10 Stages Of Newcastle United's 2015 Summer Transfer Window
9. The Gossip Columns Fire Into Life
Its during the months of June and July when the transfer window treadmill really begins to pick up speed, churning out a heady supply of rumour, idle conjecture and misinformed hearsay for fans and the press alike to keep abreast with during the off-season hiatus. Seldom, however, do Newcastle supporters show themselves to be naïve and take what is written in the gossip columns to be the whole truth, administering a large dose of reality to all forms of speculation, regardless of how intoxicating the rumour may be. The problem with the summer transfer window is that any nugget of information, whether fact or fiction, is seized upon and chiseled into an attention-grabbing headline to feed football-starved fans, with the aim of luring them into following a particular website or Twitter account and sharing the story across social media to generate more website traffic. In short, media outlets have succeeded in monetising the excessive appetite fans have for the extravagant. From a Newcastle perspective, supporters are constantly stirred into a perpetual frenzy by the deluge of players being linked as potential signings, the bulk of rumours printed in the gossip columns being fabricated falsehoods that bear no substance - a prime example being the inane suggestion that Mario Balotelli was on the Magpies shopping list. For that reason alone, most in black and white tend to adhere to the old adage of "don't believe everything you read" at this time of year.
