Sex Sells

photo by Sebastian Anthony	via PhotoRee

And so do transfer rumors, especially with the January window still open.  How else to explain the logic behind @ianprior's boneheaded decision to tease the Twitter-verse yesterday with a "Guardian Exclusive" transfer story that turned out to be nothing more than a reiteration of Inter's desire to buy Gareth Bale?  Thanks, but next time tell me something I don't know.... 

That story was followed in quick succession by a release from Liverpool announcing that they've turned down a Chelsea offer in the vicinity of £35-40 million for striker Fernando Torres, and rumors of fresh scouse bids for both Luis Suarez and Charlie Adam.  What's going on here?  It's silly season, of course, and there's nothing like transfer rumors and stories to get the blood pumping a bit and sell newspapers (or online advertisements).

We're even guilty of it here at farlieonfootie.  Take a quick gander over at the column on the right, which displays our most popular posts of the past 30 days.  I'll wait for you....

Okay -- you're back (I hope).  Whats there at the top? A ridiculous transfer story, possibly the most ridiculous one imaginable.  I mean, can anyone actually envision Lionel Messi leaving Barcelona at the current time for Manchester United?  Not me....  And neither should anyone else.  In fact, for those of you who haven't yet read the story, I wrote the column solely to poke fun at the very nature of transfer rumors, especially the bogus ones.  But that hasn't stopped it from becoming our number one most read post of the last month -- despite the fact that it was written over 90 days ago!

So the moral of this particular story is that transfer rumors, like sex, sell.   And that's while you'll continue to see them dominate the headlines over the next few days (and even beyond).  People can't control themselves -- whether it's imagination, curiosity, or just plain old wishful thinking -- it's undeniably fun and/or anguishing to imagine the mega stars of one team playing for another.  Even when you know the stories are untrue -- or even if they are true, but never happen -- there's an unbelievable amount of time wasted writing, reading and talking about the next sensational transfer rumor.  To which I say: Get back to work, people!

This is farlieonfootie for January 29.