to tie up a £1.5 million deal for the 32 year-old Czech.’) and The Mirror (’KOLLER & TIE-UP - SUNDERLAND want giant striker Jan Koller to boost their chances in the Premiership. The Black Cats are in talks with Borussia Dortmund in a bid to tie up a £1.5million deal for the Czech international.’).

All lies, of course, and sourced initially from fan sites with made up quotations being reproduced and false certainties and facts inserted by some very lazy journos, probably on the basis of the local paper story being fed to the PA and embellished to fill out the gaps.

Less than 48 hours after starting the rumour, the global television media were on the case with the player’s agent had to contact Sky Sports News to deny the claims appearing in the press: ‘These stories are a major surprise and I think someone is dreaming up stories’. If only he knew…"