If you really, really want to know if a certain player is going to join a new club, then you need to be monitoring what they are liking and favouriting on social media. It's 2015, this is how we live now.
Manchester United fans were today very excited to learn of Christian Benteke's latest twitter activity, and to be fair, it is pretty strange.
The Aston Villa striker has been linked with a move to Liverpool in recent weeks and reportedly has a buy-out clause of £32.5m, but he's been going around favouriting tweets about him joining Manchester United.
Well, maybe not "tweets" as there has only been one, but it's a strange one. When Mail Online linked to their article about Benteke joining United, one Bastian Schweinstieger loving fan gave his opinion on it:
@dooley87 @MailSport he's exactly what we need tbh, just needs to be backup to Rooney.
— Der FußballGott (@FutbolFinn) July 15, 2015
Christian Benteke liked his opinion, and gave it a favourite:
So, Benteke favourites a tweet stating that he’s exactly what #MUFC need as backup for Rooney… Let the rumours begin: pic.twitter.com/KSlPujquIH
— Tom Coast (@thcoast) July 15, 2015
You may think that this is all a bit ridiculous, and well, it is, but think for a minute. That tweet didn't mention Benteke at all, he would have had to search for news about himself and then check out the comments, where he either thought the idea of being backup to Rooney was so funny that he had to give it a fav, or that he appreciated this fan thinking he is just what the club needs.
Manchester United fans will tell you that Radamel Falcao's wife was very favourite-happy before he agreed to join the club last summer, and then there was Andreas Pereira following Memphis Depay on twitter back in April, and of course who could forget the United club photographer following Morgan Schneiderlin two weeks before he was officially unveiled as a new signing?
Regardless of how tenuous this entire thing is, some United fans have gotten quite excited and there will definitely be more transfer rumour stories on the back of this.
BREAKING UPDATE: It seems as though Christian Benteke has since un-favourited that tweet. Does this mean he is signing for Liverpool? Does this mean he accidentally hit favourite while trying to swipe the touch-screen?
It probably means someone told him to un-favourite it.
