Grain of salt: Geoffrey Kondogbia

Remember the other day, when we talked about "sources say"? Well, today we got a great example of that in the form of two articles about Geoffrey Kondogbia.

Article the first, from ESPNFC, contains a quote from Kondogbia's agent, and that agent says Manchester City, Real Madrid, Inter Milan, and Juventus are leading candidates to secure Kondogbia's services next season. See that? Real, actual quotes from a real, actual person, stating real, actual things that might come to pass one of these days.

Then, we have article the second, from the Mirror. This article carries the sexy-to-Arsenal-fans headline "ARSENAL PREPARING £25 MILLION BID FOR MONACO MIDFIELDER GEOFFREY KONDOGBIA". Sounds great, right? Sure it does! Who wouldn't want that, except for bloggers who are tired of typing ridiculously convoluted last names like Szczesny and really hate the idea of a Kondogbia signing because of carpal tunnel concerns? Nobody!

Problem is, the Mirror piece contains, and I can't make this clear enough, absolutely nothing of substance to support that headline. All it says is that "Arsenal are ready to rival Inter" for Kondogbia's signature. It doesn't say "sources say", it doesn't say "someone with close ties to the club" - there is literally nothing in this article to suggest that Arsenal are in fact ready to do that. The only thing saying that is this piece, and the only source for its creation is its author.

Might Geoffrey Kondogbia come to Arsenal? Sure he might! Anything's possible! Sky's the limit! Just don't use this article as a base for getting your hopes up. Be smarter than the sports media, people. In most cases, it's not that hard.