It's Groundhog Day - 6 more weeks of the same rumour - Photo Kieran2009 CCANC
Even by the standards of shoddy transfer rumours the effort today from John Cross will take some beating. With (presumably) a straight face and pen, he has written the following exciting story of Arsenal signing the possible wonderkid Wellington Silva:
Wenger takes a shine to Silva
Arsene Wenger is set to sign Brazilian wonderkid Wellington Silva after the teenager impressed on trial with Arsenal.
Wellington, 18, scored twice and set up another goal in a behind-closed-doors friendly with Dagenham & Redbridge this week.
He has been at the Gunners with the blessing of his Brazilian club Fluminense and Arsenal boss Wenger is hoping to broker a £3million deal to bring the striker to the Emirates Stadium.
Only trouble, of course, is that if you follow the Mirror’s transfer stories closely, there are a couple of oversights in Cross’ piece. Let us transport you back to the last decade, now all of five weeks ago, and see if you can spot them:
Arsenal swoop to sign Brazilian wonderkid
Arsene Wenger has made a £3.5million swoop for Brazilian wonderkid Wellington Silva.
The Arsenal boss has moved in for the teen sensation after watching him for more than a year at his club Fluminese.
Wellington - full name Wellington Silva - also impressed during a trial in London, hitting four goals in a youth game against Norwich. And the Gunners continued to monitor his progress in the Under-17 World Cup and Under-17 South American Championship.
His signing will disappoint Gunners fans who had expected to see a more experienced player arrive at the club in the January transfer window.
Wellington will not be able to join up with Arsenal until his 18th birthday in January 2011, but the club are understood to have paid 65 per cent of the fee up front, with the rest to follow when he moves to London.
His agent, Rodrigo Pitta, said: “We completed the transaction last week, the player is already Arsenal’s and Fluminense have already received some money.”
So there you have it - on New Year’s Eve the Mirror were happy to report that Wellington Silva had signed him, and despite the fait accompli, five weeks later they’re happy to present it as a tasty tidbit of gossip. Oh, and if a week is a long time in football, perhaps that explains how five weeks was long enough for Wellington to go from the age of 16 to 18.
Of course, John Cross is presumably a most discerning kind of chap, and might well not spend his time getting his ‘news’ by reading the Mirror - and that’s probably why he missed his colleague’s story on Wellington. Unless he mentioned the deal in a piece he wrote himself a month ago while running the rule over possible Arsenal signings in the January window:
Eden Hazard (18, Lille, £6million)
Rather like Brazilian Wellington Silva and Anderlecht’s teenager Romelu Lukaku, Belgian starlet Hazard is one for the future.
Arsenal have been tracking Hazard for months and may follow Silva to the Premier League at the right price. But they’re all for the future.
That’s assiduous journalism, then.
Oh, and did we mention that whoever is in the picture in all the Mirror stories, given that he’s wearing the shirt of Litex Lovech, who ply their trade in Bulgaria, presumably isn’t Wellington? Sometimes a picture really does tell a thousand words of bullshit.
So someone else spotted it. For a former scion of the Islington Gazette, and a known gooner, what a piece of lazy journalism this is from John Cross. Maybe the mirror just used his name - I hope so. I knew the picture was wrong, but I didn`t know about Litex Levech. Top, top prospect though.