Lost In Translation: Sagna's Move to Madrid

It’s the summer and like every summer the rumours linking every Arsenal player to a move away from the club go into overdrive, even Eboue gets a mention.

Yesterday it was the turn of Bacary Sagna and the news of a possible move to Real Madrid. Now what is interesting is how this was reported both in France and in the UK.

The first mention of this came on the website of a French sports newspaper, Aujourd’hui Sport. When contacted by this newspaper Sagna was reported to have said, “I'm surprised and don't know anything, but I'm not against it. I was planning to resume with Arsenal but I will see."

Fine. Then it appeared on the website of The Sun where it read as follows “I'm surprised by this news but I cannot turn my back on this subject. I intended to resume pre-season training with Arsenal but I'm going to see how things are going to turn out."

Then later in the afternoon it appeared in reports back in France using The Sun as the source of this exclusive with no mention of the original report.

So in the UK, they were saying “according to the French press” and in France they were saying “according to the British press”, all the while the Arsenal fans were getting very hot and bothered and already wondering about replacements and how much they’d get for the player.

Of course, the player through the official club website has denied he said anything about a possible move to Madrid and he’s very happy to stay at Arsenal.

Until you see players holding up their new shirts and it’s announced on the club’s website, maybe it is a good idea not to take all these rumours that seriously.