Yacine Adli gets the Jack the Ripper treatment from the media and Leno becomes catch of the day

By Sir Hardly Anyone

And the number of players who are definitely absolutely and completely certainly joining Arsenal is growing by the minute as website after website now report that in addition to

• Lucas Torreira (age 22, and of Uruguayan nationality) from Sampdoria for £26.4m
• Stephan Lichtsteiner age 34 attacking right back or wing back
• Borussia Dortmund defender Sokratis Papastathopoulos, aged 30.
• Yacine Adli from PSG.   A youth team prodigy.

we now have another.

But first let us stop there.  Because having been telling us for days that Yacine Adli was signed for Arsenal the media is saying that Yacine Adli is not coming to Arsenal.   And instead of doing the decent thing and saying that they cocked it up and made a huge mistake over and over again saying this was happening, now they are saying that Arsenal are “missing out” on the player.  It’s a Jack the Ripper case, meaning they are making up the story to suit their own agenda.

It is a classic invention, telling us the deal was done (not that it was a possibility but that the deal was done) and now no it wasn’t.

Two days ago the Mirror said Yacine Adli has hit out at claims that he is set to call off his transfer to Arsenal.

Just one day ago the Star said, the “youngster Yacine Adli has shot down reports claiming that he’s rethinking a move to Arsenal.”  (Where do they get this arcane language from?   “Shot down”????  Do they really think anyone speaks like that?

Then the Express said the player “has quashed reports suggesting he was in London to complete a move to Arsenal at the weekend” which raises the question, is “quashed” heavier than “shot down”?

And late last night changed this inevitably changed to the implication that it is all Arsenal’s fault… as we are told Arsenal “appear to have missed out on the transfer of PSG youngster…”

And does any newspaper accept responsibility?   One need hardly ask.   Instead they have now gone bonkers on replacing the story that Bernd Leno is “set to sign for Arsenal” and this “has gone down extremely well with the club’s supporters.”

But worry not, for as fast as one player is dropped from the “will sign” rosta and instead a new one comes forward to keep the ball rolling over and over any thought of logic or sanity.

For all hail, Bernd Leno.

“Arsenal to sign Bernd Leno in the coming days”.  The Metro.   That is just a few days after on 9 May 101 Great Goals said that we had lost the chance of signing Bernd Leno.

So it might be fantasy or it might be real, but since it is a case of Jack the Ripper reporting, let’s have something that might vaguely be akin to some facts.

Season	Team	Games
2009/11	VfB Stuttgart II	56
2011-	Bayer Leverkusen	233
2008/9	Germany U17	4
2009/10	Germany U18	5
2010/11	Germany U19	5
2012/15	Germany U21	14
2015-	Germany	6

He’s had quite a good record across the years and has had the good fortune not to be selected for the World Cup so there is no worry that we might sign him and then have him on our hands but unable to play.

Leno was also only the third keeper in German league history not to concede a goal in any of his first three games, and on 13 November 2011 became the youngest ever keeper to play in the Champs League.

His current contract I believe runs out this year which if true means that there would be no fee.  I am trying to see if anyone is confirming this but I can’t find it anywhere since most sites are doing a copy and paste of each other, so until someone confirms it is a free, the others don’t want to run it.

Some, all or none of these players may be joining Arsenal.  The only thing you can be certain of is the fact that the media “outlets” tell fibs.

 

• Proceed with extreme caution but we may have just bought another player
• 90 players Arsenal are signing, although one is a bit of a cheat. It’s the Jack the Ripper List
• Jack the Ripper and football transfers: the media’s interest is in the survival of the media