Rorschach
Ricky Villa
We'll have another one of these ITK threads next year, and it'll be the exact same flimflam as this year....What we should learn for next time around:
1. The "Regular ITK's" are not in the know. Those same names we see every day claiming to know stuff - absolutely not one of them has ever been right on anything, except by accident or the law of large numbers. They don't know anything because by claiming they know about everything, they are saying they have a source high at the club in a position to know about ALL transfer activity. Since nobody in a position of authority at a professional sports organisation would blab like that, we can dismiss these qunts out of hand.
2. The "Occasional ITK's" - people like journalists or hangers-on at agencies or around the fringes of the club or players, brothers of players etc. - might have occasional info, but that would be once or twice during a window at an absolute maximum. This type of ITK would not have knowledge about more than one specific piece of news relating to, say, their brother or client. In other words, stuff they have direct knowledge of - they wouldn't have a clue about Russian and Ecuadorian wunderkinds or Pep fudging Guardiola. Just about their guy, and that's it. These ITK's are rare, but low-level enough that they might post info a couple of times.
3. The "One-off ITK" is the most likely source of real info because they would have direct, specific knowledge about one particular news story. A real ITK wouldn't know about 8 different signings happening...he'd know about ONE that's related to whoever his source is. These guys are even rarer again and I wouldn't expect to hear more than once from them....as in, they blab once, get panicked and leave it there. THAT is a sign of authenticity.
You all have my permission and blessing to print out this post and stick it to the wall beside your computer and box of Kleenex.
That's very good.
ITKs are my guilty pleasure. They're like a methadone fix for the summer.