All sports sections traffic on rumours. People want to read about potential new signings for their favourite football team. But have you ever read the backpage of a UK newspaper and said "Raul to Chelsea for £71m? This must be a lie"? Usually you will forget about this rumour because on an adjoining page there will be an equally outlandish claim that will pique your interest. Finally these reckless speculations and outright untruths have been tallied up by the good folks at Football Transfer League. Since the summer of 2006, The Guardian boasts the best rumour success rate of 34.2% with 221 of their transfer rumours playing out.
The Scotsman came a respectable third but with only 8 out of 28 rumours correct they didn't really engage in the standard back of the class gossiping. The Daily Mirror published the most rumours with 7255 but the Metro newspaper had the lowest success rate with just 11.6% of their lies actually becoming reality.
The News Of The World had the most rumours per newspaper with 4.86. But spare a thought for them because since it's a Sunday paper they must have to fit all their hypothetical and far fetched scenarios into one sports section. The Metro publish a meagre 0.29 rumours per paper which makes their awful success rate quite comical. Even when they sit on a rumour and report it to the full, they only get it right one in ten times. Guess we shouldn't put too much faith in Chelsea making Pep Guardiola the highest paid coach in the history of coaches so.
h/t footballtransferleague
